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I am trying to make a windows 2008 AMI that is a nice clean 64bit starter pack (IIS, SQL express, ASP.NET MVC, etc...) I would like to make it a public AMI when its done. There in lies the problem.

I can make an AMI from my image no problem. But I can't seen to get new instances to generate their own passwords.. The results are that I have a new instance that works great with my password.

So what is the process of making my EBS backed Instances convert into an AMI that will auto-generate its password when a new instance starts up?

Thanks in advance.

steenhulthin
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user67081
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1 Answers1

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You could go to the EC2ConfigService Settings (Start -> all programs) on your instance. Under "Set Password" put a check in "Set a random password ....".

The password will be generated on next boot and your ami created from the instance will have a random generated password.

Alternatively you can edit your C:\Program Files\Amazon\Ec2ConfigService\Settings\config.xml file by setting Ec2SetPassword to enabled:

<Plugin>
  <Name>Ec2SetPassword</Name>
  <State>Enabled</State>
</Plugin>

And restarting the Ec2ConfigService (running as a windows service on the instance.)

After doing this you can create your ami in the usual way (shut down the instance and rigth-click on the instance -> "Create Image (EBS AMI)".

steenhulthin
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  • I think your question is really about getting the random password generated. Am I right? In that case I think the title should be something like "How to generate a random password on an EC2 windows instance?". I have seen quite many ask this question on the web, so this could be very community helpful with a more precise title. – steenhulthin Jun 05 '11 at 17:20
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    It's a little different now, EC2ConfigService Settings > Image > Administrator Password > Random – Matthew Woo May 03 '18 at 22:11