AWS EC2 Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide to Elastic Compute Cloud

EC2 is a on-demand computing service that allows users to configure their instance based on their requirements. It is like creating virtual computers. Like normal computers, EC2 have RAM,ROM, OS etc.,

EC2 Types :

General Purpose Instances:

These instances provide a balance of compute, memory and network resources. Ideal for application that use resource in equal portions.

Example : t3,m5

Compute Optimized Instances :

These instances provide high performance processors. Since it uses high performance processors, these are used for high performance web servers , gaming servers.

Example : c5,c6a

Memory-Optimized Instances:

These instances are designed for memory instance applications. These are ideal for applications involving in-memory databases and real-time big data analytics. Example : r5,r6a

Storage Optimized Instances :

These instances are designed for workloads that requires high disk I/O performance.

Example : I3, I4i

Accelerated Computing Instances:

These instances are designed for workloads that require high-performance GPUs These are ideal for tasks like machine learning, graphics processing, or video encoding.

Example : p5,p4

For more Details refer, https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

1. Creating EC2 Instance

1.1 Go to aws console -> search EC2 -> Open EC2

1.2 In that click on launch Instance,

1.3 Give a name to the instance and select Operating System for it.

Name - is to identify the EC2. Tags can also be used to identify the instance.

Application and OS Images - It specifies the Operating System for the EC2.You can choose any OS available and also create your own Amazon Machine Image(AMI).

In my case, I have selected Ubuntu Server.

1.4 Specify the Instance Type and key pair

Instance Type - We have discussed about the instance types. Choose them based on your need.

In my case, I used t3 micro Which is eligible for free tier.

Key pair - Choose the key pair or create a new key pair

Key pair is used to login into yout EC2 from your local computer securely.

1.5 Leave the remaining configuration as it is, and choose the number of instance in the top right and click launch Instance.

Storage - Storage just specified the amount of hard disk required for our EC2.

We will see about the storage later on.

1.6 Once the instance is created, it will appear like this,

1.7 Navigate to the Instance page to see all the instances.

Our instance is up and running.

2. Connect to EC2

   2.1 Open the EC2 by clicking the instance ID.

   

   Here, we can see the public IP address, private IP address and other details about our EC2.

   2.2 Click the connect on top right

   

   It show different ways to connect to our EC2.

   In our case, we choose to connect using EC2 Instance connect and click connect.

   In our previous blogs, We have connected to EC2 using SSH.

2.3 When you click connect, it will open terminal in new tab

We have successfully connected to our EC2. You can perform any operations using this command prompt.

Conclusion :

In conclusion, Amazon EC2 provides reusable compute capacity in the cloud, allowing users to quickly launch the instance based on their needs. AWS provides various instance types which enables flexiblity to choose the right instances depending on the work loads.