Creating the First EC2 Instance

In previous sections we covered configuration of the network. Now we are going to create the first instance. As discussed in Computing Resources Used in this Tutorial, we need two disks. This section also describes how to create the second disk.

1. Go to “EC2” service. It may be necessary to enter “EC2” in the top search box of the AWS Console to select EC2.

2. Click “Launch Instance”.

3. Click “Operating System”. Enter the name of the operating system and select the specific Machine Image. Before selecting the operating system and its version, please review the system requirements for both LifeKeeper and the application you are going to protect.

4. Click “Instance Type”. This tutorial uses t2.micro since it is defined as the minimum system requirement for evaluation of LifeKeeper and it may qualify for Free Tier usage. Again, it may be necessary to select a larger instance size depending on the application to be protected.

Once the instance size has been chosen, click “Next: Configure Instance Details”.

5. In the “Configure Instance Details” wizard, ensure that the following parameters are used:

• VPC: LK-VPC
• Subnet: LK-subnet-1
• Network Interface: Please enter 10.20.1.10 for the first instance (node-a).

*Note: When creating node-b and node-c, please refer to parameters related to node-b & node-c.

Once these values are confirmed, click “Next: Add Storage”.

6. The wizard has already created the first storage device (volume). Click “Add New Volume” and create a new disk. Per the minimum requirements previously discussed in this guide, an 8GiB disk should be sufficient. However, this may differ depending on the volume of the data to be protected (replicated).

Once the selection is confirmed, click “Next: Add Tags”.

7. Add a tag with key “Name” and value “Node-A” to make it easier to identify the instance from the AWS EC2 Console.

Once the “Name” tag is defined, click “Next: Configure Security Group”.

8. Select the Security Group previously created in an earlier section (LK-SG):

9. Review and confirm all selections, then click “Launch”.

10. In order to access the newly created Linux EC2 instance, we will connect via ssh. AWS uses a key pair to authenticate user ssh sessions. Create a name for the key pair and download it to your local system. The private key will be needed to access the EC2 instance. Click “Launch Instances”.

11. The “Launch Status” page appears. Select the instance ID to view its details.