Running an Instance

To launch an instance

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. Click Instances in the Navigation pane.

   The console displays a list of running instances.

3. Click Launch Instance.

   The wizard opens a Create a new instance page.

4. If you are launching a Linux/UNIX instance, locate the Basic 32-bit Amazon Linux AMI and click its Select button. If you are launching a Windows instance, locate a Windows AMI and click its Select button.

   	Note
   	We recommend launching basic AMIs for this tutorial, but you can launch any AMI.

5. Confirm the following settings and click Continue.

   • The Number of Instances is set to 1.

   • The Availability Zone is set to No Preference.

   • The Instance Type is set to Small (m1.small).

   • The button for Launch Instances is selected.

   The second Instance Details page is displayed with advanced instance options.

6. Click Continue to accept the default settings for the advanced options.

   The third Instance Details page displays. Here you can specify tags for the instance (for more information, see Using Tags ).

7. Click Continue to accept the default tag settings.

   The Create Key Pair page is displayed.

8. Select Choose from your existing Key Pairs, and then select a key pair you've created (see Getting an SSH Key Pair).

   The Configure Firewall page is displayed.

9. Select Choose one or more of your existing Security Groups, and select default, because you've already configured the default security group (see Adding Rules to the Default Security Group).

   	Note
   	After an instance is running, you can't change which security groups it belongs to.

10. Click Continue, and then Launch to begin launching your instance.

To launch an instance

• Construct the following Query request.

  https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
  ?Action=RunInstances
  &ImageId=ami-3ac33653
  &MaxCount=1
  &MinCount=1
  &KeyName=gsg-keypair
  &Placement.AvailabilityZone=us-east-1a
  &...auth parameters...
  

  Following is an example response.

  <RunInstancesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2011-12-15/">
    <reservationId>r-47a5402e</reservationId>
    <ownerId>111122223333</ownerId>
    <groupSet>
      <item>
        <groupId>default</groupId>
      </item>
    </groupSet>
    <instancesSet>
      <item>
        <instanceId>i-2ba64342</instanceId>
        <imageId>ami-3ac33653</imageId>
        <instanceState>
          <code>0</code>
          <name>pending</name>
        </instanceState>
        <privateDnsName></privateDnsName>
        <dnsName></dnsName>
        <keyName>gsg-keypair</keyName>
        <amiLaunchIndex>0</amiLaunchIndex>
        <instanceType>m1.small</instanceType>
        <launchTime>2007-08-07T11:51:50.000Z</launchTime>
        <placement>
          <availabilityZone>us-east-1a</availabilityZone>
        </placement>
        <monitoring>
          <enabled>false</enabled>
        </monitoring>
      </item>
    </instancesSet>
  </RunInstancesResponse>

To view the status of a launched instance

• Construct the following Query request.

  https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
  ?Action=DescribeInstances
  &InstanceId=i-2ba64342
  &...auth parameters...
  

  Following is an example response

  <DescribeInstancesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2011-12-15/">
    <reservationId>r-47a5402e</reservationId>
    <ownerId>111122223333</ownerId>
    <groupSet>
      <item>
        <groupId>default</groupId>
      </item>
    </groupSet>
    <instancesSet>
      <item>
        <instanceId>i-2ba64342</instanceId>
        <imageId>ami-3ac33653</imageId>
        <instanceState>
          <code>16</code>
          <name>running</name>
        </instanceState>
        <privateDnsName></privateDnsName>
        <dnsName></dnsName>
        <keyName>gsg-keypair</keyName>
        <amiLaunchIndex>0</amiLaunchIndex>
        <instanceType>m1.small</instanceType>
        <launchTime>2007-08-07T11:51:50.000Z</launchTime>
        <placement>
          <availabilityZone>us-east-1a</availabilityZone>
        </placement>
        <monitoring>
          <enabled>false</enabled>
        </monitoring>
      </item>
    </instancesSet>
  </DescribeInstancesResponse>