<p>When creating an AMI, you are making a copy of your EBS volumes. This utilizes block storage and will only need to process the diffs of your EBS snapshots. If you changed a lot of data in your EBS or don't have a previous snapshot, it will take longer to create your AMI.</p>

<p>Here is a quote from the documentation at <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Creating_EBSbacked_WinAMI.html" rel="noreferrer">https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Creating_EBSbacked_WinAMI.html</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Depending on the size of the volumes, it can take several minutes for
  the AMI-creation process to complete (sometimes up to 24 hours). You
  may find it more efficient to create snapshots of your volumes prior
  to creating your AMI. This way, only small, incremental snapshots need
  to be created when the AMI is created, and the process completes more
  quickly (the total time for snapshot creation remains the same).</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-30T17:21:05.680Z
2019-09-30T17:21:05.680Z
Aliminator
<p>Creation date: <code>September 23, 2019 at 9:22:06 PM UTC+2</code></p>

<p><code>21:48</code>: still waiting for completion</p>

<p><code>21:53</code>: completed</p>

<p>Sometimes it takes 15 minutes and sometimes longer. How does a creation of an AMI work and why is the creation time unpredictable?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T02:09:48.877Z
Are you creating the AMI from the same type of EC2 instance?  If so what type of instance is it (e.g. t2, m4 large, etc)?
Wesley Rolnick
<amazon-web-services><amazon-ec2><amazon-ami>
How does the creation of an AMI on AWS work and why is the creation time unpredictable?
030
# How does the creation of an AMI on AWS work and why is the creation time unpredictable?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-09-23)

Creation date: `September 23, 2019 at 9:22:06 PM UTC+2`

`21:48`: still waiting for completion

`21:53`: completed

Sometimes it takes 15 minutes and sometimes longer. How does a creation of an AMI work and why is the creation time unpredictable?

**Tags:** amazon-web-services, amazon-ec2, amazon-ami

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you creating the AMI from the same type of EC2 instance?  If so what type of instance is it (e.g. t2, m4 large, etc)?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-09-30. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

When creating an AMI, you are making a copy of your EBS volumes. This utilizes block storage and will only need to process the diffs of your EBS snapshots. If you changed a lot of data in your EBS or don't have a previous snapshot, it will take longer to create your AMI.

Here is a quote from the documentation at <https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Creating_EBSbacked_WinAMI.html>

> Depending on the size of the volumes, it can take several minutes for
> the AMI-creation process to complete (sometimes up to 24 hours). You
> may find it more efficient to create snapshots of your volumes prior
> to creating your AMI. This way, only small, incremental snapshots need
> to be created when the AMI is created, and the process completes more
> quickly (the total time for snapshot creation remains the same).


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