How to View a Website Launched in an Amazon EC2 Instance

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a web service that enables businesses to launch and manage server instances in Amazon’s data centers. With EC2, businesses can scale their resources according to their needs. In this post, we’ll explain how you can view a website launched in an Amazon EC2 instance.

By Saturn Cloud | Tuesday, August 08, 2023 | Miscellaneous

How to View a Website Launched in an Amazon EC2 Instance

Step 1: Launch an EC2 Instance

The first step is to launch an EC2 instance. Go to the AWS Management Console, navigate to the EC2 dashboard, and click on “Launch Instance”. You’ll be guided through the process of choosing an Amazon Machine Image (AMI), instance type, and configuring instance details.

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-abc12345 --count 1 --instance-type t2.micro --key-name MyKeyPair --security-groups MySecurityGroup

After the EC2 instance is launched, it’s essential to set up the security group rules to allow inbound traffic to your website.

Step 2: Configure Security Group

In the EC2 dashboard, select your instance and click on its associated security group. Under the “Inbound” tab, click on “Edit”. Add a new rule that allows traffic from “Anywhere” to port 80 (for HTTP) or port 443 (for HTTPS).

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-903004f8 --protocol tcp --port 80 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

Step 3: Install a Web Server

Next, you need to install a web server on your EC2 instance. To do this, connect to your instance using SSH. Once connected, you can install a web server like Apache, Nginx, or any other of your preference.

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install -y httpd
sudo service httpd start
sudo chkconfig httpd on

The above commands will install and start Apache HTTP server.

Step 4: Deploy Your Website

Now, it’s time to deploy your website on your EC2 instance. Upload your website files to the web server’s root directory. For Apache on Amazon Linux, the default directory is /var/www/html/.

sudo mv /home/ec2-user/mywebsite/* /var/www/html/

Step 5: View Your Website

Finally, to view your website, you simply need to navigate to your EC2 instance’s public IP address or public DNS name. You can find these details in the description of your instance on the EC2 dashboard.

http://<Your_EC2_Public_DNS>

And there you have it! You’ve successfully launched a website in an Amazon EC2 instance.

Conclusion

Amazon EC2 provides a flexible and scalable environment for deploying web applications. By following these steps, you can easily launch and view a website on an Amazon EC2 instance. Remember to always follow best practices for security and management of your EC2 instances.

This blog post has provided a basic guide on how to view a website launched in an Amazon EC2 instance. There are many more advanced features and options available in Amazon EC2. As a data scientist or a software engineer, understanding how to leverage these capabilities can significantly enhance the performance, scalability, and security of your web applications.

Keywords: Amazon EC2, Web Server, AWS Management Console, Amazon Machine Image, Security Group, Inbound Traffic, SSH, Apache HTTP Server, Public IP Address, Public DNS Name, Web Applications.

About Saturn Cloud

Saturn Cloud is your all-in-one solution for data science & ML development, deployment, and data pipelines in the cloud. Spin up a notebook with 4TB of RAM, add a GPU, connect to a distributed cluster of workers, and more. Join today and get 150 hours of free compute per month.

Try Saturn Cloud Now