Optional Windows Server operating system components are typically added or configured using installation media. This tutorial describes how to add or configure optional Windows components within the Amazon EC2 environment.

Windows Server operating systems include many optional components. Installing all components on each Amazon EC2 Windows AMI is not practical or desirable. Instead, EC2 users can access the necessary files to configure or install components using Elastic Block Storage (EBS) Snapshots.

The following is a list of available snapshots for US:

• Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise 32-bit: snap-bb10f6d2
• Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter 32-bit: snap-8010f6e9
• Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise 64-bit: snap-d010f6b9
• Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter 64-bit: snap-a310f6ca

The following is a list of available snapshots for EU:

• Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise 32-bit: snap-a4bb5ecd
• Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter 32-bit: snap-b8bb5ed1
• Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise 64-bit: snap-a6bb5ecf
• Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter 64-bit: snap-babb5ed3

To add a Windows component snapshot to an existing instance (using the API tools):

1. Create an EBS volume from one of the snapshots above using the ec2-create-volume command-line tool:

   ec2-create-volume --snapshot snap-bb10f6d2 --availability-zone same_as_your_windows_instance

2. Attach the volume to your Windows instance:

   ec2-attach-volume volume_id --instance instance_id --device xvdg

   where the device can be xvdf through xvdp.

3. The volume will show up in Windows Explorer within a few minutes.

Now you configure the Windows Components Wizard to point to the new volume.