"ResourceStatusReason": "The image id '[ami-a844d4c8]' does not exist"

If you're getting this error when creating a CloudFormation stack that means your code is trying to create a stack with an AMI that doesn't exist in your account and/or region, or perhaps it is referencing an old AMI that has been deprecated in favor of a new one.

 "ResourceStatusReason": "The image id '[ami-a844d4c8]' does not exist"

In the case of the Firebox WatchGuard Cloud AMI it currently has a different ID in each region. There is also a separate AMI for the BYOL (bring your own license) vs. Pay as you go AMI.

You can find these AMIs by manually creating a WatchGuard Firebox Cloud from the AWS Marketplace and then looking at the details of the instance you launched to get the AMI ID. I am looking for a better way to get this information but at this time that will help you determine which AMI to use.

In the case of the WatchGuard Cloud Automation templates the AMI ID is used in this template:

https://github.com/tradichel/FireboxCloudAutomation/blob/master/code/resources/firebox-nat/firebox.yaml

The script is being revised to let you select the AMI when you run it and instructions in the readme will be updated.

I was trying to create a script to look up the latest AMI for a particular vendor in the AWS Marketplace to programmatically get around this issue but this is the closest I could come. Maybe a feature request?

aws ec2 describe-images --filters "Name=description,Values=firebox*" | grep 'ImageId\|Description' | sed 's/ *\"ImageId\": "//;s/",//' | sed 's/ *\"Description\": "//;s/"//'