DEV Community: Augustine Okwaraebuzie

🟢 How to Launch an Ubuntu EC2 Instance on AWS (Step-by-Step Guide)

Augustine Okwaraebuzie — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 12:47:36 +0000

📘 INTRODUCTION

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) provides scalable computing capacity in the AWS cloud. By launching an Ubuntu EC2 instance, you're essentially creating a virtual server on the cloud that can run applications, host websites, and perform development/testing activities. Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution due to its security, open-source nature, and ease of use.

This guide walks you through each step, from logging into AWS to connecting to your Ubuntu server.

✅ Step-by-Step Process to Launch an Ubuntu EC2 Instance

Requirements
To begin, make sure you have the following:

An active AWS account
An Installed text editor like (Powershell)
SSH client (e.g., Terminal on macOS/Linux, PuTTY on Windows)

Step 1: Log in to AWS Management Console
🔹 Go to https://aws.amazon.com
🔹 Click on Sign In to the Console
🔹 Enter your username and password

Step 2: Navigate to EC2 Dashboard
🔹 On the AWS Console, search for EC2 in the “Find Services” bar.
🔹 Click on EC2 under “Compute”.

The EC2 Dashboard shows all running instances, volumes, security groups, and key pairs.

Step 3: Click “Launch Instance”
🔹 In the EC2 Dashboard, click the “Launch Instance” button.
🔹 You’ll be taken to the instance creation wizard.

Step 4: Name Your Instance
🔹 In the “Name and tags” section, type a name like: Ubuntu-Web-Server.

Step 5: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
🔹 In the “Application and OS Images” section:
🔸 Click “Browse more AMIs”
🔸 In the search bar, type Ubuntu
🔸 Choose an Ubuntu Server (e.g., Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS)
🔸 Make sure it says Free Tier eligible (if you're using the free tier)

Step 6: Choose an Instance Type
🔹 Select t2.micro (eligible for Free Tier: 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM).
🔹 For more power, choose higher specs—but note, it may incur charges.

Step 7: Create (or Use) a Key Pair
🔹 A key pair lets you securely SSH into your instance.
🔸 Choose Create new key pair
🔸 Give it a name: ubuntu-key
🔸 Select .pem as file format
🔸 Click Create key pair — a file will download (save this safely)

⚠️ You won’t be able to download the key again. Keep it secure and don’t lose it.

Step 8: Configure Network Settings, Review and Launch
🔹 Choose or leave the default VPC and subnet
🔹 Under “Firewall (security groups)”, choose:
🔸 Create security group
🔸 Allow SSH (port 22) from your IP
🔸 Optional: Add HTTP (port 80) if you're hosting a web server
🔸 Click on Launch
🔸 Check Configure Storage and leave it on default
🔸 You will see a successful message, scroll down and click on "view instance" to go to dashboard.

Step 9: Connect to Your Ubuntu EC2 Instance via PowerShell

Open your terminal and run the command from the directory containing your .pem file.
Copy the SSH command that looks like: ssh -i "ubuntu-key.pem" ubuntu@your IP address
Accept the connection (type yes)

Step 10:Installing and configuring NGINX Web Server
Installing NGINX: Enter the command "sudo apt install nginx -y"
Note that "nginx" is the web server software
"-y" means you agree to install without asking again

Start NGINX: Enter the command "sudo systemctl start nginx"
This is to start nginx server

Check NGINX status: Enter the command "sudo systemctl status nginx"
This shows if NGINX is running properly

Enabling NGINX to Auto-start: Enter the command "sudo systemctl enable nginx"
This ensures NGINX starts automatically if the server restarts

Step 11: Testing and Customizing the Web Page
Testing: Open your browser and login to http//:(your-ec2-IP)
You will see the default NGINX welcome page.

Editing the web page: Enter the command
"sudo /var/www/html/index.nginx-debian.html" . This is to open the default web page file that NGINX shows to visitors, the files are stored in the /var/www/html folder on the server

Steps to Edit:

Delete the existing text in the file by holding the ctrl key and press K repeatedly (deletes lines one after the other).
Type this:

You should see the NGINX web page in this effect

🎯 Conclusion
You’ve successfully launched and connected to an Ubuntu EC2 instance! From here, you can install software, host websites, configure firewalls, and much more — all from a scalable cloud environment.

STEPS ON HOW TO LAUNCH AN APACHE WEB SERVER USING EC2 INSTANCE

Augustine Okwaraebuzie — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 03:58:53 +0000

Introduction

The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offers the broadest and deepest compute platform, Its a powerful service that allows users to run virtual machines in the cloud. Launching a web server on EC2 is a fundamental task for developers, DevOps engineers, and anyone working with cloud infrastructure

As part of this process, I will also show detailed screenshots annotated using Screenpresso at each step to make the process clear and easy to follow.

This article provides a step by step guide on how to launch an EC2 web server using AWS.

Requirements
To begin, make sure you have the following:

An active AWS account
An Installed text editor like (Gitbash)
SSH client (e.g., Terminal on macOS/Linux, PuTTY on Windows)

Step 1: Log in to the AWS Management Console

First you Visit https://aws.amazon.com/

Click on “Sign In to the Console.”

Enter your login credentials and navigate to the EC2 Dashboard.

Its important to note that the AWS Console is the web interface that
allows you to manage all AWS services

Step 2: Launch a New EC2 Instance

From the EC2 Dashboard, click on “Launch Instance.”

Enter a name for your instance (e.g., MyWebServer).

Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI):

Select Amazon Linux 2023, Ubuntu Server 22.04, or any preferred Linux distribution.

Choose an Instance Type:

Select t2.micro (Free tier eligible).

Create or choose a key pair for SSH access:

If new, click “Create new key pair” and download the .pem file.
Choose RSA and select .pem format (for Git Bash).

Download and securely save the key file (example: MyKeyPairin.pem).This file is the only way to SSH into your instance. Don’t lose it!

Configure Network Settings:

Create or use an existing security group.

Allow SSH (port 22) and HTTP (port 80) in the inbound rules.

Leave the rest of the settings at default and click “Launch Instance.”

Step 3: Connect to Your EC2 Instance
After the instance is running, click on “Connect” in the EC2 dashboard.

Step 4: Open Git Bash

Git Bash allows Windows users to use Linux commands and connect via SSH.

** Navigate to Your Key Pair File**

cd /c/Users/YourUsername/Downloads

Replace YourUsername with your actual Windows username.

Set Correct File Permissions

chmod 400 MyKeyPairin.pem

This step is required to ensure your SSH key is secure. Without this, Git Bash will not allow the connection.

Connect via SSH

ssh -i MyKeyPairin.pem ec2-user@

Replace with the IP address of your EC2 instance.

What to expect:You will see a security prompt the first time. Type yes to continue. You should now be inside your EC2 server terminal.
Use the provided SSH command in your terminal

Step 4: Update system and Install a Web Server (Apache or Nginx)
Update System Packages

sudo yum update -y

This ensures your system is up to date.

Install NGINX Web Server

sudo amazon-linux-extras install nginx1 -y

This installs NGINX from the Amazon Linux repositories.

Start the NGINX Service

sudo systemctl start nginx

Starts the web server so it can serve web pages.

Enable NGINX on Boot

sudo systemctl enable nginx

This ensures NGINX starts automatically when the server restarts.

Test Apache HTTP Web Server in Browser

Open your browser and visit:

http://

You should see the default Apache HTTP server has been installed and working properly.

Why this is significant because it confirms that your NGINX web server is correctly installed and reachable.

Conclusion

In this article, You've successfully launched an EC2 web server. From here, you can upload your website files, configure domains, install SSL, or build a dynamic application. Amazon EC2 is a versatile and scalable platform that provides the foundation for many cloud-hosted applications.