While AMIs and Docker images are already out there, this approach has a few upsides:
- Control over versions and other common configuration options at build time
- Reduces dependencies on cloud-init, resulting in faster boot times
- Security: a fully pre-provisioned instance can run with restrictions on initiating outbound connections
This repository has Github Actions setup to automatically build the target AMI. Just create a secret with the key of USER_JSON and the value in the this format:
{
"aws_access_key": "key",
"aws_secret_key": "secret"
}
Docker is required, inexplicably, to enable session recording. That's why it's a dependency. Full recording support will be added soon using Packer's Docker provisioner.