How to create or launch Amazon EC2 Windows Instance

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An instance is a virtual server in the AWS cloud. With Amazon EC2, you can set up and configure the operating system and applications that run on your instance.

Follow below steps to launch an AWS Windows instance:

Step 1: Login to AWS Console account https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home

Step 2: You can either specify the Availability Zone in which your instance runs, or let Amazon EC2 select an Availability Zone for you.

Step 3: From the console dashboard, choose Launch Instance.

Step 4: From Left Menu, You can select an AMI provided by AWS, their user community, or the AWS Marketplace; or you can select one of your own AMIs.

An AMI is a template that contains the software configuration (operating system, application server, and applications) required to launch your instance. 

Step 5: Select An AMI. I have Selected "Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Base - ami-07f7b791cbd0812bf"

Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) page displays a list of basic configurations, called Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), that serve as templates for your instance.

Step 6: Select the Family and Type. You can get started with Amazon EC2 using the AWS Free Tier. If you created your AWS account less than 12 months ago, and have not already exceeded the free tier benefits for Amazon EC2, it will not cost you anything. Be careful here Otherwise, you'll incur the standard Amazon EC2 usage fees from the time that you launch the instance until you terminate the instance.

On the Choose an Instance Type page, you can select the hardware configuration of your instance. Select the t2.micro instance type, which is selected by default. The t2.micro instance type is eligible for the free tier. In Regions where t2.micro is unavailable, you can use a t3.micro instance under the free tier. 

Step 7: Review and change any detail you want like Instance Type, Security Groups, Instance Detail, Storage, Tags.

The instance is an Amazon EBS-backed instance (meaning that the root volume is an EBS volume - Elastic Block Store). 

Step 8: Click Launch. It will ask for new key pair. From dropdown select a new key pair. You secure it by specifying a key pair and security group. When you connect to your instance using terminal or to generate password for remote login, you must specify the private key of the key pair that you specified when launching your instance. 

Step 9: Specify name and click download key pair, Laucn button will be enabled after that. Click on it.

Step 10: Your instance is launching. Click on View Instance.

On the Instances screen, you can view the status of the launch. It takes a short time for an instance to launch. When you launch an instance, its initial state is pending. After the instance starts, its state changes to running and it receives a public DNS name. (If the Public DNS (IPv4) column is hidden, choose Show/Hide Columns (the gear-shaped icon) in the top right corner of the page and then select Public DNS (IPv4).)

It can take a few minutes for the instance to be ready so that you can connect to it. Check that your instance has passed its status checks; you can view this information in the Status Checks column.

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