Launch an instance using the new launch instance wizard - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
Quickly launch an instanceLaunch an instance using defined parameters
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Launch an instance using the new launch instance wizard

You can launch an instance using the new launch instance wizard. The launch instance wizard specifies the launch parameters that are required for launching an instance. Where the launch instance wizard provides a default value, you can accept the default or specify your own value. If you accept the default values, then it's possible to launch an instance by selecting only a key pair.

Before you launch your instance, be sure that you are set up. For more information, see Set up to use Amazon EC2.

Important

When you launch an instance that's not within the Amazon Free Tier, you are charged for the time that the instance is running, even if it remains idle.

Topics

Quickly launch an instance

To set up an instance quickly for testing purposes, follow these steps. You'll select the operating system and your key pair, and accept the default values. For information about all of the parameters in the launch instance wizard, see Launch an instance using defined parameters.

To quickly launch an instance

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation bar at the top of the screen, the current Amazon Region is displayed (for example, ). Select a Region in which to launch the instance. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. For more information, see Resource locations.

  3. From the Amazon EC2 console dashboard, choose Launch instance.

  4. (Optional) Under Name and tags, for Name, enter a descriptive name for your instance.

  5. Under Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image), choose Quick Start, and then choose the operating system (OS) for your instance.

  6. Under Key pair (login), for Key pair name, choose an existing key pair or create a new one.

  7. In the Summary panel, choose Launch instance.

Launch an instance using defined parameters

Except for the key pair, the launch instance wizard provides default values for all of the parameters. You can accept any or all of the defaults, or configure an instance by specifying your own values for each parameter. The parameters are grouped in the launch instance wizard. The following instructions take you through each parameter group.

Initiate instance launch

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation bar at the top of the screen, the current Amazon Region is displayed (for example, ). Select a Region in which to launch the instance. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. For more information, see Resource locations.

  3. From the Amazon EC2 console dashboard, choose Launch instance.

Name and tags

The instance name is a tag, where the key is Name, and the value is the name that you specify. You can tag the instance, volumes, and network interfaces. For Spot Instances, you can tag the Spot Instance request only. For information about tags, see Tag your Amazon EC2 resources.

Specifying an instance name and additional tags is optional.

  • For Name, enter a descriptive name for the instance. If you don't specify a name, the instance can be identified by its ID, which is automatically generated when you launch the instance.

  • To add additional tags, choose Add additional tags. Choose Add tag, and then enter a key and value, and select the resource type to tag. Choose Add tag again for each additional tag to add.

Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image)

An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) contains the information required to create an instance. For example, an AMI might contain the software that's required to act as a web server, such as Windows, Apache, and your website.

You can find a suitable AMI as follows. With each option for finding an AMI, you can choose Cancel (at top right) to return to the launch instance wizard without choosing an AMI.

Search bar

To search through all available AMIs, enter a keyword in the AMI search bar and then press Enter. To select an AMI, choose Select.

Recents

The AMIs that you've recently used.

Choose Recently launched or Currently in use, and then, from Amazon Machine Image (AMI), select an AMI.

My AMIs

The private AMIs that you own, or private AMIs that have been shared with you.

Choose Owned by me or Shared with me, and then, from Amazon Machine Image (AMI), select an AMI.

Quick Start

AMIs are grouped by operating system (OS) to help you get started quickly.

First select the OS that you need, and then, from Amazon Machine Image (AMI), select an AMI. To select an AMI that is eligible for the free tier, make sure that the AMI is marked Free tier eligible.

Browse more AMIs

Choose Browse more AMIs to browse the full AMI catalog.

  • To search through all available AMIs, enter a keyword in the search bar and then press Enter.

  • To find an AMI by using a Systems Manager parameter, choose the arrow button to the right of the search bar, and then choose Search by Systems Manager parameter. For more information, see Use a Systems Manager parameter to find an AMI.

  • To search by category, choose Quickstart AMIs, My AMIs, Amazon Web Services Marketplace AMIs, or Community AMIs.

    The Amazon Web Services Marketplace is an online store where you can buy software that runs on Amazon, including AMIs. For more information about launching an instance from the Amazon Web Services Marketplace, see Launch an Amazon Web Services Marketplace instance. In Community AMIs, you can find AMIs that Amazon community members have made available for others to use. AMIs from Amazon or a verified partner are marked Verified provider.

  • To filter the list of AMIs, select one or more check boxes under Refine results on the left of the screen. The filter options are different depending on the selected search category.

  • Check the Virtualization type listed for each AMI. Notice which AMIs are the type that you need: either hvm or paravirtual. For example, some instance types require HVM.

  • Check the Boot mode listed for each AMI. Notice which AMIs use the boot mode that you need: either legacy-bios, uefi, or uefi-preferred. For more information, see Boot modes.

  • Choose an AMI that meets your needs, and then choose Select.

Warning when changing the AMI

If you modify the configuration of any volumes or security groups associated with the selected AMI, and then you choose a different AMI, a window opens to warn you that some of your current settings will be changed or removed. You can review the changes to the security groups and volumes. Furthermore, you can either view which volumes will be added and deleted, or view only the volumes that will be added.

Instance type

The instance type defines the hardware configuration and size of the instance. Larger instance types have more CPU and memory. For more information, see Amazon EC2 instance types.

  • For Instance type, select the instance type for the instance.

    Free Tier – If your Amazon account is less than 12 months old, you can use Amazon EC2 under the Free Tier by selecting the t2.micro instance type (or the t3.micro instance type in Regions where t2.micro is unavailable). If an instance type is eligible under the Free Tier, it is labeled Free tier eligible. For more information about t2.micro and t3.micro, see Burstable performance instances.

  • Get advice: You can get guidance and suggestions for instance types from the Amazon Q EC2 instance type selector. For more information, see Get instance type recommendations for a new workload.

Key pair (login)

For Key pair name, choose an existing key pair, or choose Create new key pair to create a new one. For more information, see Amazon EC2 key pairs and Amazon EC2 instances.

Important

If you choose the Proceed without key pair (Not recommended) option, you won't be able to connect to the instance unless you choose an AMI that is configured to allow users another way to log in.

Network settings

Configure the network settings, as necessary.

  • VPC: Choose an existing VPC for your instance. You can choose the default VPC or a VPC that you created. For more information, see Virtual private clouds.

  • Subnet: You can launch an instance in a subnet associated with an Availability Zone, Local Zone, Wavelength Zone, or Outpost.

    To launch the instance in an Availability Zone, select the subnet in which to launch your instance. To create a new subnet, choose Create new subnet to go to the Amazon VPC console. When you are done, return to the launch instance wizard and choose the Refresh icon to load your subnet in the list.

    To launch the instance in an IPv6-only subnet, the instance must be built on the Nitro System.

    To launch the instance in a Local Zone, select a subnet that you created in the Local Zone.

    To launch an instance in an Outpost, select a subnet in a VPC that you associated with the Outpost.

  • Auto-assign Public IP: Specify whether your instance receives a public IPv4 address. By default, instances in a default subnet receive a public IPv4 address, and instances in a nondefault subnet don't. You can select Enable or Disable to override the subnet's default setting. For more information, see Public IPv4 addresses.

  • Firewall (security groups): Use a security group to define firewall rules for your instance. These rules specify which incoming network traffic is delivered to your instance. All other traffic is ignored. For more information about security groups, see Amazon EC2 security groups for Windows instances.

    If you add a network interface, you must specify the same security group in the network interface.

    Select or create a security group as follows:

    • To select an existing security group for your VPC, choose Select existing security group, and select your security group from Common security groups.

    • To create a new security group for your VPC, choose Create security group. The launch instance wizard automatically defines the launch-wizard-x security group and provides the following check boxes for quickly adding security group rules:

      Allow SSH traffic from – Creates an inbound rule to allow you to connect to your instance over RDP (port 3389). Specify whether the traffic comes from Anywhere, Custom, or My IP.

      Allow HTTPs traffic from the internet – Creates an inbound rule that opens port 443 (HTTPS) to allow internet traffic from anywhere. If your instance will be a web server, you'll need this rule.

      Allow HTTP traffic from the internet – Creates an inbound rule that opens port 80 (HTTP) to allow internet traffic from anywhere. If your instance will be a web server, you'll need this rule.

      You can edit these rules and add rules to suit your needs.

      To edit or add a rule, choose Edit (at top right). To add a rule, choose Add security group rule. For Type, select the network traffic type. The Protocol field is automatically filled in with the protocol to open to network traffic. For Source type, select the source type. To let the launch instance wizard add your computer's public IP address, choose My IP. However, if you are connecting through an ISP or from behind your firewall without a static IP address, you need to find out the range of IP addresses used by client computers.

      Warning

      Rules that enable all IP addresses (0.0.0.0/0) to access your instance over SSH or RDP are acceptable if you are briefly launching a test instance and will stop or terminate it soon, but are unsafe for production environments. You should authorize only a specific IP address or range of addresses to access your instance.

  • Advanced network configuration – Available only if you choose a subnet.

    Network interface

    • Device index: The index of the network card. The primary network interface must be assigned to network card index 0. Some instance types support multiple network cards.

    • Network interface: Select New interface to let Amazon EC2 create a new interface, or select an existing, available network interface.

    • Description: (Optional) A description for the new network interface.

    • Subnet: The subnet in which to create the new network interface. For the primary network interface (eth0), this is the subnet in which the instance is launched. If you've entered an existing network interface for eth0, the instance is launched in the subnet in which the network interface is located.

    • Security groups: One or more security groups in your VPC with which to associate the network interface.

    • Primary IP: A private IPv4 address from the range of your subnet. Leave blank to let Amazon EC2 choose a private IPv4 address for you.

    • Secondary IP: One or more additional private IPv4 addresses from the range of your subnet. Choose Manually assign and enter an IP address. Choose Add IP to add another IP address. Alternatively, choose Automatically assign to let Amazon EC2 choose one for you, and enter a value to indicate the number of IP addresses to add.

    • (IPv6-only) IPv6 IPs: An IPv6 address from the range of the subnet. Choose Manually assign and enter an IP address. Choose Add IP to add another IP address. Alternatively, choose Automatically assign to let Amazon EC2 choose one for you, and enter a value to indicate the number of IP addresses to add.

    • IPv4 Prefixes: The IPv4 prefixes for the network interface.

    • IPv6 Prefixes: The IPv6 prefixes for the network interface.

    • (Dual-stack and IPv6-only) Assign Primary IPv6 IP: (Optional) If you’re launching an instance into a dual-stack or IPv6-only subnet, you have the option to Assign Primary IPv6 IP. Assigning a primary IPv6 address enables you to avoid disrupting traffic to instances or ENIs. Choose Enable if this instance relies on its IPv6 address not changing. When you launch the instance, Amazon will automatically assign an IPv6 address associated with the ENI attached to your instance to be the primary IPv6 address. Once you enable an IPv6 GUA address to be a primary IPv6, you cannot disable it. When you enable an IPv6 GUA address to be a primary IPv6, the first IPv6 GUA will be made the primary IPv6 address until the instance is terminated or the network interface is detached. If you have multiple IPv6 addresses associated with an ENI attached to your instance and you enable a primary IPv6 address, the first IPv6 GUA address associated with the ENI becomes the primary IPv6 address.

    • Delete on termination: Whether the network interface is deleted when the instance is deleted.

    • Elastic Fabric Adapter: Indicates whether the network interface is an Elastic Fabric Adapter. For more information, see Elastic Fabric Adapter.

    • ENA Express: ENA Express is powered by Amazon Scalable Reliable Datagram (SRD) technology. SRD technology uses a packet spraying mechanism to distribute load and avoid network congestion. Enabling ENA Express allows supported instances to communicate using SRD on top of regular TCP traffic when possible. The launch instance wizard does not include ENA Express configuration for the instance unless you select Enable or Disable from the list.

    • ENA Express UDP: If you've enabled ENA Express, you can optionally use it for UDP traffic. The launch instance wizard does not include ENA Express configuration for the instance unless you select Enable or Disable.

    Choose Add network interface to add additional network interfaces. Additional network interfaces can reside in a different subnet of the same VPC or in a subnet in a different VPC that you own (as long as the subnet is in the same Availability Zone as your instance). If you choose to add an additional network interface residing in another VPC subnet, you'll see the Multi-VPC subnets option when you select a subnet. If you select a subnet in another VPC, the Multi-VPC label appears next to the network interface you've added. This enables you to create multi-homed instances across VPCs with different networking and security configurations. Note that if you attach an additional ENI from another VPC, you must choose a security group for the ENI from that VPC.

    For more information, see Elastic network interfaces. If you specify more than one network interface, your instance cannot receive a public IPv4 address. Additionally, if you specify an existing network interface for eth0, you cannot override the subnet's public IPv4 setting using Auto-assign Public IP. For more information, see Assign a public IPv4 address during instance launch.

Configure storage

The AMI you selected includes one or more volumes of storage, including the root volume. You can specify additional volumes to attach to the instance.

You can use the Simple or Advanced view. With the Simple view, you specify the size and type of the volume. To specify all volume parameters, choose the Advanced view (at top right of the card).

By using the Advanced view, you can configure each volume as follows:

  • Storage type: Select Amazon EBS or instance store volumes to associate with your instance. The volume types available in the list depend on the instance type that you've chosen. For more information, see Amazon EC2 instance store and Amazon EBS volumes.

  • Device name: Select from the list of available device names for the volume.

  • Snapshot: Select the snapshot from which to restore the volume. You can search for available shared and public snapshots by entering text into the Snapshot field.

  • Size (GiB): For EBS volumes, you can specify a storage size. If you have selected an AMI and instance that are eligible for the free tier, keep in mind that to stay within the free tier, you must stay under 30 GiB of total storage.

  • Volume type: For EBS volumes, select a volume type. For more information, see Amazon EBS volume types in the Amazon EBS User Guide.

  • IOPS: If you have selected a Provisioned IOPS SSD volume type, then you can enter the number of I/O operations per second (IOPS) that the volume can support.

  • Delete on termination: For Amazon EBS volumes, choose Yes to delete the volume when the instance is terminated, or choose No to keep the volume. For more information, see Preserve data when an instance is terminated.

  • Encrypted: If the instance type supports EBS encryption, you can choose Yes to enable encryption for the volume. If you have enabled encryption by default in this Region, encryption is enabled for you. For more information, see Amazon EBS encryption in the Amazon EBS User Guide.

  • KMS key: If you selected Yes for Encrypted, then you must select a customer managed key to use to encrypt the volume. If you have enabled encryption by default in this Region, the default customer managed key is selected for you. You can select a different key or specify the ARN of any customer managed key that you created.

  • File systems: Mount an Amazon EFS or Amazon FSx file system to the instance. For more information about mounting an Amazon EFS file system, see Use Amazon EFS with Amazon EC2. For more information about mounting an Amazon FSx file system, see Use Amazon FSx with Amazon EC2

Advanced details

For Advanced details, expand the section to view the fields and specify any additional parameters for the instance.

  • Purchasing option: Choose Request Spot Instances to request Spot Instances at the Spot price, capped at the On-Demand price, and choose Customize to change the default Spot Instance settings. You can set your maximum price (not recommended), and change the request type, request duration, and interruption behavior. If you do not request a Spot Instance, Amazon EC2 launches an On-Demand Instance by default. For more information, see Create a Spot Instance request.

  • Domain join directory: Select the Amazon Directory Service directory (domain) to which your Windows instance is joined after launch. If you select a domain, you must select an IAM role with the required permissions. For more information, see Seamlessly join a Windows EC2 instance.

  • IAM instance profile: Select an Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) instance profile to associate with the instance. For more information, see IAM roles for Amazon EC2.

  • Hostname type: Select whether the guest OS hostname of the instance will include the resource name or the IP name. For more information, see Amazon EC2 instance hostname types.

  • DNS Hostname: Determines if the DNS queries to the resource name or the IP name (depending on what you selected for Hostname type) will respond with the IPv4 address (A record), IPv6 address (AAAA record), or both. For more information, see Amazon EC2 instance hostname types.

  • Shutdown behavior: Select whether the instance should stop or terminate when shut down. For more information, see Change the instance initiated shutdown behavior.

  • Stop - Hibernate behavior: To enable hibernation, choose Enable. This field is available only if your instance meets the hibernation prerequisites. For more information, see Hibernate your Amazon EC2 instance.

  • Termination protection: To prevent accidental termination, choose Enable. For more information, see Enable termination protection.

  • Stop protection: To prevent accidental stopping, choose Enable. For more information, see Enable stop protection.

  • Detailed CloudWatch monitoring: Choose Enable to turn on detailed monitoring of your instance using Amazon CloudWatch. Additional charges apply. For more information, see Monitor your instances using CloudWatch.

  • Elastic GPU: Amazon Elastic Graphics reached end of life on January 8, 2024. For workloads that require graphics acceleration, we recommend that you use Amazon EC2 G4ad, G4dn, or G5 instances.

  • Elastic inference: An elastic inference accelerator to attach to your EC2 CPU instance. For more information, see Working with Amazon Elastic Inference in the Amazon Elastic Inference Developer Guide.

    Note

    Starting April 15, 2023, Amazon will not onboard new customers to Amazon Elastic Inference (EI), and will help current customers migrate their workloads to options that offer better price and performance. After April 15, 2023, new customers will not be able to launch instances with Amazon EI accelerators in Amazon SageMaker, Amazon ECS, or Amazon EC2. However, customers who have used Amazon EI at least once during the past 30-day period are considered current customers and will be able to continue using the service.

  • Credit specification: Choose Unlimited to enable applications to burst beyond the baseline for as long as needed. This field is only valid for T instances. Additional charges may apply. For more information, see Burstable performance instances.

  • Placement group name: Specify a placement group in which to launch the instance. You can select an existing placement group, or create a new one. Not all instance types support launching an instance in a placement group. For more information, see Placement groups.

  • EBS-optimized instance: An instance that's optimized for Amazon EBS uses an optimized configuration stack and provides additional, dedicated capacity for Amazon EBS I/O. If the instance type supports this feature, choose Enable to enable it. Additional charges apply. For more information, see Amazon EBS–optimized instances.

  • Capacity Reservation: Specify whether to launch the instance into any open Capacity Reservation (Open), a specific Capacity Reservation (Target by ID), or a Capacity Reservation group (Target by group). To specify that a Capacity Reservation should not be used, choose None. For more information, see Launch instances into an existing Capacity Reservation.

  • Tenancy: Choose whether to run your instance on shared hardware (Shared), isolated, dedicated hardware (Dedicated), or on a Dedicated Host (Dedicated host). If you choose to launch the instance onto a Dedicated Host, you can specify whether to launch the instance into a host resource group or you can target a specific Dedicated Host. Additional charges may apply. For more information, see Dedicated Instances and Dedicated Hosts.

  • RAM disk ID: (Only valid for paravirtual (PV) AMIs) Select a RAM disk for the instance. If you have selected a kernel, you might need to select a specific RAM disk with the drivers to support it.

  • Kernel ID: (Only valid for paravirtual (PV) AMIs) Select a kernel for the instance.

  • Nitro Enclave: Allows you to create isolated execution environments, called enclaves, from Amazon EC2 instances. Select Enable to enable the instance for Amazon Nitro Enclaves. For more information, see What is Amazon Nitro Enclaves? in the Amazon Nitro Enclaves User Guide.

  • License configurations: You can launch instances against the specified license configuration to track your license usage. For more information, see Create a license configuration in the Amazon License Manager User Guide.

  • Metadata accessible: You can enable or disable access to the instance metadata. For more information, see Configure instance metadata options for new instances.

  • Metadata transport: Enable the instance to reach the link local IMDSv2 IPv6 address (fd00:ec2::254) to retrieve instance metadata. This option is only available if you are launching instances built on the Amazon Nitro System into an IPv6-only subnet. For more information about retrieving instance metadata, see Retrieve instance metadata.

  • Metadata version: If you enable access to the instance metadata, you can choose to require the use of Instance Metadata Service Version 2 when requesting instance metadata. For more information, see Configure instance metadata options for new instances.

  • Metadata response hop limit: If you enable instance metadata, you can set the allowable number of network hops for the metadata token. For more information, see Configure instance metadata options for new instances.

  • Allow tags in metadata: If you select Enable, the instance will allow access to all of its tags from its metadata. If no value is specified, then by default, access to the tags in instance metadata is not allowed. For more information, see Allow access to tags in instance metadata.

  • User data: You can specify user data to configure an instance during launch, or to run a configuration script. For more information, see Run commands on your Windows instance at launch.

Summary

Use the Summary panel to specify the number of instances to launch, to review your instance configuration, and to launch your instances.

  • Number of instances: Enter the number of instances to launch. All of the instances will launch with the same configuration.

    Tip

    To ensure faster instance launches, break up large requests into smaller batches. For example, create five separate launch requests for 100 instances each instead of one launch request for 500 instances.

  • (Optional) If you specify more than one instance, to help ensure that you maintain the correct number of instances to handle demand on your application, you can choose consider EC2 Auto Scaling to create a launch template and an Auto Scaling group. Auto Scaling scales the number of instances in the group according to your specifications. For more information, see the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide.

    Note

    If Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling marks an instance that is in an Auto Scaling group as unhealthy, the instance is automatically scheduled for replacement where it is terminated and another is launched, and you lose your data on the original instance. An instance is marked as unhealthy if you stop or reboot the instance, or if another event marks the instance as unhealthy. For more information, see Health checks for Auto Scaling instances in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide.

  • Review the details of your instance, and make any necessary changes. You can navigate directly to a section by choosing its link in the Summary panel.

  • When you're ready to launch your instance, choose Launch instance.

    If the instance fails to launch or the state immediately goes to terminated instead of running, see Troubleshoot instance launch issues.

    (Optional) You can create a billing alert for the instance. On the confirmation screen, under Next Steps, choose Create billing alerts and follow the directions. Billing alerts can also be created after you launch the instance. For more information, see Creating a billing alarm to monitor your estimated Amazon charges in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.