diff --git a/release/Makefile.vm b/release/Makefile.vm
index 6ec7d6db7e1f..4f6afaa3f9eb 100644
--- a/release/Makefile.vm
+++ b/release/Makefile.vm
@@ -16,11 +16,15 @@ QCOW2_DESC=	Qemu, KVM disk image
 RAW_DESC=	Unformatted raw disk image
 
 CLOUDWARE?=	AZURE \
+		EC2 \
 		GCE \
 		OPENSTACK
 AZURE_FORMAT=	vhdf
 AZURE_DESC=	Microsoft Azure platform image
 AZURE_DISK=	${OSRELEASE}.${AZURE_FORMAT}
+EC2_FORMAT=	raw
+EC2_DESC=	Amazon EC2 image
+EC2_DISK=	${OSRELEASE}.${EC2_FORMAT}
 GCE_FORMAT=	raw
 GCE_DESC=	Google Compute Engine image
 GCE_DISK=	disk.${GCE_FORMAT}
diff --git a/release/tools/ec2.conf b/release/tools/ec2.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..af30de11a531
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/tools/ec2.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# $FreeBSD$
+#
+
+# Packages to install into the image we're creating.  This is a deliberately
+# minimalist set, providing only the packages necessary to bootstrap further
+# package installation as specified via EC2 user-data.
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="ec2-scripts firstboot-freebsd-update firstboot-pkgs"
+
+# Set to a list of third-party software to enable in rc.conf(5).
+export VM_RC_LIST="ec2_configinit ec2_fetchkey ec2_ephemeralswap ec2_loghostkey firstboot_freebsd_update firstboot_pkgs"
+
+# Build with a 1.5 GB UFS partition; the growfs rc.d script will expand
+# the partition to fill the root disk after the EC2 instance is launched.
+# Note that if this is set to <N>G, we will end up with an <N+1> GB disk
+# image since VMSIZE is the size of the UFS partition, not the disk which
+# it resides within.
+export VMSIZE=1536M
+
+# No swap space; the ec2_ephemeralswap rc.d script will allocate swap
+# space on EC2 ephemeral disks.  (If they exist -- the T2 low-cost instances
+# and the C4 compute-optimized instances don't have ephemeral disks.  But
+# it would be silly to bloat the image and increase costs for every instance
+# just for those two families, especially since instances ranging in size
+# from 1 GB of RAM to 60 GB of RAM would need different sizes of swap space
+# anyway.)
+export NOSWAP=YES
+
+vm_extra_pre_umount() {
+	# The firstboot_pkgs rc.d script will download the repository
+	# catalogue and install or update pkg when the instance first
+	# launches, so these files would just be replaced anyway; removing
+	# them from the image allows it to boot faster.
+	pkg -c ${DESTDIR} delete -f pkg
+	rm ${DESTDIR}/var/db/pkg/repo-*.sqlite
+
+	# The size of the EC2 root disk can be configured at instance launch
+	# time; expand our filesystem to fill the disk.
+	echo 'growfs_enable="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+
+	# EC2 instances use DHCP to get their network configuration.
+	echo 'ifconfig_DEFAULT="SYNCDHCP"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+
+	# Unless the system has been configured via EC2 user-data, the user
+	# will need to SSH in to do anything.
+	echo 'sshd_enable="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+
+	# The AWS CLI tools are generally useful, and small enough that they
+	# will download quickly; but users will often override this setting
+	# via EC2 user-data.
+	echo 'firstboot_pkgs_list="awscli"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
+
+	# The EC2 console is output-only, so while printing a backtrace can
+	# be useful, there's no point dropping into a debugger or waiting
+	# for a keypress.
+	echo 'debug.trace_on_panic=1' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/sysctl.conf
+	echo 'debug.debugger_on_panic=0' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/sysctl.conf
+	echo 'kern.panic_reboot_wait_time=0' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/sysctl.conf
+
+	# The console is not interactive, so we might as well boot quickly.
+	echo 'autoboot_delay="-1"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
+	echo 'beastie_disable="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
+
+	# The EC2 console is an emulated serial port.
+	echo 'console="comconsole"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
+
+	# Some older EC2 hardware used a version of Xen with a bug in its
+	# emulated serial port.  It is not clear if EC2 still has any such
+	# nodes, but apply the workaround just in case.
+	echo 'hw.broken_txfifo="1"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
+
+	# The first time the AMI boots, the installed "first boot" scripts
+	# should be allowed to run:
+	# * ec2_configinit (download and process EC2 user-data)
+	# * ec2_fetchkey (arrange for SSH using the EC2-provided public key)
+	# * growfs (expand the filesystem to fill the provided disk)
+	# * firstboot_freebsd_update (install critical updates)
+	# * firstboot_pkgs (install packages)
+	touch ${DESTDIR}/firstboot
+
+	return 0
+}