Requirements for resources that you import with VM Import/Export
Before you begin, you must be aware of the operating systems and image formats that VM Import/Export supports, and understand the limitations on importing instances and volumes.
Topics
Image formats supported by VM Import/Export
VM Import/Export supports the following image formats for importing both disks and VMs:
-
Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) image format, which supports importing images with multiple hard disks.
-
Stream-optimized ESX Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) image format, which is compatible with VMware ESX and VMware vSphere virtualization products.
-
Fixed and Dynamic Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX) image formats, which are compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Azure, and Citrix Xen virtualization products.
-
Raw format for importing disks and VMs.
Important
VMs that are created as the result of a physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion are not supported. For more information, see Limitations for resources being imported with VM Import/Export.
Operating systems supported by VM Import/Export
The following operating systems (OS) can be imported to and exported from Amazon EC2.
VMs using ARM64 architecture are not currently supported.
The following Linux/Unix operating systems are support by VM Import/Export.
| Operating system | Version | Kernel | Service pack |
|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Linux 2 |
- |
4.14, 4.19, 5.4, 5.10 |
- |
CentOS |
5.1–5.11 |
2.6.18 |
- |
6.1–6.8 |
2.6.32 |
- |
|
7.0–7.9 |
3.10.0 |
- |
|
8.0–8.2 |
4.18.0 |
- |
|
9 |
5.14.0 |
- |
|
Debian |
6.0.0–6.0.8 |
2.6.32 |
- |
7.0.0–7.8.0 |
3.2.0 |
- |
|
10 |
4.19.0 |
- |
|
11 |
5.10.0 |
- |
|
12.2 |
6.1.0 |
- |
|
12.4 |
6.1.0 |
- |
|
Fedora |
18 |
3.2.5 |
- |
19 |
3.9.5 |
- |
|
20 |
3.11.10 |
- |
|
37 |
6.0.7 |
- |
|
38 |
6.2.9 |
- |
|
39 |
6.5.6 |
- |
|
Oracle Linux |
5.10–5.11 |
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) el5uek kernel suffixes |
- |
6.1–6.10 |
Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 2.6.32, 2.6.39 Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 3.8.13, 4.1.12 |
- |
|
7.0–7.6 |
Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 3.10.0 Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 3.8.13, 4.1.12, 4.14.35, 5.4.17 |
- |
|
8.0–8.9 |
Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 4.18.0 Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 5.15.0 (el8uek) |
- |
|
9.0–9.4 |
Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 5.14.0 Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 5.15.0 (el9uek) |
- |
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) |
5 |
2.6.18 |
- |
6 |
2.6.32 (except 2.6.32-71) |
- |
|
7 |
3.10.0 |
- |
|
8.0–8.9 |
4.18.0 |
- |
|
9.0–9.4 |
5.14.0 |
- |
|
Rocky Linux |
9.0–9.4 |
5.14.0 |
- |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) |
11 |
2.6.32.12 |
1 |
3.0.13 |
2 |
||
3.0.76, 3.0.101 |
3 |
||
3.0.101 |
4 |
||
12 |
3.12.28 |
None |
|
3.12.49 |
1 |
||
4.4 |
2, 3 |
||
4.12 |
4, 5 |
||
15 |
4.12 |
None, 1 |
|
5.3 |
2, 3 |
||
5.14.21 |
4, 5 |
||
Ubuntu |
12.04 |
3.2.0 |
- |
12.10 |
3.5.0 |
- |
|
13.04 |
3.8.0 |
- |
|
13.10 |
3.11 |
- |
|
14.04 |
3.13.0, 3.16.0, 3.19.0 |
- |
|
14.10 |
3.16 |
- |
|
15.04 |
3.19.0 |
- |
|
16.04 |
4.2.0, 4.4.0, 4.8.0, 4.10.0, 4.15.0 |
- |
|
16.10 |
4.8.0 |
- |
|
17.04 |
4.10.0 |
- |
|
18.04 |
4.15.0, 5.4.0 |
- |
|
20.04 |
5.4.0 |
- |
|
22.04 |
5.15.0 |
- |
|
23.04 |
5.15.0 |
- |
The following Windows operating systems are supported by VM Import/Export.
| Operating system | Edition | Bit version | Available with non-default Regions |
|---|---|---|---|
Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1 or later) |
Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise |
32, 64 |
No |
Windows Server 2003 R2 |
Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise |
32, 64 |
No |
Windows Server 2008 |
Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise |
32, 64 |
No |
Windows Server 2008 R2 |
Standard, Web Server, Datacenter, Enterprise |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 2012 |
Standard, Datacenter |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 2012 R2 |
Standard, Datacenter |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 2016 |
Standard, Datacenter 3 |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 1709 |
Standard, Datacenter |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 1803 |
Standard, Datacenter |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 2019 |
Standard, Datacenter |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows Server 2022 |
Standard, Datacenter |
64 |
Yes 5,6 |
Windows 7 1 |
Home, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate |
32, 64 4 |
Yes 5 |
Windows 8 1 |
Home, Professional, Enterprise |
32, 64 4 |
Yes 5 |
Windows 8.1 1 |
Professional, Enterprise |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows 10 1 |
Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education |
64 |
Yes 5 |
Windows 11 1,2 |
Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education |
64 |
Yes 5,7 |
1 The operating system must have its language
set as US English during import.
2 Windows 11 requires the Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot mode to function. To help ensure a successful
import of your VM, we recommend that you specify the optional
--boot-mode parameter as uefi. For more
information, see Boot modes supported by VM Import/Export.
3 Nano Server installations are not supported.
4 Only the 64-bit version of the OS is supported when launching instances within non-default AWS Regions. For more information, see Available Regions in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
5 You must first enable the Region before you can use the operating system there. For more information, see Manage which AWS Regions your account can use in the AWS Account Management Reference Guide.
6 Windows Server 2022 isn't supported in the China (Beijing) and China (Ningxia) Regions.
7 Windows 11 isn't supported in the Asia Pacific (Hyderabad), Asia Pacific (Jakarta), Asia Pacific (Melbourne), China (Beijing), China (Ningxia), Europe (Spain), Europe (Zurich), and Middle East (UAE) Regions.
Boot modes supported by VM Import/Export
When a computer boots, the first software that it runs is responsible for
initializing the platform and providing an interface for the operating system to
perform platform-specific operations. VM Import/Export supports two variants of the boot mode:
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and Legacy BIOS. You can choose whether
to specify the optional --boot-mode parameter as
legacy-bios or uefi when importing your VM.
Refer to the Boot Modes section of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for more information about specifying a boot mode, and UEFI variables.
Volume types and file systems supported by VM Import/Export
VM Import/Export supports importing Windows and Linux VMs with the following file systems.
MBR partitioned volumes and GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioned volumes that are formatted using the ext2, ext3, ext4, Btrfs, JFS, or XFS file system are supported.
Important
Btrfs subvolumes are not supported.
GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioned volumes that are formatted using the NTFS file system are supported. If no boot parameter is specified, and the VM is compatible in both boot modes, the GPT volumes will be converted to MBR partitioned volumes.
VM Import/Export will automatically detect the boot modes your Windows VM is
compatible with. If the Windows VM is only compatible in a single boot mode,
you don't need to specify a specific --boot-mode
parameter.
If your Windows VM is compatible with both boot modes, and the following
criteria is met for the imported disk, VM Import/Export will select Legacy BIOS by
default. You can specify uefi for the --boot-mode
parameter to override this behavior.
-
The disk is smaller than 2 terabytes
-
The disk does not contain more than 4 primary partitions
-
The disk is not a Windows dynamic disk
-
The file format is VHDX
