In this video, you’ll see how you can publish Amazon Machine Images
(AMIs) in AWS Marketplace.
Why publish AMIs in AWS Marketplace?
A technical validation report from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG),
found that AWS Marketplace features contribute to improve procurement
efficiency and increase compliance.
When you publish your AMI to AWS Marketplace, you don't have to worry
about cloning your AMI and hosting it in all the different AWS Regions
you want your AMI available in.
Your AMI also deploys into the customer's own account.
We’ll review the end-to-end publishing process, the AMI product types and their pricing models,
how billing and integration works, how to submit AMI products and metadata,
and how to review, test, and publish AMI products.
We’ll also discuss some common issues that might arise and how to avoid them.
Let’s begin with an overview of the end-to-end publishing process.
As the seller of an AMI product, you’ll prepare the AMI in your AWS seller account.
You’ll submit the AMI for scanning in the AWS Marketplace Management Portal.
Next, you’ll submit the product’s metadata and pricing information.
If you are using an AWS CloudFormation template for delivery,
include the location of the template.
AWS Marketplace then reviews your submitted materials and establishes
a limited listing URL for your product.
At this point, only authorized accounts can view and subscribe to the staged product.
Next, you’ll test the limited listing to ensure the subscribe and launch
processes works how you expect.
AWS Marketplace also tests your product for policy and security
compliance, software vulnerabilities, and product usability.
When both parties approve the limited listing, AWS Marketplace turns the
product to “live” in coordination with your schedule.
Next, let’s review the AMI product types and pricing models.
You can deliver your AMI-based product in one of three ways: as a Single AMI,
a Single AMI with a CloudFormation template, or as a Multi AMI
with CloudFormation template.
The pricing models available for Single AMIs and Single AMIs with
CloudFormation are the same.
With hourly pricing, AWS Marketplace automatically tracks the buyer’s hourly
usage for each Amazon EC2 instance used.
You can also offer buyers an upfront annual contract with a discount,
a free trial, or a private offer.
The monthly fixed pricing model charges buyers a monthly rate
regardless of their usage.
You can charge an additional hourly rate for EC2 instance usage,
but you cannot extend private offers with this model.
With a custom metering pricing model,
you can define up to 24 dimensions on which to base costs.
For example, you can define the number of product users, or the amount of data
put through the EC2 instance.
You can also create private offers.
With contract pricing you can set a fixed upfront price for buyers’ usage
of dimensions within a specified contract period.
Private offers can be made with this pricing model.
The Multi AMI with CloudFormation product type supports only hourly
pricing at this time, and private offers cannot be made.
Next, we’ll review how billing and integration work.
The hourly and monthly pricing models, don’t require integration.
Instead, when you submit your AMI to AWS Marketplace, a product code is
attached that is used for automatic entitlement checks and billing.
The code tells EC2 to check with AWS
Marketplace to see if an account is subscribed before allowing the launch.
If it is, Marketplace authorizes the launch and tracks the hours used by the EC2 instances.
Note that if a buyer creates a copy of the AMI, the instances launched from that
derivative AMI will also be tracked by Marketplace using the product code.
To use the hourly or monthly pricing models, your AMI software must be fully functional
out of the box and not require that buyers purchase additional licenses.
The custom metering pricing model does require integration.
Once a buyer launches an EC2 instance from your AMI,
the software in your AMI sends an hourly MeterUsage API call that
communicates the quantities consumed for dimensions being tracked for usage
to the AWS Marketplace Metering Service, which then tabulates the cost.
The contract pricing model also requires integration.
After a contract is finalized, the buyer’s upfront entitlements
are stored with their AWS account in AWS License Manager.
When the buyer launches an EC2 instance from your AMI,
the software in your AMI makes a CheckoutLicense call to AWS License
Manager for confirmation of entitlement before it becomes functional.
Next, we’ll look at how to submit a product and its metadata.
Regardless of product type,
you’ll make a copy of the AMI and submit the image to AWS Marketplace.
If your product includes CloudFormation templates, you’ll submit them as well.
Before you begin the submission process, your AMI should be ready
in your AWS seller account, in EC2,
and stored in the us-east-1 Region so can be accessed by AWS Marketplace.
When ready to submit your AMI product,
visit the AWS Marketplace Management Portal and add the AMI asset.
Select your available AMIs from EC2 and move to the next step.
AWS Marketplace requires permission to scan the AMI, so you’ll supply an
appropriate AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role.
Ensure the OS username and SSH port are accurate for your AMI.
Then you’ll wait as the scanning is performed.
Once the scan is complete, you can move on.
Next, you’ll create a server product and identify which pricing model you will use.
Based on your selection here,
you’ll be directed to one of two paths for supplying product information.
You will fill out either an online form or an Excel sheet, called a product load form
(PLF), and then load it back into the AWS Marketplace Management Portal.
You’ll use the online form if submitting a Single AMI product that is free, charged
hourly, or charged hourly with an annual upfront option.
All others will require that you complete the PLF.
If you’re including a CloudFormation template with the product, you can
provide the template URL on the PLF.
If you’re not hosting it publicly, AWS Marketplace will reach out
to request the template after you’ve completed the submission.
Finally, we’ll go over the review, testing, and publishing steps.
Once your limited listing is created, you’ll have some back-and-forth
communication with AWS Marketplace regarding its compliance and readiness.
Here’s what AWS Marketplace reviews:
Your AMI can have no high or critical Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs),
no authorized keys or fixed default
passwords, and must use key-pair for SSH and not password authentication.
Additionally, you must allow operating system-level admin access.
This means if you’re using Linux, the root user must be accessible by the buyer.
The product is reviewed for compliance with security requirements and AMI policies.
Usage instructions must meet AWS Foundational Technical Review guidelines,
and any CloudFormation templates and diagrams must meet Marketplace
best practices and requirements.
Finally, AWS Marketplace will confirm the AMI product can successfully launch
in accordance with the provided usage instructions and that it is accessible.
There are some common issues sellers run into that you can anticipate and
avoid when submitting your AMI product for publication or remedy.
If high or critical CVEs are detected in the scan, you can review the results
and patch the packages accordingly.
Detection of authorized keys or OS passwords may prompt you to review
AWS resources on best practices and guidelines for cleaning AMIs for sharing.
Avoid using fixed default-administrative passwords by setting a random
password upon launch, such as the instance ID, which can be retrieved
from the Instance Metadata Service.
If you find the PLF confusing, you can refer to seller guides on AWS Marketplace
or contact the operations team with questions.
The PLF is a temporary measure while the submission process is
updated to become fully self-service.
CloudFormation templates must be compliant with AWS Marketplace
policies and best practices.
Please ensure you review the guidelines for CloudFormation templates before submitting.
After all resolutions are made and you’ve determined the product is good
to publish, you can inform AWS Marketplace to make the product listing live.
You’ve just seen how you can publish AMI products in AWS Marketplace.
You can learn more about this topic in the description and links for this video.
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