Welcome

Topics

This is the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Developer Guide. This section describes who should read this guide, how the guide is organized, and other resources related to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud will occasionally be referred to within this guide as simply "Amazon EC2"; all copyrights and legal protections still apply.

This guide picks up where the Getting Started Guide ends and provides you with the information to create more sophisticated Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), using advanced service features.

Use of this guide assumes you are familiar with the following:

You should also have worked through the Amazon EC2 Getting Started Guide, installed the command line and API tools, and have a general understanding of the service.

This guide is organized into several major sections described in the following table.

Information Relevant Sections

Describes how to create a customized software package (operating system and applications) that you can run on Amazon EC2

Creating and Preparing AMIs

Describes Amazon EC2 instances and provides tips for using them effectively

Launching and Using Instances

Describes instance network addressing, explains the distributed firewall, and provides usage examples

Instance Addressing and Network Security

Explains the basics of using the SOAP and Query APIs, including signing requests

Using the APIs

Provides a comprehensive reference to the SOAP and Query APIs

API Reference

Provides a comprehensive reference to the Amazon EC2 command line tools

Command Line Tools Reference

Provides answers to commonly asked questions

Technical FAQ

Describes Amazon EC2 terms

Glossary

Typographic and symbol conventions

Document Conventions

Each section is written to stand on its own, so you should be able to look up the information you need and go back to work. However, you can also read through the major sections sequentially to get in-depth knowledge about Amazon EC2.

The following table lists related resources that you'll find useful as you work with this service.

Resource Description
Amazon EC2 Getting Started Guide The Getting Started Guide provides a quick tutorial of the service based on a simple use case. Examples and instructions are included.
Amazon EC2 Release Notes The Release Notes give a high-level overview of the current release. They specifically note any new features, corrections, and known issues.
AWS Developer Resource Center A central starting point to find documentation, code samples, release notes, and other information to help you build innovative applications with AWS.
Amazon EC2 product information The primary web page for information about Amazon EC2.

AWS Support Center

The home page for AWS Technical Support, including access to our Developer Forums, Technical FAQs, Service Status page, and (if you are subscribed to this program) AWS Premium Support.

AWS Premium Support Information

The primary web page for information about AWS Premium Support, a one-on-one, fast-response support channel to help you build and run applications on AWS Infrastructure Services.

E-mail address for questions related to your AWS account: webservices@amazon.com This e-mail address is only for account questions. For technical questions, use the AWS Support Center.

Conditions of Use

Detailed information about the copyright and trademark usage at Amazon.com.