Creating root disk with smaller volume size than snapshot

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I have built an AMI image with 30GB root disk size, but only 10GB is used. So when I create an AMI I would like to use 20GB as root disk size.

Since the volume is shrinked when the AMI is created, will this be a problem?

asked 17 days ago46 views
1 Answer
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Creating an AMI with a smaller root disk size than the original snapshot can potentially cause issues and is generally not recommended. When you create an AMI, it captures the entire state of the root volume, including its full size, even if only a portion of that space is actually used.

If you attempt to create a new instance from an AMI with a smaller root volume size than the original, you may encounter problems. The system might fail to boot or experience data integrity issues because it expects the full 30GB of space to be available, even though only 10GB is actually used.

Instead of trying to shrink the root volume, consider the following approaches:

  1. Keep the original 30GB size: This ensures compatibility and avoids potential issues.

  2. Use the original 30GB AMI, but resize the root volume after launching a new instance: You can do this by creating a snapshot of the root volume, creating a new smaller volume from that snapshot, and then attaching it to a new instance.

  3. Create a new AMI with the desired size: Launch a new instance from your current AMI, resize the root partition to 20GB using appropriate tools, and then create a new AMI from this resized instance.

It's important to note that while reducing the size of the root volume is possible, it requires careful consideration and testing to ensure system stability and functionality. Always test thoroughly in a non-production environment before implementing such changes in a production setting.
Sources
AMI vs EBS Snapshots | AWS re:Post
Create an Amazon EBS-backed AMI - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

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answered 17 days ago
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reviewed 17 days ago

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