要创建自定义平台，您需要基于所支持的操作系统之一 — Ubuntu、RHEL 或 Amazon Linux（有关确切版本号，请参阅 Platform.yaml 文件格式中的 flavor 条目）— 构建 AMI 并进一步添加自定义。您可使用 Packer（一种开源工具，用于为多种平台创建系统映像，包括用于 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) 的 AMI）创建您自己的 Elastic Beanstalk 平台。Elastic Beanstalk 平台包括被配置为运行一组软件以支持应用程序的 AMI，以及可以包含自定义配置选项和默认配置选项设置的元数据。
Packer is an open source tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. Packer is lightweight, runs on every major operating system, and is highly performant, creating machine images for multiple platforms in parallel. Packer does not replace configuration management like Chef or Puppet. In fact, when building images, Packer is able to use tools like Chef or Puppet to install software onto the image.
A machine image is a single static unit that contains a pre-configured operating system and installed software which is used to quickly create new running machines. Machine image formats change for each platform. Some examples include AMIs for EC2, VMDK/VMX files for VMware, OVF exports for VirtualBox, etc.