1. Sign in to AWS Management Console

1. Go to AWS Console
2. Log in with your AWS credentials
3. Navigate to EC2 by searching for “EC2” in the AWS search bar

2. Launch an EC2 Instance

1. Click Launch Instance
2. Enter an Instance Name (e.g., MyEC2Server)

3. Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) are pre-configured operating systems for your instance. Common choices:

• Amazon Linux 2023 (optimized for AWS)
• Ubuntu (popular for developers)
• Windows Server (for Windows-based applications)

Select an AMI based on your needs.

4. Choose an Instance Type

Instance types determine the CPU, memory, and performance of your EC2.

• t2.micro or t3.micro (free-tier eligible, good for small applications)
• m5.large (for medium workloads)
• c5.xlarge (for compute-intensive applications)

Pick one based on your use case.

5. Configure Key Pair (SSH Access)

1. Click Create a new key pair (if you don’t have one)
2. Name it (e.g., MyEC2Key)
3. Choose RSA or ED25519 encryption
4. Click Create key pair (this downloads a .pem file)
   ⚠ Keep this file safe! You need it to SSH into your instance.

6. Configure Network Settings (Security Group)

1. Choose Create Security Group
2. Name it (e.g., MyEC2SecurityGroup)
3. Add Inbound Rules:
   • SSH (Port 22) → Your IP (for secure remote access)
   • HTTP (Port 80) → Anywhere (for a web server)
   • HTTPS (Port 443) → Anywhere (for secure web access)

7. Configure Storage

1. Default is 8 GiB (Free-tier), but increase if needed
2. Choose GP3 or GP2 (recommended SSD storage).

8. Launch the Instance

1. Review your settings
2. Click Launch Instance
3. Wait for it to initialize (takes a few minutes)
4. Click View Instances to see the status.