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Amazon Web Services

This document will provide you with instructions on how to prepare and register your own template image in AWS for use with Frame. Before moving forward with the preparation procedure, please ensure you have read through the general requirements and considerations on the Windows BYO image page. We will outline additional details specific to AWS public cloud below.

Considerations​

The base Frame Sandbox images in AWS are based on either the “Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Base” or “Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Base” operating system from the AWS Marketplace. The Sandboxes created from these Frame-provided images have the Frame Agent pre-installed and are a great starting point for admins to create the desired user experience. This is the default deployment workflow for Frame administrators.

In some cases, the enterprise IT department may already have a disk image that has been validated by the organization. It may be easier to deploy Frame, if this image is the base image for their Frame accounts. If you chose to bring your own image, you will need to upload and register that image as an AMI in your AWS subscription prior to installing the Frame Agent. You can read more about this AWS-specific process in this quick walkthrough.

In rare instances, customers may want to build the BYO image themselves from the base AWS Marketplace images. This is also supported if you start with the “Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Base” or “Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Base” images in the AWS Marketplace. Community and third-party AWS Marketplace AMIs have not been tested.

Preparation​

  1. First, starting with a Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2022 image, create a VM in the AWS account you are going to use for Frame. When configuring your image, you must use a Windows OS user account with local Windows administrator privileges.

AWS Console - EC2 List

AWS Console - EC2 List
  1. Use RDP to connect into your VM. Follow the Installation and Usage instructions to download the Frame Agent Setup Tool (FAST) and install the Frame Agent, drivers, and tools in your template image VM.
  1. Once FAST has successfully installed the Frame Agent, drivers, and tools, reboot the VM to complete the installation of the Frame Agent. Use RDP to connect back into your VM.
note

For additional installation scenarios (e.g., proxy server configuration, command line arguments, review our Frame Agent Setup Tool documentation.

  1. (Optional): If a proxy server is required for all outbound traffic to the Internet from your private network, you will need to configure Frame Guest Agent to use your proxy server. Refer to our FGA Proxy Helper Tool documentation page for further details.

  2. (Optional): If you plan to use AMD or NVIDIA GPU-based instance types in AWS, make sure you install the appropriate AMD or NVIDIA GPU drivers in your template image VM.

Frame-verified GPU Drivers

The following driver versions have been validated for use with Frame workload VMs. Frame cannot offer support for any other driver version or combinations. For AWS, use:

  • NVIDIA driver version: 513.46
  • AMD driver version: 20.10.25.04

  1. (Optional): Install your applications and finish image customization.

  2. Once you have configured the image as desired, launch Powershell as an administrator.

Windows - PowerShell

Windows - PowerShell
  1. Run the following PowerShell command to generalize your image using Microsoft Sysprep:
Start-Process -FilePath "$env:windir\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe" -ArgumentList "/oobe /shutdown /generalize /unattend:$env:programdata\Nutanix\Frame\Sysprep\Unattend.xml" -Wait -NoNewWindow
  1. If the VM does not shutdown, then there was a problem with sysprep. Review the sysprep logs in %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\Panther to determine the source of the error.

Windows - Sysprep Log Path

Windows - Sysprep Log Path
  1. When sysprep is successful, the VM will automatically power off. Verify that the VM has stopped in AWS Console.

Tag AMI​

  1. Create an image from your AWS instance.

  2. Once the image is created, navigate to the list of images/AMIs in the AWS console. Click on the AMI you created in the previous step and assign a tag with the Key name FrameRole and value MasterImage to the AMI.

  3. Add the second tag with the Key name FrameGuestAgentKind and the value fga to the AMI.

AWS Console - Add Tags

AWS Console - Add Tags

Voilà! You have successfully created a template image to be registered in Frame for use to create your Frame workloads. You may prepare additional template images (e.g., different Windows OS versions, template images with different sets of applications) by simply repeating the procedure with a new image.

Registration​

Now it's time to register your template image in Frame. See how to do this in our Cloud Accounts > Template Images guide.