Launching Your First EC2 Instance

Time to launch your first EC2 instance. The key choices: an Amazon Machine Image (the OS) and an instance type (the hardware specs).

An AMI is the blueprint for your instance — a pre-configured template bundling an OS and often software, like a snapshot of a ready-to-go server.

First step at launch: pick an AMI. Options include AWS Marketplace, community (use caution), or your own. Amazon Linux 2 or Ubuntu are great starters.

An instance type sets the hardware — vCPUs, RAM, network, and storage. AWS groups them into families (T, M, C, R) tuned for different workloads.

For learning, the T-family is cheap and flexible — t2.micro is free-tier eligible. Reach for M, C, or R types as workloads grow. Start small.

A key pair secures SSH access: AWS keeps the public key on your instance, you download the private key. Guard that private file — it's your only way in.

Every instance runs inside a VPC, an isolated AWS network split into subnets. At launch, the default VPC and a public subnet are fine to start.

EBS volumes are your instance's persistent virtual hard drive. Choose size and type (gp2, gp3); they survive independently of the instance's lifecycle.

Security groups are virtual firewalls controlling inbound and outbound traffic. Only explicitly allowed traffic gets through — for a first instance, open SSH from your IP.

Final step: review your AMI, instance type, key pair, network, storage, and security groups, then hit Launch. The instance moves from pending to running.

You've learned about key components when launching an EC2 instance.

Recap: launching an EC2 instance means choosing an AMI and instance type, setting up a key pair, and configuring networking, storage, and security groups.