Creating an Amazon EC2 Instance

💻 INTRODUCTION

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.It also lets you launch virtual servers in the cloud.It provides flexible computing resources to run applications, host websites, or perform tasks without physical hardware.
This procedure shows how to create and access an EC2 instance.

🔒 IMPLEMENTATION STEPS

How to Create an EC2 Instance

🔗 Objective

To launch and configure a virtual server using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for running applications in the cloud.

⚙️ Materials/Requirements

•AWS account with appropriate permissions
•Internet access
•SSH client (for Linux) or RDP (for Windows)
•Key pair for secure login

🛠️ Procedure

1.Login to AWS
•Open the AWS Management Console.
•Navigate or search for EC2 under the “Compute” section and select.

2.Launch an Instance
•Click “Launch Instance”.

•Give your instance a name for easy identification.

•Select an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) (e.g., Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu, Windows Server).

3.Select an existing key pair or create a new one.

•If you are creating a key-pair ,give it a name (e.g., Name: Adaorakey)and create key.

4.Click “Launch Instance” to start your EC2 instance.

5.Connect to Your Instance
i.By clicking “connect to instance”(Browser SSH):

ii.Then click “Connect”, (browser-based SSH).

iii.A black terminal window will appear in your browser.

iv.Once connected, type:
“sudo su”

•This switches you to the root user, giving full administrative privileges.

V.You can now run commands and configure your instance as needed.

📝 Note:

For Windows instances, you would still use RDP via the Connect button and your key pair.

👩‍💻 Results/Expected Outcome

•A running EC2 instance visible in the EC2 dashboard.
•Ability to securely connect to the instance via SSH or RDP.
•Instance can host applications, web servers, or databases as configured.
•Billing begins only while the instance is running (stop when not in use to save cost).

📝 Notes/Best Practices

•Always use a secure key pair; never share your private key.
•Tag instances for easy identification in large environments.
•Stop or terminate instances when not needed to avoid unnecessary charges.