AWS EC2

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a web service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows you to provision and manage virtual servers in the cloud. It provides scalable computing resources, allowing you to quickly deploy and scale applications without the need for upfront hardware investment.

Here are some key aspects of EC2:

  1. Elasticity: EC2 offers elasticity by allowing you to scale your computing resources up or down based on demand. You can easily increase or decrease the number of instances to match your application’s needs. This flexibility ensures that you have the necessary computing power when you need it, and you only pay for the resources you use.
  2. Instance Types: AWS offers a wide range of EC2 instance types optimized for different workloads. Each instance type has varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity to suit different use cases. You can select the instance type that best matches your application’s requirements to achieve optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
  3. Amazon Machine Images (AMI): EC2 instances are launched from pre-configured templates called Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). AMIs provide the operating system, software packages, and configurations required for your instance. AWS offers a variety of public AMIs, including popular Linux distributions and Windows Server versions, or you can create your own custom AMIs.
  4. Storage Options: EC2 provides various storage options to meet your application’s needs. It includes Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), which offers persistent block-level storage volumes that can be attached to EC2 instances. Additionally, you can leverage Amazon S3 for object storage, Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) for scalable file storage, and instance store volumes for temporary storage.
  5. Security: EC2 instances can be secured using security groups and network access control lists (ACLs) to control inbound and outbound traffic. You can define fine-grained rules to allow or deny specific protocols, ports, or IP ranges. EC2 also integrates with other AWS services like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for user access management and AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for encryption of data at rest.
  6. Monitoring and Management: AWS provides tools like Amazon CloudWatch to monitor the performance of your EC2 instances, collect and analyze metrics, and set up alarms for specific conditions. EC2 instances can be managed and configured using AWS Systems Manager, which allows you to automate administrative tasks, apply patches, and configure instances at scale.
  7. Integration and Networking: EC2 instances can be deployed within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), which provides an isolated network environment. You have full control over networking settings, including IP addressing, subnets, routing tables, and access control. EC2 instances can also be integrated with other AWS services like Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service), and AWS Lambda to build scalable and robust architectures.

Certainly! Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create an EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instance in AWS for beginners:

Step 1: Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

  • Go to the AWS homepage (https://aws.amazon.com/) and click on “Sign In to the Console” in the top right corner.
  • Enter your AWS account credentials and click “Sign In”.

Step 2: Navigate to the EC2 service.

  • Once signed in, you’ll be redirected to the AWS Management Console.
  • In the search bar at the top, type “EC2” and select the “EC2” service from the dropdown list.

Step 3: Launch an EC2 instance.

  • On the EC2 Dashboard, click on the “Launch Instance” button.

Step 4: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI).

  • Select an AMI based on your requirements. An AMI is a pre-configured template that contains an operating system and other software.
  • You can choose from various options provided by AWS, including Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, Windows Server, etc.
  • Click on the “Select” button once you’ve chosen your desired AMI.

Step 5: Choose an instance type.

  • In this step, you’ll select the hardware configuration for your EC2 instance.
  • AWS offers a wide range of instance types optimized for different use cases, such as general-purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized, etc.
  • Choose an instance type that suits your workload requirements.
  • Click on the “Next: Configure Instance Details” button.

Step 6: Configure instance details (optional).

  • Here, you can configure additional settings like the number of instances, network settings, IAM roles, and storage options.
  • You can leave the default values for most of the settings if you’re just getting started.
  • Click on the “Next: Add Storage” button.

Step 7: Add storage.

  • Specify the amount and type of storage you require for your EC2 instance.
  • You can configure the root volume size and add additional EBS volumes if needed.
  • Adjust the storage settings based on your application’s requirements.
  • Click on the “Next: Add Tags” button.

Step 8: Add tags (optional).

  • Tags are key-value pairs that help you organize and identify your resources.
  • You can add tags to your EC2 instance for better management and identification.
  • Click on the “Next: Configure Security Group” button.

Step 9: Configure security group.

  • A security group acts as a virtual firewall for your EC2 instance, controlling inbound and outbound traffic.
  • Create a new security group or choose an existing one.
  • Define the inbound rules to allow access to your instance (e.g., SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, etc.).
  • Click on the “Review and Launch” button.

Step 10: Review and launch.

  • Review the configuration of your EC2 instance to ensure all settings are correct.
  • If needed, you can go back and make changes by clicking on the respective steps in the left navigation pane.
  • Once you’ve reviewed everything, click on the “Launch” button.

Step 11: Create or select a key pair.

  • A key pair is required to securely connect to your EC2 instance using SSH.
  • Choose an existing key pair if you have one, or create a new key pair.
  • Download the private key (.pem file) and keep it safe.
  • Click on the “Launch Instances” button.

Step 12: Launch status and instance view.

  • After clicking the “Launch Instances” button, you’ll see a launch status page indicating that your EC2 instance is being created.
  • Once the instance is successfully launched, you can click on the “View Instances” button to go

Overall, EC2 is a powerful service that provides the foundation for running various types of workloads in the cloud. Its flexibility, scalability, and extensive features make it suitable for hosting websites, running applications, batch processing, data analysis, and much more.

AWS Checkout On EC2 ->Amazon EC2 FAQs – AWS

AWS WhitePapers on EC2-> Introduction – Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances and Other AWS Reservation Models

AWS EC2 Cloud Docs – > Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Documentation