VM Import Update – Faster and More Flexible, with Multi-Volume Support

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/vm-import-update-faster-and-more-flexible-with-multi-volume-support/
Benefits of ImportImage:

	ImportInstance	ImportImage
Source	S3 manifest + objects (usually uploaded from an on-premises image file)	Image file in S3 or an EBS Snapshot
Destination	Stopped EC2 instance	Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
VM Complexity	Single volume, single disk	Multiple volume, multiple disk
Concurrent Imports	5	20
Operating Systems	Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian.
VM Formats	VMDK, VHD, RAW	VMDK, VHD, RAW, OVA

If you update AWS CLI to 1.7.24 (pip install --upgrade awscli) you get new command:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/import-image.html

aws ec2 import-image
[--dry-run | --no-dry-run]
[--description <value>]
[--disk-containers <value>]
[--license-type <value>]
[--hypervisor <value>]
[--architecture <value>]
[--platform <value>]
[--client-data <value>]
[--client-token <value>]
[--role-name <value>]
[--cli-input-json <value>]
[--generate-cli-skeleton]

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ImportVMImportImage.html

Example using the aws ec2 import-image command with multiple explicit disks

Use aws ec2 import-image command to a new import instance task.

$ aws ec2 import-image --cli-input-json "{  \"Description\": \"Windows 2008 VMDKs\", \"DiskContainers\": [ { \"Description\": \"Second CLI task\", \"UserBucket\": { \"S3Bucket\": \"my-import-bucket\", \"S3Key\" : \"my-windows-2008-vm-disk1.vmdk\" } }, { \"Description\": \"First CLI task\", \"UserBucket\": { \"S3Bucket\": \"my-import-bucket\", \"S3Key\" : \"my-windows-2008-vm-disk2.vmdk\" } }  ], }"

Example response

<ImportImageResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2015-03-01/">
    <progress>2</progress>
    <importTaskId>import-ami-fgxn591c</importTaskId>
    <status>active</status>
    <description>Windows 2008 VMDKs</description>
    <snapshotTaskDetailSet>
        <item>
            <diskImageSize>0.0</diskImageSize>
            <userBucket>
                <s3Bucket>my-import-bucket</s3Bucket>
                <s3Key>my-windows-2008-vm-disk1.vmdk</s3Key>
            </userBucket>
        </item>
        <item>
            <diskImageSize>0.0</diskImageSize>
            <userBucket>
                <s3Bucket>my-import-bucket</s3Bucket>
                <s3Key>my-windows-2008-vm-disk2.vmdk</s3Key>
            </userBucket>
        </item>
    </snapshotTaskDetailSet>
    <licenseType>AWS</licenseType>
    <statusMessage>pending</statusMessage>
    <requestId>1571e127-d6d8-4984-b4f1-3a21e9dbdcb5</requestId>
</ImportImageResponse>