Create a docker image/container from EC2 AMI

Question

I am very new to docker and am trying to import my AWS EC2 AMI into a docker image. The image is a m2 linux image.

I have also setup a private docker hub(artifactory) to which I intend to push the image and make it available for consumption. What are the steps for importing AMI into docker image without starting from a base image and updating.

Pointers to any explanation would work too.

Answer 1

Here is how I did it.

• On source AMI locate root volume snapshot id in the description

/dev/sda1=snap-eb79b0b1:15:true:gp2

• Launch instance with public Ubuntu 14.04 AMI

• Create volume from snapshot snap-eb79b0b1 (in the same region that the instance runs).

• Attach volume to the instance as /dev/sdf

• mount volume to /mnt

mount /dev/xvdf /mnt

(or)

mount /dev/xvdf1 /mnt

• install docker

https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/ubuntulinux/

• import docker image from mounted root volume

tar -c -C /mnt/ . | docker import - appcimage-master-1454216413

• run

docker run -t -i 6d6614111fcb03d5ca79541b8a23955202dfda74995d968b5ffb5d45c7e68da9 /bin/bash

Answer 2

Docker can create an image from a tar file using the docker import command. From the documentation:

Usage: docker import URL|- [REPOSITORY[:TAG]]

Create an empty filesystem image and import the contents of the tarball 
(.tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .bzip, .tar.xz, .txz) into it, then optionally
tag it.

So you should be able to create a tar archive from your AMI image and then feed that to docker.

Answer 3

When creating the tar file cd to the directory and tar the tree from there.

cd /media/my-external-drive
tar -czvf /tmp/drive-image.tgz

And then to create the image ... docker import /tmp/drive-image.tgz

This allows the dockerized container to create the correct paths when you run it.