Why EC2 matters for compute in AWS - See It in Action

Why EC2 Matters for Compute

📖 Scenario: You are starting a small web application project. You need a place to run your application code on the cloud. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) lets you rent virtual computers to run your programs.Think of EC2 as renting a computer in the cloud that you can control, just like your own laptop, but accessible from anywhere.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple EC2 instance configuration using AWS CloudFormation to launch a virtual server with a specific name and instance type.This will help you understand how EC2 provides compute power in the cloud.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a CloudFormation template with a resource of type AWS::EC2::Instance

Set the instance type to t2.micro

Name the instance with the tag Key 'Name' and Value 'MyFirstEC2Instance'

Use the Amazon Linux 2 AMI ID for the instance

Ensure the template is valid and deployable

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

EC2 instances are the basic building blocks for running applications, websites, and services on AWS. Knowing how to configure them is essential for cloud computing.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and developers often create and manage EC2 instances to deploy software and scale infrastructure.

1

Create the basic CloudFormation template structure

Create a CloudFormation template starting with the root keys AWSTemplateFormatVersion set to '2010-09-09' and an empty Resources section.

AWS

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Resources:
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Start with the basic CloudFormation template keys.

2

Add an EC2 instance resource with instance type

Inside the Resources section, add a resource named MyEC2Instance of type AWS::EC2::Instance and set its InstanceType property to t2.micro.

AWS

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Resources:
  MyEC2Instance:
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
    Properties:
      InstanceType: t2.micro
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Define the EC2 instance resource with the correct type and instance size.

3

Add the Amazon Linux 2 AMI ID to the instance

Add the ImageId property to MyEC2Instance and set it to the Amazon Linux 2 AMI ID ami-0c02fb55956c7d316 (this is a common AMI in us-east-1 region).

AWS

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Resources:
  MyEC2Instance:
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
    Properties:
      InstanceType: t2.micro
      ImageId: ami-0c02fb55956c7d316
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the correct AMI ID for Amazon Linux 2 to launch the instance.

4

Add a Name tag to the EC2 instance

Add a Tags property under Properties of MyEC2Instance. Set it to a list with one tag object having Key as Name and Value as MyFirstEC2Instance.

AWS

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Resources:
  MyEC2Instance:
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
    Properties:
      InstanceType: t2.micro
      ImageId: ami-0c02fb55956c7d316
      Tags:
        - Key: Name
          Value: MyFirstEC2Instance
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Tags help identify your instance. Add the Name tag as shown.