Solved: How to login to AWS EC2 Linux Instance

In this post we will discuss how you can login to your AWS EC2 linux instance using Putty.
Pre-requisites :-

• Your private key with .pem extension you provided while creating EC2 instance.
• Download Putty
• Download PuttyGen

Once you are done with the pre-requisites let’s move ahead.
Convert .pem key to .ppk

• First we will convert the .pem key to .ppk key.
• Click on PuttyGen you downloaded.
• Click on “Load”. Browse and select your private key with .pem extension.

Now click on “Save private key” .
It will ask if you want to add passphrase. It’s like additional password when you login. If you want you can enter passphrase in “Key passphrase”.
For this exercise i just clicked on “Yes” .

• Save key with the name you like. Check that the new key file now have .ppk extension.

Using the  Key for Login
Now we will use the .ppk key we just created to login to our ec2 instance.

• Open Putty that we downloaded earlier.
• In the left Pane click on Session.

In hostname enter you server details like user name and IP.
If you are using Amazon Linux Image the default user is ec2-user.  So entry will be like ec2-user@33.44.55.66  and Port 22.

• In the left navigation pane  click on “Connection” and expand it.

Next expand “SSH” and click on “Auth” (refer image below).

In the right pane click on Browse and select the .ppk key we created earlier.

• Now in the left navigation pane click on “Session” again. In the right pane in the “Saved sessions”, name the session as “test” or whatever you like and click save. This will save your session so that you don’t have to do this activity again.
• Finally select the session you created and click “Open”. If all is configured correctly you will now be logged in to you EC2 instance.

Note:- If your ssh session gets timed out after being idle for few minutes check this post on how to set putty keep alive time.