Ubuntu EC2 AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is a pre-configured virtual machine image designed to run on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). These images are optimized for cloud deployment but can also be run locally with the right virtualization setup.

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• VirtualBox 6.1 or later installed
• QEMU tools (for image conversion)
• At least 2GB RAM available
• 20GB free disk space

The downloaded AMI is typically in raw format. Convert it to VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image):

qemu-img convert -f raw -O vdi ubuntu-10.04-server-uec-amd64.img ubuntu-10.04.vdi

1. Open VirtualBox and click "New"
2. Set Type to "Linux" and Version to "Ubuntu (64-bit)"
3. Allocate at least 1024MB RAM
4. When prompted for hard disk, select "Use existing virtual hard disk file"
5. Browse and select your converted VDI file

For proper networking, configure the VM with:

VBoxManage modifyvm "VM Name" --nic1 nat
VBoxManage modifyvm "VM Name" --nic2 hostonly

EC2 AMIs expect cloud-init configuration. Add these kernel parameters in VirtualBox:

ro init=/usr/lib/cloud-init/uncloud-init ds=nocloud

If you encounter boot problems:

• Check VirtualBox Extension Pack is installed
• Enable EFI in VM settings (System > Motherboard)
• Increase video memory to 128MB

For developers who frequently test AMIs locally, consider using Vagrant:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
  config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
    vb.memory = "2048"
    vb.cpus = 2
  end
end

To achieve near-native performance:

VBoxManage modifyvm "VM Name" --paravirtprovider kvm
VBoxManage modifyvm "VM Name" --hwvirtex on
VBoxManage modifyvm "VM Name" --nestedpaging on

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Ubuntu EC2 AMI images are pre-configured virtual machine images designed specifically for Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). These images typically use the following formats:

• ami-rootfs.img - The root filesystem
• ami-kernel - The kernel image
• ami-ramdisk - Optional initrd

Before running the AMI locally, you'll need:

sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-bin virt-manager virtualbox

Convert the AMI to VirtualBox format:

VBoxManage convertfromraw ami-rootfs.img ubuntu.vdi --format VDI

Create a new VM with these settings:

VBoxManage createvm --name "Ubuntu_AMI" --register
VBoxManage modifyvm "Ubuntu_AMI" --memory 2048 --acpi on --boot1 dvd --nic1 nat
VBoxManage storagectl "Ubuntu_AMI" --name "IDE Controller" --add ide
VBoxManage storageattach "Ubuntu_AMI" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium ubuntu.vdi

For better performance with KVM:

qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 ami-rootfs.img ubuntu.qcow2
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2048 -enable-kvm -drive file=ubuntu.qcow2,if=virtio -net nic -net user,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22

If you need network access inside the VM:

sudo ip tuntap add dev tap0 mode tap
sudo ip link set tap0 up
sudo ip addr add 192.168.100.1/24 dev tap0

Then add this to your QEMU command:

-netdev tap,id=net0,ifname=tap0,script=no,downscript=no -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0

• Boot failure: Try adding -kernel ami-kernel -initrd ami-ramdisk to QEMU
• Graphical issues: Use -nographic or -curses for headless mode
• Storage problems: Check disk format with qemu-img info ubuntu.qcow2

To properly initialize cloud instances:

sudo apt-get install cloud-init
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/cloud/seed/nocloud-net/
sudo echo "instance-id: $(uuidgen || echo i-abcdefg)" > /var/lib/cloud/seed/nocloud-net/meta-data