EC2 Image Builder Now Builds Faster by Reusing Running ASG Instances!

Hi everyone, it's Shii-chan! Waiting for image builds can feel pretty long, right? Here is an update that helps.

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

According to AWS What's New, EC2 Image Builder now supports using existing instances from an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) to build images.

The story so far

Until now, every build needed a new instance to be launched and bootstrapped. That launch and setup time was part of the total wait.

What changes

You skip the launch and bootstrap time because builds reuse an instance that is already running. If you run pipelines often, you should feel the shorter wait.

Dive Deep

To use it, you provide an ASG in your Image Builder infrastructure configuration.

• Instead of launching a new instance at build time, Image Builder selects a running instance from the ASG
• It applies your build components to that instance and creates the image
• The ASG keeps replenishing the pool as instances are used, so instances are always available for the next pipeline run

Impact on existing setups:

• It is fully opt-in and does not affect existing pipelines
• Pipelines without an ASG keep using the default launch path, with no behavior change
• It is available in all AWS Regions at no additional cost

See the EC2 Image Builder documentation for setup.

Wrap-up

• Image Builder can build on running ASG instances
• No launch or bootstrap wait for each build
• The ASG replenishes instances for later runs
• Opt-in, no effect on existing pipelines, all Regions, no extra cost

If you run AMI builds often or want shorter pipeline times, this one is for you!