How to Launch a Public AMI in Amazon EC2: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Launch a Public AMI in Amazon EC2: A Step-by-Step Guide
As data scientists or software engineers, leveraging cloud-based solutions like Amazon EC2 is a crucial part of our work. Today, we’ll focus on an essential operation: launching a public Amazon Machine Image (AMI) on Amazon EC2.
What is an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)?
An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a template that contains a software configuration (operating system, application server, and applications) required to launch an instance. An instance is a virtual server in the cloud.
Public AMIs are shared by the AWS community and can be used by anyone, making them a valuable resource for quickly launching pre-configured instances.
Step 1: Sign in to the AWS Management Console
To start, navigate to the AWS Management Console and sign in. If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll need to create one.
Step 2: Open Amazon EC2
On your AWS Management Console, look for the “Services” dropdown at the top of the page. Click it, and find “EC2” under the “Compute” category.
Step 3: Launch Instance
Once you’re in the EC2 Dashboard, locate the “Instances” option in the left sidebar. Click it, and then click on the “Launch Instances” button.
Step 4: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
You will now be taken to the “Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)” page. Here, you have the option to select the AMI that suits your needs. Since we’re focusing on public AMIs, ensure that the “Public images” option is selected in the dropdown menu.
There are many options to choose from, and you can search for specific ones using the search bar. Once you’ve found the AMI you want to use, click the “Select” button next to it.
Step 5: Choose an Instance Type
After selecting the AMI, you will be directed to the “Choose an Instance Type” page. Here, you can select the hardware of the host computer for your instance. Each instance type offers different compute, memory, and storage capabilities and are grouped in instance families based on these capabilities. Choose the one that best fits your needs, then click “Next: Configure Instance Details”.
Step 6: Configure Instance Details
On this page, you can specify the instance details. You can choose the number of instances, network settings, and more. Once you’ve configured these details, click “Next: Add Storage”.
Step 7: Add Storage
Now, you can add storage to your instance. The form will automatically populate with a suggested root volume, but you can add more volumes if needed. After you’ve added the necessary storage, click “Next: Add Tags”.
Step 8: Add Tags
Tags allow you to categorize your instances in different ways, for example, by purpose, owner, or environment. This is helpful for keeping track of billing. Click “Next: Configure Security Group” once you’re done.
Step 9: Configure Security Group
A security group acts as a virtual firewall that controls the traffic for one or more instances. You can add rules to allow specific traffic to reach your instance. Be sure to review these rules and modify them as necessary for your use case.
Step 10: Review and Launch
Review your instance and make any necessary changes. Once everything is correctly configured, click “Launch”.
Step 11: Select a Key Pair
Before your instance can launch, you’ll need to select a key pair, which consists of a public key that AWS stores, and a private key file that you store. This is crucial for SSH login. If you don’t have an existing key pair, you can create a new one.
Step 12: Launch Instances
Finally, click “Launch Instances” and your instance will start launching!
With these steps, you should be able to launch a public AMI in Amazon EC2 successfully. This is a fundamental task in cloud computing and a great starting point for anyone looking to leverage AWS’s powerful suite of tools. Happy launching!
Remember to optimize your AMI selection and instance configuration based on your specific needs. The right setup can significantly impact the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of your cloud computing operations.
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