Find Ubuntu images on AWS

On AWS, cloud images are referred to as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). Canonical produces a wide variety of images to support numerous features found on AWS:

  • Generally, all images use Elastic Block Storage (EBS) and hardware virtual machine (HVM) virtualisation types. Older releases may also support paravirtual (PV) and instance-store, but users benefit from the newer storage and virtualisation technologies.

  • Standard and minimal server images are available for both amd64 and arm64.

  • Daily (untested) and release versions of the images are published regularly.

All images mentioned below are also available in AWS Outposts.

Finding images with SSM

The SSM Parameter Store is a hierarchical data service provided by AWS for configuration management. It can be used to store passwords, license codes, configuration strings, Amazon Machine Image (AMI) IDs, and more. Canonical provides a set of publicly available parameters in the parameter store under the hierarchy /aws/service/canonical. One useful set of parameters available under that hierarchy is the set of latest AMI IDs for Ubuntu images. These IDs can be found programmatically using the AWS CLI.

Images for EC2 and EKS

Find the latest AMI ID using:

aws ssm get-parameters --names \
   /aws/service/canonical/ubuntu/server/24.04/stable/current/amd64/hvm/ebs-gp3/ami-id

The format for the parameter is:

ubuntu/$PRODUCT/$RELEASE/stable/current/$ARCH/$VIRT_TYPE/$VOL_TYPE/ami-id
  • PRODUCT: server, server-minimal, pro-server or pro-minimal

  • RELEASE: noble, 24.04, jammy, 22.04, focal, 20.04, bionic, 18.04, xenial, or 16.04

  • ARCH: amd64 or arm64

  • VIRT_TYPE: pv or hvm

  • VOL_TYPE: ebs-gp3 (for >=23.10), ebs-gp2 (for <=23.04), ebs-io1, ebs-standard, or instance-store

In place of current, the serial number given to an image can also be used (e.g., 20210222):

ubuntu/$PRODUCT/$RELEASE/stable/$SERIAL/$ARCH/$VIRT_TYPE/$VOL_TYPE/ami-id

In the generated output, the “Value” field will have the required AMI ID. It can be used to instantiate the corresponding image using the ec2 run-instances command as explained here.

If you don’t want to save the AMI ID before instantiating the image, you can use the resolve:ssm option and directly pass the required parameter to it in your ec2 run-instances call:

aws ec2 run-instances \
   --image-id resolve:ssm:/aws/service/canonical/ubuntu/server/24.04/stable/current/amd64/hvm/ebs-gp3/ami-id \
   --key-name TestKeyPair \
   --instance-type t3.medium

Ownership verification

By checking the OwnerId field of an image, you can verify that an AMI was published by Canonical. To do this, use the describe-images command against an AMI ID and check the returned OwnerId field:

aws ec2 describe-images --image-ids $AMI_ID

The expected value of OwnerId for Canonical is one of the following:

  • 099720109477 (in the default partition)

  • 513442679011 (in the GovCloud partition)

  • 837727238323 (in the China partition)

Note that listings on the AWS Marketplace will always show the OwnerId as Amazon (e.g. 679593333241). In these cases, users can verify the Amazon ID and look for aws-marketplace/ubuntu in the ImageLocation field.

Images in the AWS Marketplace

AWS Marketplace is a digital catalogue with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on AWS. Canonical maintains image listings for recent Ubuntu releases and special flavours (e.g. Anbox, Pro, Pro FIPS, EKS) on this marketplace.

Customers can also use the AWS Marketplace to launch and subscribe to official Ubuntu Pro images that allow users to pay for additional support.

All the above mentioned Marketplace images can also be found in the SSM parameter store:

aws ssm get-parameter --name /aws/service/marketplace/$IDENTIFIER/latest
  • IDENTIFIER: use one of the following identifiers (starting with prod-)

AWS Marketplace identifiers

Name

Architecture

Identifier

GovCloud

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

amd64

prod-x7h6cigkuiul6

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

arm64

prod-gprrntd234sfc

Minimal Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

amd64

prod-df2jln3gjtwps

Minimal Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

arm64

prod-emtsb6upxf6us

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

amd64

prod-lfutkwiaknxsk

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

arm64

prod-amd2rg3s3i7tc

Minimal Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

amd64

prod-smq32swynllqw

Minimal Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

arm64

prod-zvdejcufto6ps

Minimal Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS

amd64

prod-ax3nm4x43w4za

Minimal Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS

arm64

prod-rp5bzjdqcbrq2

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

amd64

prod-ib2w5aw4ynhey

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

arm64

prod-uovi4c667gqya

Minimal Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

amd64

prod-u7oazfncxktmo

Minimal Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

arm64

prod-umggziwlkgulc

Ubuntu Pro FIPS 16.04 LTS

amd64

prod-hykkbajyverq4

Ubuntu Pro FIPS 18.04 LTS

amd64

prod-7izp2xqnddwdc

Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS

amd64

prod-k6fgbnayirmrc

Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS

amd64

prod-7u42cjnp5pcuo

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS with Real-time Kernel

arm64

prod-ezodmjvranjew

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.23

amd64

prod-d6nvbzhhqtsnc

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.23

arm64

prod-w4kdatfulcfk2

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.24

amd64

prod-q56ww7nfnmv72

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.24

arm64

prod-pikds4f276lq6

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.25

amd64

prod-h232pdamfnj5w

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.25

arm64

prod-exeixbb2fbrog

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.26

amd64

prod-paebp5ekgg6uu

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.26

arm64

prod-lrqczh7vqe7ve

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.27

amd64

prod-ldmift6l2jtbk

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.27

arm64

prod-rmbj4hjbxq3s4

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.28

amd64

prod-liwkeak7e3q7e

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for EKS 1.28

arm64

prod-lnp3hmtlqxkes

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.29

amd64

prod-lg73jq6vy35h2

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.29

arm64

prod-htjgvopsb6wo2

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.30

amd64

prod-ju4oliv6acvmu

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.30

arm64

prod-ju4oliv6acvmu

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.31

amd64

prod-6cgarsgfcf6pw

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.31

arm64

prod-37lry2b6efnve

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.29

amd64

prod-zhspprfykjuvy

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.29

arm64

prod-ixonrj2zphe7a

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.30

amd64

prod-osdss3jl4ihci

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.30

arm64

prod-osdss3jl4ihci

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.31

amd64

prod-mtxapxlqfrxhk

Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS for EKS 1.31

arm64

prod-v64fpuhgxrpgm