Logging into your new instance “in the cloud” (Windows version)¶

Download .pem file¶

First we need a private key file to log in; it is the .pem file we already created during the setup of amazon instance. For convience of managing the shared account, we want you all to use the same .pem file, which can be downloaded from:

http://lyorn.idyll.org/~gjr/public/QB2014/QB2014.pem

If your browser is firefox with default settings, it should be downloaded into your “Downloads” folder. Move it onto “Desktop”.

If your browser is chrome with default settings, the above link will be shown as a page with text. right click and select “Save As”. In the pop up window, change the directory to “Desktop” and the file name is still “QB2014.pem”

Other browsers should be similar to either of the above two case.

Download Putty and Puttygen from here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Generate a ppk file from your pem file¶

(You only need to do this once!)

Open puttygen; select “Load”.

Find and load your ‘.pem’ file; it’s probably in your Downloads folder. Note, you have to select ‘All files’ on the bottom.

Load it.

Now, “save private key”. Put it somewhere easy to find.

Logging into your EC2 instance with Putty¶

Open up putty, and enter your hostname into the Host Name box.

Now, go find the ‘SSH’ section and enter your ppk file (generated above by puttygen). Then select ‘Open’.

Declare victory!

Here, you’re logging in as user ‘ubuntu’ to the machine ‘ec2-174-129-122-189.compute-1.amazonaws.com’ using the authentication key located in ‘amazon.pem’ on your Desktop.

You should now see a text line that starts with something like ubuntu@ip-10-235-34-223:~$. You’re in! Now type:

sudo bash
cd /root

to switch into superuser mode (see: http://xkcd.com/149/) and go to your home directory.

This is where the rest of the tutorials will start!

You might also want to read about Terminating (shutting down) your EC2 instance.

To log out, type:

exit
logout

or just close the window.