Aws offers a command line interface tool that has a very wide scope. This blog article discusses on how we can launch a new ec2 instance using AWS CLI.

Prerequisits

• Have Aws cli setup in your device

• Have a security group for you EC2 instance with port 22 enabled for ssh

Steps

Step 1: Generate Key Pair

KeyThe command below will help you generate a private key

• aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name MyKey --query 'KeyMaterial' --output text > MyKey.pem

Your private .pem file will be located in ~/.aws in Linux and macOS and in Windows in %USERPROFILE%\.aws (c:/users/user_name/.aws)

To verify that the key pair has been created write the following command

• aws ec2 describe-key-pairs

Step 2: Launch a Ec2 Instance

The command below will help you launch EC2 instance

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-04ff9e9b51c1f62ca --count 1 --instance-type t2.micro --key-name MyKey --security-group-ids sg-075bab50c203dd121

Syntax:

{aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-xxxxxxxx --count 1 --instance-type t2.micro --key-name MyKeyPair --security-group-ids sg-xxxxxxxx --subnet-id subnet-xxxxxx}

Here is the description of the flags used in the command

—image-id : Id of the operating system that needs to be launched

—count : Number of instances to be launched

—instance-type : Type of instance based on (processor, memory)

—key-name: Name of key used for authentication

—security-group-ids: Security Group controls as virtual firewall

Make sure the security group has ssh enabled. If not the following command will do so (Optional)

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-075bab50c203dd121 --protocol tcp --port 22 --cidr 0.0.0.0

Click here to learn more about aws security group CLI.

If you donot assign any security group to the instance the default security group will be associated. Make sure it has port 22 open for ssh connection

Step 3: Ssh into your VPS

SSH into your server using the following command to access yout virtual private server (EC2 instance)

Ssh -i ~/.aws/MyKey.pem username@ip

Some additional commands

Describe instances

aws ec2 describe-instances

Creating tags for your instance

aws ec2 create-tags --resources <instance if>--tags Key=Name,Value=MyInstance

Terminating Instance

aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids <instance id>

Deleting Keys

aws ec2 delete-key-pair --key-name <keypairname>

If you have any queries or you find anything concerning please comment below.