Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is the Amazon Web Service you use to create and run virtual machines in the cloud (we call these virtual machines 'instances'). This step-by-step guide will help you successfully launch a Linux virtual machine on Amazon EC2 within our Free Usage Tier.
Launching a Virtual Machine with AWS Requires an Account
Create a Free Account in MinutesAWS Free Tier includes 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances each month for one year. To stay within the Free Tier, use only EC2 Micro instances.
a. Click here to open the Amazon EC2 console and then click Launch Instance to create and configure your virtual machine.
You are now in the EC2 Launch Instance Wizard, which will help you configure and launch your instance.
a. With Amazon EC2, you can specify the software and specifications of the instance you want to use. In this screen, you are shown options to choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI), which is a template that contains the software configuration (e.g. an operating system, an application server, and applications). From an AMI, you launch an instance, which is a copy of the AMI running as a virtual server in the cloud.
For this tutorial, find Amazon Linux AMI and click Select.
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b. You will now choose an instance type. Instance types are comprised of varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity so you can choose the appropriate mix for your applications. For more information, see Amazon EC2 Instance Types.
The default option of t2.micro should already be checked. This instance type is covered within the Free Tier and offers enough compute capacity to tackle simple workloads. Click Review and Launch at the bottom of the page.
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c. You can review the configuration, storage. tagging and security settings that have been selected for your instance. While you have the option to customize these settings, we recommend accepting the default values for this tutorial.
Click Launch at the bottom of the page.
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d. On the next screen you will be asked to choose an existing key pair or create a new key pair. A key pair is use to log into your instance (just like your house key is used to enter your home). Select Create a new key pair and give it the name MyFirstKey. Next click the Download Key Pair button. Be sure to save the key pair in a safe location on your computer.
Windows users: We recommend saving your key pair in your user directory in a sub-directory called .ssh (ex. C:\user\{yourusername}\.ssh\MyFirstKey.pem).
Mac/Linux users: We recommend saving your key pair in the .ssh sub-directory from your home directory (ex. ~/.ssh/MyFirstKey.pem).
Note: If you don't remember where you store your SSH private key (the file you are downloading), you won't be able to connect to your virtual machine.
After you have stored your key pair, click Launch Instance to start your Linux instance.
Note: It will take a few minutes to launch your instance.
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e. Click View Instances on the next screen to view your instances and see the status of the instance you have just started.
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f. Make note of the Public IP address of your AWS instance, you will need this to connect to the instance in Step 2 part c.
Note: If your instance is still starting up, the Public IP address may not be shown yet. The Instance State column will show you if the instance is running yet, and the Status Checks column will tell you if the instance has passed the 2 checks to make sure it is done provisioning. You can refresh these values by pressing the refresh button on the right just above the table.
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After launching your instance, it's time to connect to it.
Windows users: Select Windows below to see instructions for installing Git Bash.
Mac/Linux user: Select Mac / Linux below to see instructions for opening a terminal window.
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Windows
a. Download Git for Windows here. Run the downloaded installer accepting the default settings (this will install Git Bash as part of Git).
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b. Right click on your desktop (not on an icon or file) and select Git Bash Here to open a Git Bash command prompt.
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Mac / Linux
Your Mac or Linux computer most likely includes an SSH client by default. You can check for an SSH client by typing ssh at the command line. If your computer doesn't recognize the command, the OpenSSH project provides a free implementation of the full suite of SSH tools that you can download.
a. Mac users: Open a terminal window by pressing Command + Space and typing terminal in the search window. Then press enter to open the terminal window.
Linux users: Open a terminal window.
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b. Use the chmod command to make sure your private key file is not publicly viewable by entering the following command: chmod 400 ~/.ssh/mykeypair.pem to restrict permissions to your private SSH key.
Note: You do not need to do this every time you connect to you instance, you only need to set this once per SSH key that you have.
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c. Use SSH to connect to your instance. In this case the user name is ec2-user, the SSH key is stored in the directory we saved it to in step 2 part d, and the IP address is from step 2 part f. The format is ssh -i {full path of your .pem file} ec2-user@{instance IP address}.
Windows users: Enter ssh -i 'c:\Users\yourusername\.ssh\MyKeyPair.pem' ec2-user@{IP_Address} (ex. ssh -i 'c:\Users\adamglic\.ssh\MyKeyPair.pem' [email protected])
Mac/Linux users: Enter ssh -i ~/.ssh/MyKeyPair.pem ec2-user@{IP_Address} (ex. ssh -i ~/.ssh/MyKeyPair.pem [email protected])
Note: if you started a Linux instance that isn't Amazon Linux, there may by a different user name that is used. common user names include ec2-user, root, ubuntu, and fedora. If you are unsure what the login user name is, check with your AMI provider.
You'll see a response similar to the following:
The authenticity of host 'ec2-198-51-100-1.compute-1.amazonaws.com (10.254.142.33)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is 1f:51:ae:28:df:63:e9:d8:cf:38:5d:87:2d:7b:b8:ca:9f:f5:b1:6f. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Type yes and press enter.
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You'll see a response similar to the following:
Warning: Permanently added 'ec2-198-51-100-1.compute-1.amazonaws.com' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
You should then see the welcome screen for your instance and you are now connected to your AWS Linux virtual machine in the cloud.
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You can easily terminate the instance from the EC2 console. In fact, it is a best practice to terminate instances you are no longer using so you don’t keep getting charged for them.
a. Back on the EC2 Console, select the box next to the instance you created. Then click the Actions button, navigate to Instance State, and click Terminate.
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b. You will be asked to confirm your termination - select Yes, Terminate.
Note: This process can take several seconds to complete. Once your instnaces has been terminated, the Instance State will change to terminated on your EC2 Console.
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