Launch Your First Cloud Server on AWS

Launch a Linux server on AWS and serve a live web page to the internet.

Introduction

30 Second Summary

Every website you visit, every app you use, and every online service you rely on runs on a server somewhere. With cloud computing, you can launch your own server in minutes without owning any hardware.

In this project, you will launch a Linux server on AWS, connect to it remotely from your Windows machine, and deploy a live web page that anyone on the internet can access from their browser.

What You'll Build

You will type a public IP address into any browser and see your own custom web page load, served from a Linux machine you launched in an AWS data center thousands of miles away.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

  • A live EC2 instance (cloud server) that you control from your Windows terminal via SSH.
  • A custom web page served by Nginx, accessible to anyone on the internet through a public IP address.
  • A working understanding of security groups that you proved by diagnosing and fixing a blocked connection yourself.
  • Secret Mission: Manage your server's entire lifecycle from the command line using the AWS CLI.

Are there any prerequisites?

None. This project walks you through creating an AWS account, installing all required tools, and setting up everything from scratch. You just need a Windows computer and an internet connection.

Before We Start

Before we dive in, let's lock in what you're about to build and why it matters. You're going to launch a real Linux server in the AWS cloud, connect to it from your Windows machine, and serve a live web page to the internet.

Create Your AWS Account and Install the AWS CLI

DevOps engineers don't manage servers by clicking around a web console all day. They type commands into a terminal that talk directly to cloud infrastructure.

To get there, you need two things: an AWS account (where your cloud resources live) and the AWS CLI installed on your machine (so your terminal can control those resources). In this step, you will set up both.

In this step, get ready to:
  • Create an AWS account and secure it with multi-factor authentication.
  • Create an IAM user with AdministratorAccess for day-to-day use.
  • Install and configure the AWS CLI v2 on your Windows machine.
Create your AWS account

Your AWS account is home base for every cloud resource you will create in this project.

  • Open your browser and navigate to https://aws.amazon.com.
  • Click Create an AWS Account in the top right corner.
  • Enter your email address and choose an AWS account name.
  • Complete the sign-up steps: verify your email, set a root password, enter contact information, and add a payment method for identity verification.

Will I be charged?

New AWS accounts created after July 15, 2025 receive $100 in sign-up credits, plus up to $100 in additional credits. Credits last 6 months or until used up, whichever comes first. Everything in this project stays comfortably within those credits.

  • When prompted to select a support plan, choose Basic support - Free.
  • Once sign-up is complete, sign in to the AWS Management Console with the email and password you just created.

You should see the AWS Console home page with a search bar at the top and a list of services.

Enable MFA on your root account

Your root account has unrestricted access to everything in AWS. Multi-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection so a leaked password alone cannot compromise your account.

  • Click your account name in the top-right corner of the console.
  • Select Security credentials.
  • Scroll down to the Multi-factor authentication (MFA) section.
  • Click Assign MFA device.
  • Choose Authenticator app and follow the prompts to scan the QR code with an authenticator app on your phone (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or similar).
  • Enter two consecutive codes from your authenticator app when prompted, then click Add MFA.

You should see a success banner confirming MFA is now active on your root account.

Don't have an authenticator app?

Download Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator from your phone's app store. Both are free and work with AWS.

If you get stuck, help me set up MFA on my AWS root account.

Create an IAM user for CLI access

The root account is too powerful for everyday use. IAM (Identity and Access Management) lets you create a separate user with only the permissions it needs.

  • In the AWS Console search bar at the top, type IAM and select IAM from the results.
  • In the left sidebar, click Users.
  • Click Create user.
  • For User name, enter devops-admin.
  • Check the box for Provide user access to the AWS Management Console.
  • Select I want to create an IAM user and set a console password.
  • Click Next.
  • On the Set permissions page, select Attach policies directly.
  • In the search box, type AdministratorAccess.
  • Check the box next to the AdministratorAccess policy.
  • Click Next, then click Create user.

You should see a success message confirming the user was created.

Why not just use the root account?

The root account can do absolutely anything, including closing the entire AWS account. If its credentials are ever leaked, the damage is unlimited.

An IAM user with AdministratorAccess can manage services but cannot close the account or change billing. This limits the blast radius if something goes wrong.

Now generate an access key so the CLI can authenticate as this user.

  • Click on your new devops-admin user in the Users list.
  • Select the Security credentials tab.
  • Scroll down to Access keys and click Create access key.
  • For the use case, select Command Line Interface (CLI).
  • Check the confirmation box at the bottom and click Next.
  • Click Create access key.

Copy your credentials now

You will see your Access key ID and Secret access key on this page. This is the only time AWS will show you the secret access key.

Copy both values and paste them somewhere safe (a password manager or a temporary text file). You will need them in the next substep. Do not share these values or commit them to version control.

  • Click Done to close the access key creation page.
Install and configure the AWS CLI

The AWS CLI is a command-line tool that lets you talk to AWS services from your terminal. It turns typed commands into API calls, just like scripts and automation pipelines do in real DevOps work.

  • Press the Windows key to open your search bar.
  • Type Command Prompt and press Enter to open it.
  • Check if the AWS CLI is already installed by running this command:
aws --version

✔️ I see a version starting with 2

Your output looks something like:

aws-cli/2.27.41 Python/3.11.6 Windows/10 exe/AMD64 prompt/off

The AWS CLI v2 is already installed. Skip ahead to the configuration step below.

ⓧ I see version 1.x

You have an older version of the AWS CLI installed. You need version 2 for this project.

  • Download the AWS CLI v2 installer from https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.msi.
  • Double-click the downloaded AWSCLIV2.msi file to run the installer.
  • Follow the installer prompts, accepting the default settings.
  • Close your Command Prompt window completely, then reopen it (the PATH update only takes effect in new windows).
  • Run aws --version again to confirm you now see version 2.x.

ⓧ Command not recognized

The AWS CLI is not installed yet.

  • Download the AWS CLI v2 installer from https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.msi.
  • Double-click the downloaded AWSCLIV2.msi file to run the installer.
  • Follow the installer prompts, accepting the default settings.
  • Close your Command Prompt window completely, then reopen it (the PATH update only takes effect in new windows).
  • Run aws --version again to confirm you now see version 2.x.

Now connect the CLI to your AWS account.

  • Configure the AWS CLI by running this command:
aws configure

What will this command ask?

The aws configure command prompts you for four values, one at a time. Enter each value and press Enter:

  • AWS Access Key ID: paste the access key ID you copied from the IAM console.
  • AWS Secret Access Key: paste the secret access key you copied.
  • Default region name: type us-east-1.
  • Default output format: type json.

Mistyped a value?

Run aws configure again. It overwrites the previous values. You can re-enter all four prompts.

If you lost your secret access key, go back to the IAM console, delete the old key from the Security credentials tab, and create a new one.

If you need more help, help me configure the AWS CLI on Windows.

Before you run the final check, what do you think the output of aws --version will show if everything is configured correctly?

  • Verify your installation by running this command:
aws --version

You should see output like:

aws-cli/2.27.41 Python/3.11.6 Windows/10 exe/AMD64 prompt/off

The exact version numbers may differ, but the key part is aws-cli/2. at the start. This confirms the AWS CLI v2 is installed and available in your terminal.

Your AWS account is live, secured with MFA, and you have a working CLI connection. Next up, you will use this setup to launch your first cloud server.

Launch Your First EC2 Instance

Your AWS account is configured and the CLI is ready. Now it's time to create the thing that DevOps engineers spend most of their time managing: a virtual server in the cloud.

An EC2 instance is a virtual server running in an AWS data center. It is the core building block of cloud infrastructure. Every web app, API, database, and automation pipeline runs on servers like the one you are about to launch.

In this step, get ready to:
  • Launch an EC2 instance with Amazon Linux 2023.
  • Create a key pair for secure SSH access.
  • Configure network security for your server.
Navigate to EC2 and configure your instance

The EC2 console is where you create, monitor, and manage all your virtual servers. You will use the launch instance wizard to fill in the configuration for your server.

  • In the AWS Management Console, click the search bar at the top.
  • Type EC2 and click EC2 in the search results.
  • Click Launch instance (the orange button on the EC2 dashboard).
  • Under Name and tags, enter my-first-server in the Name field.
  • Under Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image), click Quick Start and select Amazon Linux.
  • From the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) dropdown, select the AMI marked Free tier eligible (Amazon Linux 2023).
  • Under Instance type, select t3.micro (marked Free tier eligible).

What is an AMI?

An AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is a template that contains the operating system and software your server starts with. Think of it as a pre-built hard drive image. Amazon Linux 2023 is AWS's own Linux distribution, optimized for cloud workloads.

The instance type (t3.micro) determines the hardware: how many CPUs, how much RAM, and how much network bandwidth your server gets. A t3.micro is small but enough for learning and testing.

Create and save your key pair

A key pair is how you prove your identity when connecting to the server remotely. Without it, you cannot log in via SSH. AWS generates a public key (stored on the server) and a private key (downloaded to your machine). Only the person with the private key can connect.

  • Scroll down to Key pair (login).
  • Click Create new key pair.
  • Enter my-devops-key as the Key pair name.
  • Select RSA as the key pair type.
  • Select .pem as the private key file format.
  • Click Create key pair.

Your browser automatically downloads a file called my-devops-key.pem. This is your private key. You need to move it to a safe location.

  • Open Command Prompt (press the Windows key, type cmd, and press Enter).
  • Create the .ssh folder and move your key file there by running these commands:
mkdir %USERPROFILE%\.ssh
move %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\my-devops-key.pem %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\my-devops-key.pem
  • Confirm the key file is in place by running:
dir %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\my-devops-key.pem

You should see my-devops-key.pem listed in the output with its file size.

Don't see the file?

If you get "The system cannot find the file specified", your browser may have saved the download to a different folder. Check your browser's downloads list to find where my-devops-key.pem was saved, then adjust the move command to point to the correct location.

If mkdir says the directory already exists, that is fine. The folder was already created. Continue with the move command.

Help me find my downloaded .pem key file on Windows

Keep this file safe

The .pem file is the only way to connect to your server. If you lose it, you cannot SSH in. Do not delete it or share it with anyone.

Configure network settings and launch

Network settings control which traffic is allowed to reach your server. The launch wizard creates a security group that acts as a firewall for your instance.

  • Switch back to the browser tab with the EC2 launch wizard.
  • Scroll down to Network settings.
  • Keep the default VPC and subnet selected.
  • Under Firewall (security groups), confirm that Create security group is selected and Allow SSH traffic from is checked with source set to Anywhere (0.0.0.0/0).
  • Leave all other settings as default.

What is a security group?

A security group is a virtual firewall that controls which network traffic can reach your instance. Right now, only SSH traffic on port 22 is allowed in. Everything else is blocked. You will see this firewall in action later when you try to serve a web page.

Before you click launch, what do you expect to happen? Will the server be instantly available, or will it take some time to start?

  • In the Summary panel on the right, review your configuration.
  • Click Launch instance.

A success banner confirms the launch. The instance starts in a Pending state while AWS provisions the hardware.

  • Click the instance ID link in the success banner (it starts with i-) to open your instance details.
  • Wait 30-60 seconds, then refresh the page.
  • Confirm the Instance state column shows Running with a green circle.
  • In the Details tab below, find the Public IPv4 address field and note the IP address. You will use it in the next step to connect.

Instance not showing Running?

If the state still shows Pending after a minute, click the refresh icon (circular arrow) at the top of the instances table. It can take up to two minutes for the instance to fully start.

If the state shows Terminated instead of Running, you may have selected an instance type that is not available in your region. Go back and launch a new instance, making sure to select t3.micro.

Help me troubleshoot my EC2 instance not starting

Your server is alive in the cloud. Next up, you will connect to it directly from your Windows terminal using SSH and run commands on a Linux machine thousands of miles away.

Connect to Your Server via SSH

Your EC2 instance is running in an AWS data center. You can see it in the console with a green check and a public IP address. But right now you can only look at it.

SSH lets you open a terminal session directly into that remote machine. In this step, you will connect from your Windows terminal and prove you are controlling a Linux server running thousands of miles away.

In this step, get ready to:
  • Connect to your EC2 instance from your Windows terminal using SSH.
  • Verify your identity and operating system on the remote server.
Connect to your instance with SSH

SSH is how DevOps engineers access remote servers. You are about to type a command on your local Windows machine and land inside a Linux server in an AWS data center. This is the daily workflow.

  • Press the Windows key to open your search bar.
  • Type Command Prompt and press Enter to open it.
  • Navigate to the folder where your key file is saved by running this command:
cd %USERPROFILE%\.ssh

What does this command do?

%USERPROFILE% is a Windows shortcut that expands to your user folder (e.g. C:\Users\YourName). The .ssh subfolder is where you saved your key pair file in the previous step.

Before you run the SSH command, know that it will ask you a question the first time you connect. SSH will display a fingerprint and ask if you want to continue connecting. This is a one-time security check.

  • When you see the prompt asking about the host fingerprint, type yes and press Enter.

Before you run the next command, what do you think will happen? Can your local Windows terminal really connect to a Linux machine running in a data center far away?

  • Connect to your EC2 instance by running this command:
ssh -i my-devops-key.pem ec2-user@[[EC2_PUBLIC_IP="your EC2 public IPv4 address"]]

What does this command do?

  • ssh starts a secure shell connection to a remote server.
  • -i my-devops-key.pem tells SSH to use your private key file for authentication instead of a password.
  • ec2-user is the default username on Amazon Linux instances.
  • The IP address after @ is your instance's public address, which you can find in the EC2 console under your instance details.

✔️ I see the Amazon Linux prompt

You should see a prompt that looks like this:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-xx-xx ~]$

You are now inside your cloud server. The numbers after ip- are the instance's private IP address. Move on to the next substep to confirm your identity.

ⓧ I see a permissions error

If you see a warning containing the words "permissions are too open" and "This private key will be ignored", your key file's permissions need to be restricted. On Windows, the fix is to remove all other users from the file's access list.

  • Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Users\YourName\.ssh.
  • Right-click the my-devops-key.pem file and select Properties.
  • Click the Security tab.
  • Click Advanced.
  • Click Disable inheritance.
  • Select Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object.
  • Remove all permission entries except your own Windows user account.
  • Select your user account and click Edit. Make sure Full control is checked.
  • Click OK on each dialog to save your changes.

Now return to your Command Prompt and retry the SSH command:

ssh -i my-devops-key.pem ec2-user@[[EC2_PUBLIC_IP="your EC2 public IPv4 address"]]

This time you should see the Amazon Linux prompt. Move on to the next substep.

Still can't connect?

  • Make sure you are in the correct folder. Run dir and confirm you see my-devops-key.pem in the output.
  • Double-check the IP address. Go back to the EC2 console, select your instance, and copy the Public IPv4 address value.
  • Confirm your security group allows SSH. In the EC2 console, click your instance, open the Security tab, and verify there is an inbound rule for port 22.

Help me troubleshoot my SSH connection to EC2

Confirm you are inside a cloud server

You have a blinking cursor on a Linux machine in the cloud. Let's prove it.

What do you think you will see when you ask this server who you are?

  • Check your username by running:
whoami

You should see ec2-user printed in the terminal. This is the default user account on Amazon Linux instances.

  • Check your operating system by running:
cat /etc/os-release

You should see output that includes Amazon Linux 2023 in the name field. This confirms you are inside a cloud server running Amazon Linux 2023.

What is SSH?

SSH (Secure Shell) is an encrypted protocol that lets you control a remote computer over a network. Your terminal sends commands to the server, and the server sends output back. Everything is encrypted so nobody between you and the server can read the traffic.

The key pair you created acts as your identity. The private key stays on your machine. AWS placed the matching public key on the instance when you launched it. When they match, SSH lets you in without a password.

You just controlled a Linux server running in an AWS data center from your Windows terminal. Next up, you will install a web server and deploy a live web page to the internet.

Deploy a Live Web Page

You're connected to your cloud server and running commands directly on it. That's a huge milestone.

But a server with nothing running on it is useless. In this step, you'll install a production web server, create a custom page, and try to access it from your browser. You'll hit a real-world security wall along the way and learn to fix it.

In this step, get ready to:
  • Install and start the Nginx web server on your EC2 instance.
  • Create a custom HTML page and deploy it to the server.
  • Debug and fix a security group issue blocking web traffic.
Install and start Nginx

Nginx is a high-performance web server used by millions of websites. It listens for incoming web requests and serves files back to browsers.

  • In your SSH session on the EC2 instance, install Nginx by running this command:
sudo dnf install nginx -y

What does this command do?

sudo runs the command with administrator privileges. dnf is the package manager on Amazon Linux 2023. The -y flag automatically confirms the installation.

You'll see output showing packages being downloaded and installed. Once it finishes with Complete!, Nginx is installed but not yet running.

  • Start Nginx and set it to launch automatically on boot by running these commands:
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

Why two commands?

start turns Nginx on right now. enable tells the system to start Nginx automatically every time the server reboots. Without enable, you'd have to manually start it again after every restart.

  • Confirm Nginx is running by checking its status:
sudo systemctl status nginx

You should see active (running) in green text. This confirms your web server is alive and listening for requests.

Seeing "inactive" or an error?

Run sudo systemctl start nginx again and check for error messages. If you see a port conflict, another service may be using port 80.

help me debug why Nginx won't start on my EC2 instance

Create your custom web page

Nginx serves files from /usr/share/nginx/html/ by default. There's already a placeholder page there, but you'll replace it with your own.

  • Open the default page in the nano text editor by running:
sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html
  • You'll see existing HTML content from the default Nginx page. Delete all of it by pressing Ctrl+K repeatedly until the file is completely empty.
  • Paste the following content into the empty file. This is the <head> section containing the page title and styles:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>My First Cloud Server</title>
    <style>
        body {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            max-width: 800px;
            margin: 50px auto;
            padding: 20px;
            background-color: #f0f4f8;
            color: #1a202c;
        }
        h1 {
            color: #2b6cb0;
        }
        .info {
            background: white;
            padding: 20px;
            border-radius: 8px;
            box-shadow: 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
            margin-top: 20px;
        }
    </style>
</head>

What does this section do?

  • The <style> block sets the page's visual design: a clean font, centered layout, and a light blue background.
  • The .info class creates a white card with rounded corners and a subtle shadow.
  • Paste the following directly after the </head> line. This is the <body> section with the visible page content:
<body>
    <h1>Hello from AWS</h1>
    <p>This page is being served from an EC2 instance that I launched and configured myself.</p>
    <div class="info">
        <h2>What I learned:</h2>
        <ul>
            <li>How to launch an EC2 instance</li>
            <li>How to connect via SSH</li>
            <li>How to install and configure Nginx</li>
            <li>How security groups control network access</li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

What does this section do?

  • The <h1> tag displays your main heading: "Hello from AWS".
  • The .info div creates a styled card listing the skills you've learned in this project.
  • Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then press Enter to confirm the filename.
  • Exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.

✔️ Awesome, I've got everything!

Great. Make sure you saw the "Wrote X lines" confirmation when you saved.

ⓧ I'd like to double check the full code

Scroll up and confirm your file contains both chunks in order:

  • The <head> section (starting with <!DOCTYPE html> through </head>).
  • The <body> section (starting with <body> through </html>).

If you need to re-edit, run sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html again.

Try to access your web page

Your web server is running and your page is ready. Time to see it in a browser.

Before you try, think about this: what do you expect to happen when you navigate to your server's public IP address?

  • On your Windows machine, open any browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox).
  • In the address bar, type the following URL and press Enter:
http://[[PUBLIC_IP="your EC2 public IPv4 address"]]

The page does not load. Your browser spins and eventually times out.

This is intentional. This is the cloud security model in action.

Why won't the page load?

Your security group acts as a firewall around your EC2 instance. Right now, it only allows SSH traffic on port 22.

HTTP traffic (web pages) uses port 80. Since port 80 is not in the security group's inbound rules, the traffic is silently dropped. Your browser never gets a response.

Open the security group for web traffic

You've identified the problem: the security group blocks port 80. Now you'll add a rule to let HTTP traffic through.

  • Switch back to the AWS Management Console in your browser.
  • Navigate to the EC2 console and click on Instances in the left sidebar.
  • Click on your my-first-server instance to open its details.
  • Click the Security tab in the lower panel.
  • Click the security group link (it starts with sg-).

This opens the security group's detail page where you can manage its rules.

  • Click Edit inbound rules.
  • Click Add rule.
  • For Type, select HTTP from the dropdown.
  • For Source, select Anywhere-IPv4 (0.0.0.0/0).
  • Click Save rules.

What does this rule do?

You just told AWS: allow anyone on the internet to send HTTP requests (port 80) to your server. Combined with the existing SSH rule, your server now accepts two types of traffic: remote terminal access and web requests.

Now, what do you think will happen when you refresh that browser tab?

  • Return to the browser tab where you typed your server's IP address.
  • Refresh the page.

Your custom web page loads with the heading "Hello from AWS". Anyone on the internet can now visit this page by typing your server's public IP address into their browser.

Page still not loading?

  • Make sure you're using http:// and not https:// in the URL. Your server only supports HTTP right now.
  • Confirm the inbound rule shows HTTP on port 80 with source 0.0.0.0/0 in the security group.
  • Check that Nginx is still running by going back to your SSH session and running sudo systemctl status nginx.

help me troubleshoot why my web page isn't loading after updating the security group

Secret mission

Manage Your Server from the CLI

You've been using the AWS Console to manage your server. DevOps engineers control their infrastructure entirely from the command line. Can you manage your EC2 instance lifecycle using only AWS CLI commands?

Clean Up Your Resources

Clean Up Your Resources

This project uses AWS Free Tier credits, so a single running t3.micro instance will not cost you real money for several months. Decide whether to keep your resources running, pause them to come back later, or delete them entirely.

Resources you used:

  • 1x EC2 t3.micro instance (covered by free tier credits).
  • 1x Key pair stored in EC2 (no cost).
  • 1x Security group HTTP inbound rule (no cost).
  • 1x IAM user with access key (no cost).
  • AWS CLI v2 installed on your Windows machine.
  • Local .pem key file on your computer.

Cost warning

Your AWS account received $100 in free tier credits at sign-up. A single t3.micro instance can run for months within these credits.

However, if you leave resources running and forget about them, you may eventually exhaust your credits. If you are done with this project, choose Pause or Delete below.

Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you are still actively building or plan to continue experimenting with your server soon.

  • Your EC2 instance continues running and consuming free tier credits.
  • You can reconnect via SSH at any time using the same public IP (unless you stopped and restarted it, in which case the IP may have changed).
  • The AWS CLI remains installed and configured on your Windows machine.

Pause - I'll come back to this later

Stop the instance to halt compute credit usage. Your key pair, security group, and CLI configuration stay intact so you can resume quickly.

  • If you already terminated the instance during the Secret Mission, skip this step. A terminated instance is already fully stopped.
  • Otherwise, stop your instance by running this command in Command Prompt:
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids [[INSTANCE_ID="your instance ID"]]
  • A stopped instance does not consume compute credits. EBS storage continues at a negligible rate against your credits.
  • When you are ready to come back, start it again by running:
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids [[INSTANCE_ID="your instance ID"]]
  • The public IP address may change after a restart. Check the new IP in the EC2 console or by running aws ec2 describe-instances.

Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove all project resources to bring your account to zero ongoing usage. Follow each section below.

Terminate the EC2 instance
  • If you already terminated your instance during the Secret Mission, skip to the next section.
  • Otherwise, terminate the instance by running:
aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids [[INSTANCE_ID="your instance ID"]]
Delete the key pair from EC2
  • Delete the key pair from AWS by running:
aws ec2 delete-key-pair --key-name my-devops-key
  • Delete the local .pem file from your computer by running:
del C:\Users\YourName\.ssh\my-devops-key.pem
Remove the HTTP inbound rule from the security group
  • Open the EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
  • In the navigation pane, choose Security Groups.
  • Select the default security group you used for this project.
  • Choose the Inbound rules tab, then click Edit inbound rules.
  • Find the HTTP rule (port 80, source 0.0.0.0/0) and click its Delete button.
  • Click Save rules.
Delete the IAM user's access key
  • Open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.
  • In the navigation pane, choose Users.
  • Select the IAM user you created for this project.
  • Choose the Security credentials tab.
  • In the Access keys section, choose Actions, then Delete.
  • Follow the prompts to deactivate and confirm the deletion.
Uninstall the AWS CLI (optional)
  • Open Programs and Features from the Control Panel (or run appwiz.cpl in Command Prompt).
  • Select AWS Command Line Interface and choose Uninstall.
  • Confirm the uninstall.
  • Optionally, remove the .aws configuration folder by running:
rmdir /s /q %UserProfile%\.aws

What does removing the .aws folder do?

The .aws folder stores your CLI credentials and configuration. Deleting it removes all saved AWS credentials from your machine. Only do this if you have no other AWS projects using the CLI.

That's a Wrap!

That's a Wrap!

Nice work! You just launched a Linux server in the AWS cloud, connected to it remotely via SSH, and served a live web page to the internet.

You've learned how to:

  • Launched an EC2 instance and connected to it via SSH from your Windows terminal, proving you can provision and access cloud infrastructure remotely.
  • Installed Nginx and deployed a custom web page accessible from any browser on the internet using your server's public IP address.
  • Diagnosed and fixed a security group issue blocking HTTP traffic on port 80, experiencing real-world cloud debugging firsthand.
  • Secret Mission: Managed your entire instance lifecycle (describe, stop, start, terminate) using AWS CLI commands from your local terminal.

Ready to quiz yourself?