Hands-on Exploration of Amazon EC2

Published on 20 January 2026

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is one of the most important services in AWS. Simply put, Amazon EC2 is a web service that gives you "virtual computers" in the cloud. It lets you run virtual servers in the cloud without buying any physical hardware.

  • Scalability: You can add or remove computer power in minutes.

  • Full Control: You have "root" or administrator access.

  • Pay-as-you-go: You only pay for the time the server is running.

1. Getting Ready: Choosing Your "Machine"

When you start an "instance" (a virtual server), you need to choose three main things:

  1. AMI (Amazon Machine Image): This is your operating system template (like Amazon Linux 2023).

  1. Instance Type: This is the size of the CPU and RAM. For beginners, t3.micro is usually enough.

  1. Network Settings: This decides where your server lives and if it can be accessed from the internet.

Pro Tip: Always turn on Termination Protection. This prevents you from deleting your server by mistake.

2. Automation with User Data

A great feature of EC2 is User Data. You can add a script that runs automatically when the server starts for the first time.

For example, you can install a web server automatically with this code:

With this script, your website is ready as soon as the server is running!

3. Security: Security Groups as Firewalls

Security is very important. AWS uses Security Groups, which act like virtual firewalls. By default, AWS blocks all outside access to keep you safe.

If you are making a web server, you must open Port 80 (HTTP). Without this rule, you cannot see your website in a browser.

4. Monitoring: Checking Server Health

AWS has a Monitoring tab that uses Amazon CloudWatch.

  • Status Checks: Tells you if the hardware and software are working (look for "2/2 checks passed").

  • System Log: Shows you the text output of the server starting up.

  • Instance Screenshot: Shows you what the "screen" of the server looks like. It’s static, not an interactive remote desktop ‘

5. Scaling: Changing the Server Size

As your traffic grows, EC2 offers the flexibility to scale. EC2 is very flexible. You can do Vertical Scaling:

  1. Stop Instance: Turn off the server for a moment.

  2. For Example Change Instance Type: Change it from t3.micro to t3.small (which has 2x more RAM).

  3. Resize Volume: You can also increase your hard drive space (EBS).

  4. Start: Turn it back on to finalize the upgrade of the server.

Conclusion

Amazon EC2 gives you the freedom to build things without worrying about physical servers. From automatic setup and strong security to easy scaling, EC2 is the foundation for anyone learning Cloud Computing. But, remember to terminate (delete) your instance when you are finished to stop the costs.

Based on AWS Training & Certification - Introduction to Amazon EC2.

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