Welcome guys this is my first tutorial, I wanted to share my knowledge on using Amazon Web Services. AWS is one of the cloud services provider in the world, it can host windows, linux, it allows you to create your virtual servers based on your requirements. To start off, I'll share my knowledge on Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing (Amazon EC2), basically it s a  service that allows users to compute in the cloud.

You're probalby wondering how can you set up virtual servers? Read on the following steps:

a. Login to Amazon Web Services console : www.aws.amazon.com (If you do not have account yet sign up, Windows Servers and Linux Servers are not free, they have this free tier which uses only small instance of EC2 Amazon Instance running on a linux operating system 750 hours free)

b.     Upon logging in, you’ll see different tabs, click on EC2 tab

c.     On your right side you’ll see the navigation area please look for security groups. If your account is new you’ll see a default security group provided by Amazon.  

e.     Create new Keypair, is a security credential similar to a password which you use to securely connect  to your instance. Basically before you launch any instance you need to create a Key pair.; Click on Create new Key, enter your desired key pair name and then click create.

 

f.      Change the selected region on the navigation menu on your left side, make sure  (Asia Singapore) is selected.

 

g.     Now you can launch your instance, click on instances on the navigation menu. Click on Launch Instance.

 

h.     You’ll see a pop wizard, first would prompt you to choose an AMI, Amazon Machine Image (AMI) contains all the information needed to create a new instance of a server. For example, an AMI might contain all the software to act as a web server (e.g., Linux, Apache, and your web site), or all the software to act as a Windows database server (e.g., Windows and SQL Server). For simplicity sake  choose  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Base (Microsoft  Windows 2008 R1 SP2 Datacenter edition and 32-bit architecture and click select on the right side

 

i.      Next window you need to configure instance details, number of instances, Availability Zone, and Instance Type.

 

·          Make sure that Availability Zone must be same with the Region you selected on step number 6 (Asia Singapore)

·          Make sure you select correct instance type, amazon offers different types of instances (Micro ,Small, High, Extra Large). 

·          Price of each instance type are different, if you choose High or Extra Large instance type its more expensive compared to small and micro instances. You need to know first requirements of your server before choosing instance type.

 

j.      Next would be Advance Instance Options, basically you don’t need to change anything on this page. Click on continue.

 

k.     You need to assign Name of your instance, this is a metatag made  for user-friendly identification of your instance.

 

l.      Create a new Key pair if you don’t have one, but on our case we already have one so you just need to select from our existing Key Pairs and click continue

 

m.    Create a new Security Group if you don’t have one, but on our case we already have sets of security group so you just need to know what to use and click continue button

 

Security group defines firewall rules for your instances. These rules specify which incoming network traffic should be delivered to your instance (example accept web traffic on port 80). All other traffic is ignored. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT when launching server, do not forget to configure this correctly.

 

n.     Review the information of your instance, double check everything make sure you’ve configured it correctly. Click on Launch button.

 

o.     After launching your newly created instance you need to wait for 15 minutes to retrieve the windows password from AWS console

 

p.     Click Instances on the navigation menu on your left side, make sure region selected is Asia Singapore. You’ll see all your instances, right click on the newly created instance and then click Get Windows Password.

 

q.     You need to copy and paste the content of your  keypair  file (which you downloaded after creating your keypair) on the field provided on this page, click on decrypt

 

r.      Wait for couple of minutes, AWS will decrypt your password.

 

s.     Copy and paste default Username and Password on a txt file. You’ll need this on your  first login to your instance.

 

20. Right click again on your instance, click on connect. A window will pop up showing instructions on how to connect to your instance. You’ll use Remote Desktop Connection on your initial login:

• Copy and paste the public DNS of your instance on your text file
• Or you can click on the link Download shortcut file, this will download a remote desktop shortcut to your desktop.

 

21. Connect to your instance:

• Go to start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection

• You’ll see a computer field, paste the public DNS there
• Click connect,
• Another window will pop up, it will ask you to input Password and Username. Use the password and username that you pasted on the text file.

 

• If you downloaded the shortcut file:

• Open the shortcut file
• You’ll see a computer field, paste the public DNS there
• Click connect,
• Another window will pop up, it will ask you to input Password and Username. Use the password and username that you pasted on the text file

v.      Congratulations you’ve successfully launch a new instance!