How to Launch an AWS Instance

AWS (Amazon Web Services) Instances can be a free Amazon tool to use to expand memory for heavier data analyses that your computer may not be able to handle from its built in memory.

Before you launch an AWS instance, there are two things you should do:

1. Create a new key pair:

• Create a new key pair in Bash using command ssh-keygen
• Import a key pair by providing a name to the key pair in AWS and pasting the key pair from bash (cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)

2. Create a new security group:

• Provide a name to the Security group
• Add necessary ports (SSH - 22, HTTP - 80, Jupyter - 8888, Docker - 2376)
• You can view/confirm rules by reviewing Inbound rules on the home screen of the AWS instance

Now you are ready to launch your Instance:

• Choose Ubuntu server 16.04 LTS (5th option)
• Add storage of 30MB (change this from the default of 8)
• Configure your security group by choosing the existing security group that you created above
• Skip configure
• Skip add tags
• Click launch

To use your AWS instance, view Instances and grab the public IP address from below to connect in Bash using the command ssh ubuntu@[insert public IP address] and enter. You should now be connected to your AWS instance.