Amazon AMI Vs Snapshot

Nidhi Ashtikar

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2 min read

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Apr 9, 2024

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Amazon Machine Image (AMI):

1. Think of an AMI as a ready-to-use computer setup in the cloud. It includes everything your computer needs to run, like the operating system and any software you want.
2. When you want to start a new virtual computer on Amazon Web Services (AWS), you can use an AMI as a blueprint.
3. AMIs can be publicly available, shared within an AWS account, or created from existing instances.

Snapshots:

1. Snapshots are like taking a picture of your computer’s hard drive at a certain moment. It captures all the files and data stored on that drive.
2. You take snapshots to create backups of your data stored on Amazon’s cloud storage. If something goes wrong, you can use these snapshots to recover your data.
3. They capture the exact state of an EBS volume at the time the snapshot is taken.

Here are some key differences between AMIs and snapshots:

1. Purpose: AMIs are used to create instances, while snapshots are used for backup and recovery of data stored in EBS volumes.
2. Contents: AMIs contain the entire setup required to launch an instance, including the operating system and applications. Snapshots contain the data stored on an EBS volume.
3. Usage: AMIs are used to launch instances, while snapshots are used to create new volumes or restore existing ones.
4. Portability: AMIs can be shared between AWS accounts and regions, while snapshots are typically limited to the region in which they were created.