Start up an EC2 instance

Here, we’re going to startup an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2) “instance”, or computer.

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Go to ‘https://aws.amazon.com‘ in a Web browser.

Select ‘My Account/Console’ menu option ‘AWS Management Console.”

Log in with the following:

• username: qb2014msu@gmail.com
• password: TemporaryQB2014

Make sure it says North Virginia in the upper right, then select EC2 (upper left).

Select “Launch Instance” (midway down the page).

Next, scroll down the list of operating system types until you find Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (PV) – it should be at the very bottom. Click ‘select’. (See Starting up a custom operating system if you want to start up a custom operating system instead of Ubuntu 14.04.)

Scroll down the list of instance types until you find “m1.xlarge”. Select the box to the left, and then click “Review and Launch.”

Before the launch, we need to name our intances, so we can tell ours from others’. Click on “5.Tag Instance” at the top of that page.

Add an unique value at the “Value” column, e.g. your name. Then click on “6.Configure Security Group”.

Choose “Select an existing security group”, select “for_class” under column “Name” and click “Review and Launch”:

Ignore the warning, double check that it says “Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (PV)” at AMI Details, and cick “Launch”.

Normally you will need to “create a new key pair” the first time through. However, for the purpose of easier management of our shared accout,

Select “Choose an existing key pair” and Select a key pair “QB2014”.

Select “Launch Instance.”

Click on the link of instance you just started.

Then you should see a “pending” line in the menu.

Wait until it turns green, then make a note of the “Public DNS” (we suggest copying and pasting it into a text notepad somewhere). This is your machine name, which you will need for logging in.

Then, go to Logging into your new instance “in the cloud” (Windows version) or Logging into your new instance “in the cloud” (Mac or Linux version)

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