platform-aws.md

Using LinuxKit on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

This is a quick guide to run LinuxKit on AWS.

Setup

Before you proceed it's recommended that you set up the AWS CLI and perform an aws configure

If you do not wish to install these tools you should ensure that you set the AWS environment variables

You will need to create an Amazon S3 Storage Bucket for your LinuxKit images and create a VM Import Service Role. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

Finally, you must set the AWS_REGION environment variable as this is used by the AWS Go SDK.

export AWS_REGION=eu-west-1

Build an image

AWS requires a RAW image. To create one:

$ linuxkit build -format aws examples/aws.yml

Push image

Before you do this you need to create a vmimport service role as explained in the VM import documentation.

Do linuxkit push aws -bucket bucketname aws.raw to upload it to the specified bucket, and create a bootable image from the stored image.

Alternatively, you can use the AWS_BUCKET environment variable to specify the bucket name.

Note: If the push times out before it finishes, you can use the -timeout flag to extend the timeout.

linuxkit push aws -bucket bucketname -timeout 1200 aws.raw

Create an instance and connect to it

With the image created, we can now create an instance. You won't be able to see the serial console output until after it has terminated.

linuxkit run aws aws

You can edit the AWS example to allow you to SSH to your instance in order to use it.