AWS Cloud Formation : How to automate the EC2 instance cloning / snapshot

Question

Automating "Cloning" / "snapshot" of an already existing AWS EC2 instance.

I am able to create a AWS EC2 instance manually through Cloud Formation within the console. Alternatively , from Jenkins too I was able to perform the same operation.

Clone / Snapshot : Manually , through the options of "Snapshot" / "Create Image" I was able to spin up a new instance from the existing one. My question is can this be automated through Jenkins or script etc? The solution should be able to use either the snapshot or create image or any other options available and create a new instance from an existing one.

If the process can be automated , my request to please guide / provide steps / scripts / documents that can help me achieve the same.

Answer 1

Absolutely everything on AWS can be automated in multiple ways, including:

• AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI)
• SDKs and Programming Toolkits for AWS for multiple languages
• Through IT management tools like Chef, Jenkins, Ansible, etc (which use SDKs to call AWS services on your behalf)

Please note that AWS CloudFormation is a service for deploying services, such as networking, compute and database in an automatic and reproducible manner. It is not typically used for operational activities like taking snapshots.