December 21, 2021 [Create an AWS Instance]

Create an AWS Instance, setup restriction of web access

Step 1: Launch an instance

You can launch a Windows instance using the AWS Management Console as described in the
following procedure. This tutorial is intended to help you launch your first instance quickly, so it
doesn't cover all possible options

To launch an instance

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. From the console dashboard, choose Launch Instance.
3. The Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) page displays a list of basic
configurations, called Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), that serve as templates for your
instance. Select the AMI for Windows Server 2016 Base or later. Notice that these AMIs are
marked "Free tier eligible."
4. On the Choose an Instance Type page, you can select the hardware configuration of your
instance. Select the t2.micro instance type, which is selected by default. The t2.micro instance
type is eligible for the free tier. In Regions where t2.micro is unavailable, you can use
a t3.micro instance under the free tier .
5. On the Choose an Instance Type page, choose Review and Launch to let the wizard
complete the other configuration settings for you.
6. On the Review Instance Launch page, under Security Groups, you'll see that the wizard
created and selected a security group for you. You can use this security group, or alternatively
you can select the security group that you created when getting set up using the following steps:
a. Choose Edit security groups.
b. On the Configure Security Group page, ensure that Select an existing security
group is selected.
c. Select your security group from the list of existing security groups, and then
choose Review and Launch.
7. On the Review Instance Launch page, choose Launch.
8. When prompted for a key pair, select Choose an existing key pair, then select the key pair
that you created when getting set up.

Warning

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Don't select Proceed without a key pair. If you launch your instance without a key pair, then you
can't connect to it.

When you are ready, select the acknowledgement check box, and then choose Launch Instances.
9. A confirmation page lets you know that your instance is launching. Choose View
Instances to close the confirmation page and return to the console.
10. On the Instances screen, you can view the status of the launch. It takes a short time for an
instance to launch. When you launch an instance, its initial state is pending. After the instance
starts, its state changes to running and it receives a public DNS name. (If the Public IPv4
DNS column is hidden, choose the settings icon (   ) in the top-right corner, toggle on Public
IPv4 DNS, and choose Confirm.
11. It can take a few minutes for the instance to be ready so that you can connect to it. Check
that your instance has passed its status checks; you can view this information in the Status
check column.

Step 2: Connect to your instance

To connect to a Windows instance, you must retrieve the initial administrator password and then
enter this password when you connect to your instance using Remote Desktop. It takes a few
minutes after instance launch before this password is available.

The name of the administrator account depends on the language of the operating system. For
example, for English, it's Administrator, for French it's Administrateur, and for Portuguese
it's Administrador.

If you've joined your instance to a domain, you can connect to your instance using domain
credentials you've defined in AWS Directory Service. On the Remote Desktop login screen,
instead of using the local computer name and the generated password, use the fully-qualified
user name for the administrator (for example, corp.example.com\Admin), and the password for
this account.

If you receive an error while attempting to connect to your instance, see Remote Desktop can't
connect to the remote computer.

 New console
 Old console

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To connect to your Windows instance using an RDP client

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, select Instances. Select the instance and then choose Connect.
3. On the Connect to instance page, choose the RDP client tab, and then choose Get
password.

4. Choose Browse and navigate to the private key (.pem) file you created when you
launched the instance. Select the file and choose Open to copy the entire contents of the file to
this window.
5. Choose Decrypt Password. The console displays the default administrator password for
the instance under Password, replacing the Get password link shown previously. Save the
password in a safe place. This password is required to connect to the instance.

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6. Choose Download remote desktop file. Your browser prompts you to either open or save
the RDP shortcut file. When you have finished downloading the file, choose Cancel to return to
the Instances page.
 If you opened the RDP file, you'll see the Remote Desktop Connection dialog
box.
 If you saved the RDP file, navigate to your downloads directory, and open the
RDP file to display the dialog box.
7. You may get a warning that the publisher of the remote connection is unknown.
Choose Connect to continue to connect to your instance.

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8. The administrator account is chosen by default. Copy and paste the password that you
saved previously.

Tip

If you receive a "Password Failed" error, try entering the password manually. Copying and
pasting content can corrupt it.

9. Due to the nature of self-signed certificates, you may get a warning that the security
certificate could not be authenticated. Use the following steps to verify the identity of the remote
computer, or simply choose Yes (Windows) or Continue (Mac OS X) if you trust the certificate.

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 If you are using Remote Desktop Connection on a Windows computer,

choose View certificate. If you are using Microsoft Remote Desktop on a Mac,
choose Show Certificate.
 Choose the Details tab, and scroll down to Thumbprint (Windows) or SHA1
Fingerprints (Mac OS X). This is the unique identifier for the remote computer's
security certificate.
 In the Amazon EC2 console, select the instance, choose Actions, Monitor and
troubleshoot, Get system log.

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 In the system log output, look for RDPCERTIFICATE-THUMBPRINT. If this value

matches the thumbprint or fingerprint of the certificate, you have verified the
identity of the remote computer.
 If you are using Remote Desktop Connection on a Windows computer, return to
the Certificate dialog box and choose OK. If you are using Microsoft Remote
Desktop on a Mac, return to the Verify Certificate and choose Continue.
 [Windows] Choose Yes in the Remote Desktop Connection window to connect to
your instance.

[Mac OS X] Log in as prompted, using the default administrator account and the default
administrator password that you recorded or copied previously. Note that you might need to
switch spaces to see the login screen. For more information, see Add spaces and switch between
them.

Step 3: Clean up your instance

After you've finished with the instance that you created for this tutorial, you should clean up by
terminating the instance. If you want to do more with this instance before you clean up, see Next
steps.

Important

Terminating an instance effectively deletes it; you can't reconnect to an instance after you've
terminated it.

If you launched an instance that is not within the AWS Free Tier, you'll stop incurring charges
for that instance as soon as the instance status changes to shutting down or terminated. To keep
your instance for later, but not incur charges, you can stop the instance now and then start it
again later. For more information, see Stop and start your instance.

To terminate your instance

1. In the navigation pane, choose Instances. In the list of instances, select the instance.
2. Choose Instance state, Terminate instance.
3. Choose Terminate when prompted for confirmation.

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Amazon EC2 shuts down and terminates your instance. After your instance is terminated, it
remains visible on the console for a short while, and then the entry is automatically deleted. You
cannot remove the terminated instance from the console display yourself.