Merge pull request #1865 from alexander-demicev/ec2kubeadmimage

Document building EC2 Kubeadm AMI

Author: alexander-demicev

docs/image-builder/ec2-kubeadm.md

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+# Building Ubuntu 24.04 AMIs with Kubernetes for CAPI
+
+This guide walks you through building AWS AMIs for Cluster API with Ubuntu 24.04 and any Kubernetes version you need.
+
+## Getting Started
+
+### 1. Clone the Repository
+
+First, clone the image-builder repo:
+
+```bash
+git clone [email protected]:kubernetes-sigs/image-builder.git
+cd image-builder/images/capi
+```
+
+### 2. AWS Prerequisites
+
+You'll need:
+- An AWS account with EC2 permissions to create AMIs.
+- AWS CLI installed and configured
+
+## Building AMI
+
+### Step 1: Install Dependencies
+
+The build process needs Packer and Ansible. Install them with:
+
+```bash
+make deps-ami
+```
+
+This installs Python, Ansible, Packer, and initializes Packer plugins. If you're on macOS, the tools get installed to `.local/bin` in the current directory. Add them to your PATH:
+
+```bash
+export PATH=$PWD/.local/bin:$PATH
+```
+
+### Step 2: Choose Your Kubernetes Version
+
+Create a config file with the Kubernetes version you want:
+
+**For Kubernetes v1.33.5:**
+```bash
+cat > my-k8s-config.json <<EOF
+{
+  "aws_region": "eu-west-2",
+  "ami_regions": "",
+  "ami_groups": "",
+  "snapshot_groups": "",
+  "kubernetes_deb_version": "1.33.5-1.1",
+  "kubernetes_rpm_version": "1.33.5",
+  "kubernetes_semver": "v1.33.5",
+  "kubernetes_series": "v1.33"
+}
+EOF
+```
+
+### Step 3: Build the AMI
+
+Build Ubuntu 24.04 with your chosen Kubernetes version:
+
+```bash
+PACKER_VAR_FILES="$(pwd)/my-k8s-config.json" make build-ami-ubuntu-2404
+```
+
+What happens:
+1. Packer launches a temporary EC2 instance
+2. Installs Kubernetes and dependencies
+3. Runs Ansible playbooks to configure everything
+4. Creates an AMI snapshot
+5. Cleans up the temporary instance
+
+Build time is usually 10-20 minutes.
+
+### Step 4: Save Your AMI ID
+
+When the build finishes, you'll see:
+
+```bash
+==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
+--> amazon-ebs.ubuntu-2404: AMIs were created:
+eu-west-2: ami-0abc123def456789
+```
+
+Save that AMI ID - you'll need it for your CAPI clusters.