AWS Unable to import .vmdk file as a snapshot, exported from the same aws account

Question

I am attempting to import a .vmdk file from an S3 bucket as a snapshot but getting a kernel version error. This file was exported from an AWS Lambda Python script within the same AWS account.

I am following the following export process

• Step1: Creating AMI from instance_id

    response = ec2_client.create_image(
            InstanceId=instance_id,
            Name=name,
            Description=description,
        )
        
        ami_id = response['ImageId']

• Step2: Export AMI to S3 bucket

    # Create an export task to export the image to an S3 bucket
        export_task = ec2_client.export_image(
            ImageId=ami_id,
            DiskImageFormat='VMDK',  
            S3ExportLocation={
                'S3Bucket': S3_BACKUP_BUCKET,
                'S3Prefix': s3_object_key,
            }
        )
    
        export_task_id = export_task['ImageId']

The above code works perfectly and exports the AMI to the S3 bucket

---

Import Process:

But when I am trying to import the same .vmdk file which is exported by the AWS Lambda python script using the following command in the AWS CloudShell

    aws ec2 import-image \
      --disk-containers "[{\"Url\":\"<S3_PATH_OF_VMDK_FILE>\"}]" \
      --license-type BYOL \
      --platform Linux \
      --role-name vmimport

Then I am getting the following error.

    "ImportImageTasks": [
            {
                ...
                "Status": "deleted",
                "StatusMessage": "ClientError: Unsupported kernel version 5.15.0-1055-aws",
                "Tags": []
            }
        ]

---

But, When I create AWS AMI from the browser and then export AMI to the S3 bucket, by following this process, I am able to import the .vmdk file successfully. But I want to achieve the same if I create the .vmdk file using the AWS Lambda script.

Answer 1

I got the solution here

Instead of using aws ec2 import-image command, we can use aws ec2 import-snapshot to import the image as a snapshot.

The entire command will look like...

aws ec2 import-snapshot --description "My server VM" --disk-container "{\"Description\": \"<DESCRIPTION>\", \"Format\":\"VMDK\", \"UserBucket\": {\"S3Bucket\": \"<BUCKET_NAME>\", \"S3Key\": \"<.vmdk_FILE_WITH_PATH>\"}}"