GuidesSetting Up VNC on Ubuntu in Amazon EC2 - Page 2 Page...

Setting Up VNC on Ubuntu in Amazon EC2 – Page 2 Page 2

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Connecting to the Ubuntu Instance via SSH

In order to remotely connect to your instance via SSH you must first open up the SSH port in the firewall:

  • Go to the Security Groups page.

  • Select the Security Group your instance is assigned to (check on the Instances page if you’re unsure).

  • Select the Inbound tab.

  • For Create a new rule, select SSH, click Add Rule and then Apply Rule Change.

Now you can connect to your instance via SSH. While you can use Amazon’s Web-based SSH client, for increased functionality you should use a full-featured client like the free and open source PuTTY program for Windows and Unix platforms.

And when downloading PuTTY for Windows we recommend downloading the Windows installer package, so it’s installed onto Windows like other programs and comes with the PuTTYgen program you’ll also need.

Once you’ve installed PuTTY, run the PuTTYgen program and convert your private key .pem file into a PuTTY private key .ppk file:

  • Click the Load button, select the All Files option, select the .pem file you downloaded from Amazon EC2, and click Open.
  • Click OK on the prompt that appears.
  • For increased security you can create a password that you must enter when connecting via SSH with this private key. If desired, enter a password in the Key Passphrase and Confirm Passphrase fields.
  • Click the Save Private Key button, choose a safe and secure location, and click Save.

Now you can open the PuTTY program and configure it:

  • For the Host Name, enter your Public DNS address, which you can get from the AWS Instances page.
  • Then navigate to the Auth (authentication) settings: click Connection, SSH and Auth. Click the Browse button, select the .ppk file you generated with PuTTYgen and click Open.
  • So that you can later remote desktop into the instance, select Tunnels under the SSH settings. Enter 9000 for the Source Port and localhost:5901 for the Destination and then click Add.
  • Go back to the Session settings and you can save this configuration by entering a name in the textbox under Saved Sessions and clicking Save.

When you’re ready to connect, click Open on the PuTTY program. Then log in as the ubuntu user. If you created a password when you generated your PuTTY private key, enter it; otherwise it should just connect.

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