Launching EC2 Instances with Best Practices
Overview
Domain expertise for launching EC2 instances with sensible defaults optimized for security, cost-efficiency, and operational best practices. Covers AMI selection, instance type recommendation, network configuration, IAM role creation, security group hardening, storage configuration, tagging strategy, and post-launch verification.
Launch an EC2 instance
To launch a fully configured EC2 instance with best-practice defaults, follow the procedure exactly. See EC2 instance launch procedure.
The procedure handles:
- Intelligent defaults based on workload type and environment
- Network validation (VPC, subnet, public/private placement)
- AMI selection with architecture compatibility checks
- Least-privilege IAM roles for required AWS service access
- Hardened security groups with minimal port exposure
- Encrypted gp3 storage with environment-appropriate retention
- Comprehensive tagging for cost tracking and organization
- Post-launch verification and connection instructions
Troubleshooting
Insufficient instance capacity
Try a different availability zone or instance type (e.g., t3a instead of t3). See the full troubleshooting guide in the launch procedure.
Instance immediately terminates
Check console output with aws ec2 get-console-output. Verify EBS volume size is sufficient and AMI is compatible with the instance type.
Cannot connect via SSH
Verify the security group allows SSH from your IP, key file permissions are 400, and the instance is running. Consider AWS Systems Manager Session Manager as an alternative.