Table Of ContentAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud
User Guide for Microsoft Windows
API Version 2014-06-15
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud: User Guide for Microsoft Windows
Copyright © 2014 Amazon Web Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
The following are trademarks of Amazon Web Services, Inc.: Amazon, Amazon Web Services Design, AWS, Amazon CloudFront,
Cloudfront, CloudTrail, Amazon DevPay, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Glacier,
Kinesis, Kindle, Kindle Fire, AWS Marketplace Design, Mechanical Turk, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Route 53, Amazon S3, Amazon
VPC. In addition, Amazon.com graphics, logos, page headers, button icons, scripts, and service names are trademarks, or trade dress
of Amazon in the U.S. and/or other countries. Amazon's trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product
or service that is not Amazon's, in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, or in any manner that disparages
or discredits Amazon.
All other trademarks not owned by Amazon are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected
to, or sponsored by Amazon.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Table of Contents
What Is Amazon EC2?................................................................................................................... 1
Features of Amazon EC2........................................................................................................ 1
How to Get Started with Amazon EC2....................................................................................... 2
Related Services................................................................................................................... 3
Accessing Amazon EC2 ......................................................................................................... 3
Pricing for Amazon EC2 ......................................................................................................... 4
Basic Infrastructure................................................................................................................ 5
Amazon Machine Images and Instances............................................................................ 5
Regions and Availability Zones ........................................................................................ 6
Storage ....................................................................................................................... 6
Root Device Volume....................................................................................................... 8
Networking and Security ............................................................................................... 10
AWS Identity and Access Management........................................................................... 10
Differences between Windows Server and an Amazon EC2 Windows Instance....................... 11
Designing Your Applications to Run on Amazon EC2 Windows Instances............................... 12
Setting Up .................................................................................................................................. 14
Sign Up for AWS ................................................................................................................. 14
Create an IAM User ............................................................................................................. 15
Create a Key Pair ................................................................................................................ 16
Create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)....................................................................................... 17
Create a Security Group ....................................................................................................... 17
Getting Started: Launch and Connect.............................................................................................. 20
Overview............................................................................................................................ 20
Launch a Windows Instance.................................................................................................. 21
Connect to Your Windows Instance......................................................................................... 23
Create a CloudWatch Alarm to Monitor Your Instance................................................................. 24
Clean Up............................................................................................................................ 26
Best Practices............................................................................................................................. 28
Tutorial: Deploy a WordPress Blog.................................................................................................. 30
Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................... 30
Installing the Microsoft Web Platform Installer........................................................................... 31
Installing WordPress ............................................................................................................ 31
Configure Security Keys........................................................................................................ 32
Administrative Information ..................................................................................................... 33
Making Your WordPress Site Public......................................................................................... 33
Tutorial: Set Up a Windows HPC Cluster.......................................................................................... 35
Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................... 35
Task 1: Set Up Your Active Directory Domain Controller.............................................................. 35
Creating Security Groups for Active Directory................................................................... 36
Creating the Domain Controller for your HPC cluster.......................................................... 36
Configuring the Domain Controller for Your HPC Cluster..................................................... 37
Task 2: Configure Your Head Node.......................................................................................... 37
Creating Security Groups for Your HPC Cluster................................................................. 37
Launch an Instance for the HPC Head Node.................................................................... 38
Install the HPC Pack .................................................................................................... 38
Configure Your HPC Cluster on the Head Node................................................................. 39
Task 3: Set Up the Compute Node.......................................................................................... 39
Launch an Instance for the HPC Compute Node............................................................... 39
Install the HPC Pack on the Compute Node...................................................................... 40
Add the Compute Node to Your HPC Cluster.................................................................... 40
Task 4: Scale Your HPC Compute Nodes (Optional)................................................................... 41
Running the Lizard Performance Measurement Application......................................................... 42
Create_AD_security.bat ........................................................................................................ 42
Create-HPC-sec-group.bat .................................................................................................... 43
Amazon Machine Images.............................................................................................................. 45
API Version 2014-06-15
iii
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Using an AMI...................................................................................................................... 45
Creating Your Own AMI......................................................................................................... 46
Buying, Sharing, and Selling AMIs.......................................................................................... 46
Deregistering Your AMI ......................................................................................................... 46
AWS Windows AMIs............................................................................................................. 46
Update Schedule......................................................................................................... 47
Configuration Settings .................................................................................................. 47
Xen Drivers ................................................................................................................ 47
Keeping Your Instances Up-to-Date................................................................................. 48
Upgrading from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2012........................................... 48
AMI Types .......................................................................................................................... 48
Launch Permissions..................................................................................................... 48
Storage for the Root Device........................................................................................... 49
Finding an AMI.................................................................................................................... 51
Finding a Windows AMI Using the Amazon EC2 Console................................................... 52
Finding an AMI Using the Command Line........................................................................ 52
Shared AMIs....................................................................................................................... 53
Finding Shared AMIs.................................................................................................... 53
Making an AMI Public................................................................................................... 55
Sharing an AMI with Specific AWS Accounts.................................................................... 57
Using Bookmarks ........................................................................................................ 58
Paid AMIs........................................................................................................................... 59
Selling Your AMI .......................................................................................................... 59
Finding a Paid AMI....................................................................................................... 59
Purchase a Paid AMI.................................................................................................... 60
Getting the Product Code for Your Instance...................................................................... 61
Using Paid Support...................................................................................................... 61
Bills for Paid and Supported AMIs................................................................................... 62
Managing Your AWS Marketplace Subscriptions................................................................ 62
Creating an Amazon EBS-Backed Windows AMI....................................................................... 62
Creating an AMI from an Instance................................................................................... 63
Creating an Instance Store-Backed Windows AMI..................................................................... 64
Instance Store-Backed Windows AMIs............................................................................. 65
Preparing to Create an Instance Store-Backed Windows AMI.............................................. 65
Bundling an Instance Store-Backed Windows Instance....................................................... 66
Registering an Instance Store-Backed Windows AMI......................................................... 67
Copying an AMI................................................................................................................... 68
AMI Copy ................................................................................................................... 68
Copying an Amazon EC2 AMI........................................................................................ 69
Copying an Amazon EC2 AMI with Encrypted Volumes...................................................... 70
Stopping a Pending AMI Copy Operation......................................................................... 72
Deregistering Your AMI ......................................................................................................... 72
Cleaning Up Your Amazon EBS-Backed AMI.................................................................... 72
Cleaning Up Your Instance Store-Backed AMI................................................................... 73
Instances ................................................................................................................................... 75
Instance Types .................................................................................................................... 75
Available Instance Types............................................................................................... 76
Hardware Specifications ............................................................................................... 77
T2 Instances............................................................................................................... 77
I2 Instances................................................................................................................ 80
HI1 Instances.............................................................................................................. 82
HS1 Instances ............................................................................................................ 83
R3 Instances .............................................................................................................. 84
GPU Instances............................................................................................................ 85
T1 Micro Instances ...................................................................................................... 87
EBS-Optimized Instances ............................................................................................. 94
Placement Groups ....................................................................................................... 95
Resizing Instances....................................................................................................... 97
API Version 2014-06-15
iv
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Instance Metadata and User Data......................................................................................... 101
Retrieving Instance Metadata....................................................................................... 101
Retrieving User Data .................................................................................................. 103
Retrieving Dynamic Data............................................................................................. 104
Instance Metadata Categories...................................................................................... 104
Importing and Exporting Instances........................................................................................ 108
Prerequisites............................................................................................................. 109
Importing a VM into Amazon EC2................................................................................. 112
Exporting Amazon EC2 Instances................................................................................. 121
Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................... 122
Instance Lifecycle ...................................................................................................................... 127
Instance Launch ................................................................................................................ 127
Instance Stop and Start (Amazon EBS-backed instances only).................................................. 128
Instance Reboot ................................................................................................................ 128
Instance Retirement ........................................................................................................... 128
Instance Termination .......................................................................................................... 129
Differences Between Reboot, Stop, and Terminate................................................................... 129
Launch............................................................................................................................. 130
Launching an Instance................................................................................................ 131
Launching an Instance From an Existing Instance............................................................ 136
Launching an Instance from a Backup........................................................................... 137
Launching an AWS Marketplace Instance....................................................................... 137
Connect ........................................................................................................................... 139
Prerequisites............................................................................................................. 139
Connecting to Windows............................................................................................... 139
Transfer Files to Windows Server Instances from Windows................................................ 141
Stop and Start................................................................................................................... 141
Overview .................................................................................................................. 142
Stopping and Starting Your Instances ............................................................................ 142
Modifying a Stopped Instance ...................................................................................... 143
Reboot............................................................................................................................. 144
Retire............................................................................................................................... 145
Identifying Instances Scheduled for Retirement............................................................... 145
Working with Instances Scheduled for Retirement............................................................ 146
Terminate ......................................................................................................................... 147
Instance Termination .................................................................................................. 147
Terminating an Instance.............................................................................................. 148
Enabling Termination Protection.................................................................................... 148
Changing the Shutdown Behavior................................................................................. 149
Preserving Amazon EBS Volumes on Instance Termination............................................... 150
Configure Instances ................................................................................................................... 153
Using EC2Config ............................................................................................................... 153
Overview of EC2Config Tasks ...................................................................................... 154
Ec2 Service Properties ............................................................................................... 155
EC2Config Settings Files............................................................................................. 160
Sending Logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.................................................................... 163
Installing the Latest Version of EC2Config...................................................................... 167
Stopping, Deleting, or Uninstalling EC2Config................................................................. 168
Upgrading PV Drivers ......................................................................................................... 169
Xen Drivers............................................................................................................... 169
Upgrading PV Drivers on Your Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Instances....................... 171
Upgrading Your Citrix Xen Guest Agent Service............................................................... 173
Upgrading PV Drivers on Your Windows Server 2003 Instance........................................... 174
Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................... 175
Setting the Password.......................................................................................................... 178
Changing the Administrator Password After Connecting.................................................... 179
Resetting an Administrator Password that's Lost or Expired............................................... 179
Configuring a Secondary Private IP Address........................................................................... 183
API Version 2014-06-15
v
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Prerequisites............................................................................................................. 183
Step 1: Configure Static IP Addressing on Your Windows Instance ..................................... 183
Step 2: Configure a Secondary Private IP Address for Your Windows Instance ..................... 185
Step 3: Configure Applications to Use the Secondary Private IP Address............................. 186
Setting the Time................................................................................................................. 187
Changing the Time Zone............................................................................................. 187
Configuring Network Time Protocol (NTP)...................................................................... 188
Configuring Time Settings for Windows Server 2008 and later............................................ 188
Configuring Time Settings for Windows Server 2003........................................................ 189
Monitoring ................................................................................................................................ 190
Automated and Manual Monitoring........................................................................................ 191
Automated Monitoring Tools......................................................................................... 191
Manual Monitoring Tools.............................................................................................. 192
Best Practices for Monitoring................................................................................................ 193
Monitoring the Status of Your Instances.................................................................................. 193
Monitoring Instances with Status Checks ....................................................................... 193
Monitoring Events for Your Instances............................................................................. 198
Monitoring Your Instances with CloudWatch............................................................................ 201
Enabling or Disabling Detailed Monitoring on an Amazon EC2 Instance............................... 201
View Amazon EC2 Metrics .......................................................................................... 204
Get Statistics for Metrics ............................................................................................. 211
Graphing Metrics ....................................................................................................... 227
Create a CloudWatch Alarm......................................................................................... 231
Create Alarms That Stop or Terminate an Instance........................................................... 238
Monitoring Scripts for Amazon EC2 Instances......................................................................... 253
Amazon CloudWatch Monitoring Scripts for Windows....................................................... 253
Network and Security ................................................................................................................. 263
Key Pairs.......................................................................................................................... 264
Creating Your Key Pair Using Amazon EC2..................................................................... 264
Importing Your Own Key Pair to Amazon EC2.................................................................. 265
Retrieving the Public Key for Your Key Pair...................................................................... 267
Verifying Your Key Pair's Fingerprint .............................................................................. 267
Deleting Your Key Pair................................................................................................. 268
Security Groups................................................................................................................. 268
Security Groups for EC2-Classic................................................................................... 269
Security Groups for EC2-VPC...................................................................................... 269
Security Group Rules ................................................................................................. 269
Default Security Groups .............................................................................................. 270
Custom Security Groups ............................................................................................. 271
Creating a Security Group........................................................................................... 272
Describing Your Security Groups................................................................................... 272
Adding Rules to a Security Group................................................................................. 273
Deleting Rules from a Security Group............................................................................ 274
Deleting a Security Group............................................................................................ 274
API and Command Overview....................................................................................... 274
Controlling Access ............................................................................................................. 276
Network Access to Your Instance.................................................................................. 276
Amazon EC2 Permission Attributes............................................................................... 276
IAM and Amazon EC2 ................................................................................................ 276
IAM Policies .............................................................................................................. 278
IAM Roles................................................................................................................. 306
Network Access......................................................................................................... 312
Amazon VPC .................................................................................................................... 313
Benefits of Using a VPC.............................................................................................. 313
Differences Between EC2-Classic and EC2-VPC............................................................. 326
Amazon VPC Documentation....................................................................................... 315
Supported Platforms................................................................................................... 316
Migrating from EC2-Classic to a VPC............................................................................ 318
API Version 2014-06-15
vi
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Instance IP Addressing ....................................................................................................... 324
Private Addresses and Internal DNS Hostnames............................................................. 325
Public IP Addresses and External DNS Hostnames......................................................... 325
Differences Between EC2-Classic and EC2-VPC............................................................. 326
Determining Your Public, Private, and Elastic IP Addresses............................................... 327
Assigning a Public IP Address...................................................................................... 328
Multiple Private IP Addresses....................................................................................... 329
Elastic IP Addresses........................................................................................................... 333
Elastic IP Addresses in EC2-Classic.............................................................................. 334
Elastic IP Addresses in a VPC...................................................................................... 334
Differences Between EC2-Classic and EC2-VPC............................................................. 335
Allocating an Elastic IP Address ................................................................................... 335
Describing Your Elastic IP Addresses............................................................................. 336
Associating an Elastic IP Address with a Running Instance............................................... 336
Associating an Elastic IP Address with a Different Running Instance................................... 337
Releasing an Elastic IP Address................................................................................... 337
Using Reverse DNS for Email Applications..................................................................... 338
Elastic IP Address Limit .............................................................................................. 338
Elastic Network Interfaces ................................................................................................... 338
Private IP Addresses Per ENI Per Instance Type.............................................................. 339
Creating a Management Network.................................................................................. 341
Use Network and Security Appliances in Your VPC.......................................................... 341
Creating Dual-homed Instances with Workloads/Roles on Distinct Subnets.......................... 342
Create a Low Budget High Availability Solution................................................................ 342
Best Practices for Configuring Network Interfaces............................................................ 342
Creating a Network Interface........................................................................................ 342
Deleting a Network Interface........................................................................................ 343
Viewing Details about a Network Interface...................................................................... 343
Attaching a Network Interface When Launching an Instance.............................................. 344
Attaching a Network Interface to a Stopped or Running Instance........................................ 345
Detaching a Network Interface from an Instance.............................................................. 346
Changing the Security Group of a Network Interface........................................................ 346
Changing the Source/Destination Checking of a Network Interface..................................... 347
Associating an Elastic IP Address with a Network Interface............................................... 347
Disassociating an Elastic IP Address from a Network Interface........................................... 348
Changing Termination Behavior for a Network Interface.................................................... 348
Adding or Editing a Description for a Network Interface..................................................... 349
Adding or Editing Tags for a Network Interface................................................................ 349
Enabling Enhanced Networking............................................................................................ 350
Requirements............................................................................................................ 350
Testing Whether Enhanced Networking Is Enabled........................................................... 351
Enabling Enhanced Networking on Windows .................................................................. 352
Storage .................................................................................................................................... 354
Amazon EBS .................................................................................................................... 355
Features of Amazon EBS............................................................................................ 356
EBS Volumes ............................................................................................................ 357
EBS Snapshots ......................................................................................................... 385
EBS Encryption ......................................................................................................... 391
EBS Performance ...................................................................................................... 393
API and Command Overview....................................................................................... 405
Instance Store................................................................................................................... 407
Instance Storage Concepts ......................................................................................... 408
Instance Stores Available on Instance Types................................................................... 409
Instance Store Device Names...................................................................................... 410
Instance Store Usage Scenarios .................................................................................. 411
Adding Instance Store Volumes to an AMI...................................................................... 412
Amazon S3....................................................................................................................... 413
Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2...................................................................................... 413
API Version 2014-06-15
vii
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Block Device Mapping ........................................................................................................ 415
Block Device Mapping Concepts................................................................................... 415
AMI Block Device Mapping.......................................................................................... 418
Instance Block Device Mapping.................................................................................... 420
Using Public Data Sets ....................................................................................................... 425
Public Data Set Concepts............................................................................................ 425
Finding Public Data Sets............................................................................................. 425
Creating a Public Data Set Volume from a Snapshot........................................................ 426
Attaching and Mounting the Public Data Set Volume......................................................... 427
Resources and Tags................................................................................................................... 428
Resource Locations............................................................................................................ 428
Listing and Filtering Your Resources...................................................................................... 429
Advanced Search....................................................................................................... 430
Listing Resources Using the Console ............................................................................ 431
Filtering Resources Using the Console.......................................................................... 431
Listing and Filtering Using the CLI and API..................................................................... 432
Tagging Your Resources...................................................................................................... 433
Tag Basics................................................................................................................ 433
Tag Restrictions......................................................................................................... 434
Tagging Your Resources for Billing ................................................................................ 435
Working with Tags in the Console.................................................................................. 435
API and CLI Overview................................................................................................. 440
Service Limits.................................................................................................................... 440
Viewing Your Current Limits ......................................................................................... 441
Requesting a Limit Increase......................................................................................... 441
Usage Reports .................................................................................................................. 442
Available Reports....................................................................................................... 442
Getting Set Up for Usage Reports................................................................................. 442
Granting IAM Users Access to the Amazon EC2 Usage Reports........................................ 443
Instance Usage ......................................................................................................... 444
Reserved Instance Utilization....................................................................................... 448
AWS Management Pack.............................................................................................................. 454
Overview of AWS Management Pack for System Center 2012................................................... 455
Overview of AWS Management Pack for System Center 2007 R2............................................... 456
Downloading ..................................................................................................................... 457
Deploying ......................................................................................................................... 458
Step 1: Installing the AWS Management Pack................................................................. 458
Step 2: Configuring the Watcher Node........................................................................... 460
Step 3: Create an AWS Run As Account........................................................................ 460
Step 4: Run the Add Monitoring Wizard.......................................................................... 463
Using ............................................................................................................................... 467
Views....................................................................................................................... 467
Discoveries ............................................................................................................... 477
Monitors ................................................................................................................... 479
Rules ....................................................................................................................... 480
Events ..................................................................................................................... 483
Health Model............................................................................................................. 484
Customizing the AWS Management Pack....................................................................... 485
Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................. 485
AWS Diagnostics for Microsoft Windows Server.............................................................................. 487
Analysis Rules................................................................................................................... 487
Analyzing the Current Instance............................................................................................. 488
Collecting Data From an Offline Instance................................................................................ 490
Data File Storage............................................................................................................... 490
Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................................... 492
No console output.............................................................................................................. 492
Instance terminates immediately........................................................................................... 493
"Password is not available" .................................................................................................. 493
API Version 2014-06-15
viii
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
"Password not available yet"................................................................................................. 494
"Cannot retrieve Windows password"..................................................................................... 494
"Waiting for the metadata service"......................................................................................... 494
Remote Desktop can't connect to the remote computer............................................................ 497
RDP displays a black screen instead of the desktop................................................................. 499
"Unable to activate Windows"............................................................................................... 500
"Windows is not genuine (0x80070005)" ................................................................................ 500
"No Terminal Server License Servers available to provide a license"............................................ 501
Instance loses network connectivity or scheduled tasks don't run when expected.......................... 501
Document History ...................................................................................................................... 502
AWS Glossary........................................................................................................................... 513
API Version 2014-06-15
ix
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Microsoft
Windows
Features of Amazon EC2
What Is Amazon EC2?
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) provides scalable computing capacity in the Amazon
Web Services (AWS) cloud. Using Amazon EC2 eliminates your need to invest in hardware up front, so
you can develop and deploy applications faster.You can use Amazon EC2 to launch as many or as few
virtual servers as you need, configure security and networking, and manage storage. Amazon EC2 enables
you to scale up or down to handle changes in requirements or spikes in popularity, reducing your need
to forecast traffic.
For more information about cloud computing, see What is Cloud Computing?
Features of Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2 provides the following features:
• Virtual computing environments, known as instances
• Preconfigured templates for your instances, known as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), that package
the bits you need for your server (including the operating system and additional software)
• Various configurations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity for your instances, known
as instance types
• Secure login information for your instances using key pairs (AWS stores the public key, and you store
the private key in a secure place)
• Storage volumes for temporary data that's deleted when you stop or terminate your instance, known
as instance store volumes
• Persistent storage volumes for your data using Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), known as
Amazon EBS volumes
• Multiple physical locations for your resources, such as instances and Amazon EBS volumes, known
as regions and Availability Zones
• A firewall that enables you to specify the protocols, ports, and source IP ranges that can reach your
instances using security groups
• Static IP addresses for dynamic cloud computing, known as Elastic IP addresses
• Metadata, known as tags, that you can create and assign to your Amazon EC2 resources
• Virtual networks you can create that are logically isolated from the rest of the AWS cloud, and that you
can optionally connect to your own network, known as virtual private clouds (VPCs)
For more information about the features of Amazon EC2, see the Amazon EC2 product page.
API Version 2014-06-15
1
Description:The following are trademarks of Amazon Web Services, Inc.: Amazon, Amazon Web Services Design, AWS, Amazon CloudFront,. Cloudfront, CloudTrail, Amazon DevPay, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Glacier,. Kinesis, Kindle, Kindle Fire, AWS