Introduction
AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a popular option for cloud computing services. It offers virtual servers (or instances) as well as security, networking, and storage options. EC2 can launch as many or as few virtual servers as you need, depending on your projects.
Using EC2 offers multiple benefits, including the ability to run your applications in the cloud and to create virtual machines (VMs) with whatever configurations you might need. The infrastructure is scalable, with over 500 instances, and EC2 supports developing macOS and machine learning applications.
EC2 works with static (aka elastic) IP addresses. Whenever a resource on a network is assigned an IP address, that IP address is either dynamic—meaning it’s assigned by the network it’s connected to and changes periodically—or static, meaning it never changes. An elastic IP address in EC2 is public, so it’s reachable from the internet. Because it’s set to your AWS account, an elastic IP address can be remapped to another instance as needed in case of bugs or other issues. A custom IP address can also be added to your account rather than use one from AWS.
Elastic IP addresses are provided via a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). These IP addresses are persistent, meaning they will not change when the VM is restarted or shut down.
In this tutorial, I'll walk you through how to configure an elastic IP address with an AWS EC2 instance.
Prerequisites
This article doesn't have many prerequisites, it is a tutorial which will assume you already have an AWS EC2 instance provisioned already, that is ready to be associated with an elastic IP address. In case you do not already have an AWS EC2 instance running, please create one before proceeding with the rest of this guide.
Let's dive right in!
Step 1: Choosing Elastic IP
From the AWS console, navigate to EC2 by clicking Compute. This should take you straight to your EC2 dashboard.
On your dashboard, click on Elastic IPs under Network & Security.
Step 2: Creating New IP
Click on Allocate Elastic IP address to create a new static IP address.
Proceed by clicking Allocate.
Step 3: Assigning IP to EC2 Instance
Once the allocation request is successful, assign the static IP to your EC2 instance.
On the elastic IP view, select the IP you just allocated and click the Actions dropdown.
Select the View details button to reveal the info page on the elastic IP.
On this page, click the Associate Elastic IP address button.
Step 4: Associating IP to Instance
Search for your instance ID from the Instance field.
Select the instance ID and scroll down to click the Associate button.
Step 5: Checking The Instance View
Your elastic IP address has now been associated with your EC2 instance. Head to your instance view by clicking on your instance ID. The address of your static IP is now displayed on the view.
Step 6: Connecting to The Instance
Connect to your EC2 instance with the newly associated static IP. On your instance view, click Connect. A view with connection details can now be seen. If you’re using a Linux or Mac system, open up your terminal.
Select SSH on the connect view. This tutorial connects via SSH through PowerShell.
Set permissions on private key if you haven’t already by pasting one of the below commands in your terminal or CLI:
Option A: Linux
chmod 400 vpckey.pem
set permission on Linux for an EC2 instance private key
Option B: Windows (PowerShell)
ICACLS "vpckey.pem" /grant:r "bashirk:(F)" /C
set permission on Windows for an EC2 instance private key
You can copy-paste the second command shown on your instance description to connect to your remote instance:
Enter Yes to proceed.
The instance is now connected, as shown below, this was validated by confirming the present working directory with the command pwd. Please proceed with building whatever solution you want to deploy on your EC2 instance.
Limits on Elastic IPs
According to this AWS documentation on service quotas, “Your AWS account has default quotas, formerly referred to as limits, for each AWS service.”
The important thing to understand is that static IPs on EC2 instances have a limit of five IPs per region per account, so you can’t allocate more than five static IPs in the same AWS region. If you already have up to five elastic IPs, you can either delete one or select a new AWS region before allocating a new IP.
If you need to confirm your elastic IP address limit, head over to your EC2 dashboard. Select Limits from the left pane and type in IP in the search box. You should immediately see the EC2-VPC Elastic IPs limit. Click on it for more details about the limit quota.
Remember, the good thing about elastic IPs is they don’t change or expire, unless they are disassociated from an instance and released.
Request an increase to your quota from the Service Quotas Console if the need arises.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you learned how to set up an elastic IP address and connect it remotely with your AWS EC2 instance. As you saw, this is a simple process that gives you more control over your EC2 instance and allows you to choose your own IP address for as long as you need it.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter: @John Doe or LinkedIn
Top comments (0)