Install EC2 Instance Connect on your EC2 instances - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
Install prerequisitesManually install EC2 Instance Connect
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Install EC2 Instance Connect on your EC2 instances

To connect to a Linux instance using EC2 Instance Connect, the instance must have EC2 Instance Connect installed. Installing EC2 Instance Connect configures the SSH daemon on the instance.

For more information about the EC2 Instance Connect package, see aws/aws-ec2-instance-connect-config on the GitHub website.

Note

If you configured the AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser settings for SSH authentication, the EC2 Instance Connect installation will not update them. As a result, you can't use EC2 Instance Connect.

Install prerequisites

Before you install EC2 Instance Connect, ensure that you meet the following prerequisites.

  • Verify that the instance uses one of the following:

    • Amazon Linux 2 prior to version 2.0.20190618

    • AL2023 minimal AMI or Amazon ECS-optimized AMI

    • CentOS Stream 8 and 9

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and 9

    • Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04

    Tip

    If you launched your instance using a later version of Amazon Linux, macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, or Ubuntu, it comes pre-installed with EC2 Instance Connect, and therefore you do not need to install it yourself.

  • Verify the general prerequisites for EC2 Instance Connect.

    For more information, see Prerequisites for EC2 Instance Connect.

  • Verify the prerequisites for connecting to your instance using an SSH client on your local machine.

    For more information, see Connect to your Linux instance using SSH.

  • Get the ID of the instance.

    You can get the ID of your instance using the Amazon EC2 console (from the Instance ID column). If you prefer, you can use the describe-instances (Amazon CLI) or Get-EC2Instance (Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell) command.

Manually install EC2 Instance Connect

Note

If you launched your instance using one of the following AMIs, EC2 Instance Connect is pre-installed and you can skip this procedure:

  • AL2023 standard AMI

  • Amazon Linux 2 2.0.20190618 or later

  • macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 or later

  • macOS Ventura 13.6.3 or later

  • macOS Monterey 12.7.2 or later

  • Ubuntu 20.04 or later

Use one of the following procedures for installing EC2 Instance Connect, depending on the operating system of your instance.

Amazon Linux 2
To install EC2 Instance Connect on an instance launched with Amazon Linux 2

  1. Connect to your instance using SSH.

    Replace the example values in the following command with your values. Use the SSH key pair that was assigned to your instance when you launched it and the default username of the AMI that you used to launch your instance. For Amazon Linux 2, the default username is ec2-user.

    $ ssh -i my_ec2_private_key.pem ec2-user@ec2-a-b-c-d.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

    For more information about connecting to your instance, see Connect to your Linux instance using an SSH client.

  2. Install the EC2 Instance Connect package on your instance.

    [ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install ec2-instance-connect

    You should see three new scripts in the /opt/aws/bin/ folder:

    eic_curl_authorized_keys
eic_parse_authorized_keys
eic_run_authorized_keys

  3. (Optional) Verify that EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed on your instance.

    [ec2-user ~]$ sudo less /etc/ssh/sshd_config

    EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed if the AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser lines contain the following values:

    AuthorizedKeysCommand /opt/aws/bin/eic_run_authorized_keys %u %f
AuthorizedKeysCommandUser ec2-instance-connect

    • AuthorizedKeysCommand sets the eic_run_authorized_keys script to look up the keys from the instance metadata

    • AuthorizedKeysCommandUser sets the system user as ec2-instance-connect

    Note

    If you previously configured AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser, the EC2 Instance Connect installation will not change the values and you will not be able to use EC2 Instance Connect.

CentOS
To install EC2 Instance Connect on an instance launched with CentOS

  1. Connect to your instance using SSH.

    Replace the example values in the following command with your values. Use the SSH key pair that was assigned to your instance when you launched it and the default username of the AMI that you used to launch your instance. For CentOS, the default username is centos or ec2-user.

    $ ssh -i my_ec2_private_key.pem centos@ec2-a-b-c-d.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

    For more information about connecting to your instance, see Connect to your Linux instance using an SSH client.

  2. If you use an HTTP or HTTPS proxy, you must set the http_proxy or https_proxy environment variables in the current shell session.

    If you're not using a proxy, you can skip this step.

    • For an HTTP proxy server, run the following commands:

      $ export http_proxy=http://hostname:port
$ export https_proxy=http://hostname:port

    • For an HTTPS proxy server, run the following commands:

      $ export http_proxy=https://hostname:port
$ export https_proxy=https://hostname:port

  3. Install the EC2 Instance Connect package on your instance by running the following commands.

    The EC2 Instance Connect configuration files for CentOS are provided in a Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) package, with different RPM packages for CentOS 8 and CentOS 9 and for instance types that run on Intel/AMD (x86_64) or ARM (AArch64).

    Use the command block for your operating system and CPU architecture.

    • CentOS 8

      Intel/AMD (x86_64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel8.x86_64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

      ARM (AArch64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel8.aarch64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

    • CentOS 9

      Intel/AMD (x86_64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel9.x86_64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

      ARM (AArch64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel9.aarch64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

    You should see the following new script in the /opt/aws/bin/ folder:

    eic_run_authorized_keys

  4. (Optional) Verify that EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed on your instance.

    • For CentOS 8:

      [ec2-user ~]$ sudo less /lib/systemd/system/sshd.service.d/ec2-instance-connect.conf

    • For CentOS 9:

      [ec2-user ~]$ sudo less /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/60-ec2-instance-connect.conf

    EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed if the AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser lines contain the following values:

    AuthorizedKeysCommand /opt/aws/bin/eic_run_authorized_keys %u %f
AuthorizedKeysCommandUser ec2-instance-connect

    • AuthorizedKeysCommand sets the eic_run_authorized_keys script to look up the keys from the instance metadata

    • AuthorizedKeysCommandUser sets the system user as ec2-instance-connect

    Note

    If you previously configured AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser, the EC2 Instance Connect installation will not change the values and you will not be able to use EC2 Instance Connect.

RHEL
To install EC2 Instance Connect on an instance launched with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

  1. Connect to your instance using SSH.

    Replace the example values in the following command with your values. Use the SSH key pair that was assigned to your instance when you launched it and the default username of the AMI that you used to launch your instance. For RHEL, the default username is ec2-user or root.

    $ ssh -i my_ec2_private_key.pem ec2-user@ec2-a-b-c-d.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

    For more information about connecting to your instance, see Connect to your Linux instance using an SSH client.

  2. If you use an HTTP or HTTPS proxy, you must set the http_proxy or https_proxy environment variables in the current shell session.

    If you're not using a proxy, you can skip this step.

    • For an HTTP proxy server, run the following commands:

      $ export http_proxy=http://hostname:port
$ export https_proxy=http://hostname:port

    • For an HTTPS proxy server, run the following commands:

      $ export http_proxy=https://hostname:port
$ export https_proxy=https://hostname:port

  3. Install the EC2 Instance Connect package on your instance by running the following commands.

    The EC2 Instance Connect configuration files for RHEL are provided in a Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) package, with different RPM packages for RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 and for instance types that run on Intel/AMD (x86_64) or ARM (AArch64).

    Use the command block for your operating system and CPU architecture.

    • RHEL 8

      Intel/AMD (x86_64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel8.x86_64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

      ARM (AArch64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel8.aarch64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

    • RHEL 9

      Intel/AMD (x86_64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel9.x86_64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_amd64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

      ARM (AArch64)

      [ec2-user ~]$ mkdir /tmp/ec2-instance-connect
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-2.0.0-3.rhel9.aarch64.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ curl https://amazon-ec2-instance-connect-us-west-2.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/latest/linux_arm64/ec2-instance-connect-selinux-2.0.0-3.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm
[ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect.rpm /tmp/ec2-instance-connect/ec2-instance-connect-selinux.rpm

    You should see the following new script in the /opt/aws/bin/ folder:

    eic_run_authorized_keys

  4. (Optional) Verify that EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed on your instance.

    • For RHEL 8:

      [ec2-user ~]$ sudo less /lib/systemd/system/sshd.service.d/ec2-instance-connect.conf

    • For RHEL 9:

      [ec2-user ~]$ sudo less /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/60-ec2-instance-connect.conf

    EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed if the AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser lines contain the following values:

    AuthorizedKeysCommand /opt/aws/bin/eic_run_authorized_keys %u %f
AuthorizedKeysCommandUser ec2-instance-connect

    • AuthorizedKeysCommand sets the eic_run_authorized_keys script to look up the keys from the instance metadata

    • AuthorizedKeysCommandUser sets the system user as ec2-instance-connect

    Note

    If you previously configured AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser, the EC2 Instance Connect installation will not change the values and you will not be able to use EC2 Instance Connect.

Ubuntu
To install EC2 Instance Connect on an instance launched with Ubuntu 16.04 or later

  1. Connect to your instance using SSH.

    Replace the example values in the following command with your values. Use the SSH key pair that was assigned to your instance when you launched it and use the default username of the AMI that you used to launch your instance. For an Ubuntu AMI, the username is ubuntu.

    $ ssh -i my_ec2_private_key.pem ubuntu@ec2-a-b-c-d.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

    For more information about connecting to your instance, see Connect to your Linux instance using an SSH client.

  2. (Optional) Ensure your instance has the latest Ubuntu AMI.

    Run the following commands to update all the packages on your instance.

    ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get update
    ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade

  3. Install the EC2 Instance Connect package on your instance.

    ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install ec2-instance-connect

    You should see three new scripts in the /usr/share/ec2-instance-connect/ folder:

    eic_curl_authorized_keys
eic_parse_authorized_keys
eic_run_authorized_keys

  4. (Optional) Verify that EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed on your instance.

    ubuntu:~$ sudo less /lib/systemd/system/ssh.service.d/ec2-instance-connect.conf

    EC2 Instance Connect was successfully installed if the AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser lines contain the following values:

    AuthorizedKeysCommand /usr/share/ec2-instance-connect/eic_run_authorized_keys %%u %%f
AuthorizedKeysCommandUser ec2-instance-connect

    • AuthorizedKeysCommand sets the eic_run_authorized_keys script to look up the keys from the instance metadata

    • AuthorizedKeysCommandUser sets the system user as ec2-instance-connect

    Note

    If you previously configured AuthorizedKeysCommand and AuthorizedKeysCommandUser, the EC2 Instance Connect installation will not change the values and you will not be able to use EC2 Instance Connect.