Connecting to the Windows EC2 Instance

1. In Windows, decrypt the Windows Administrator password you need to access the EC2 instance from your local machine, as follows:

a. On the Instances page, right-click the row for the EC2 instance and click Get Windows Password. Amazon displays an encrypted Windows Administrator password.

Note:

It might take as long as 20 minutes after you launch the instance for the password to become available.

b. Click Choose and browse to the key pair you created earlier.

Note:

You can change the EC2 instance password later as you would any other Windows user password.

2. Connect to the running Windows EC2 instance as follows:

a. On the Instances page, click the EC2 instance. Copy the public DNS from the Description tab.

b. Go to the remote desktop connection on your local machine and paste in the public DNS as the computer name.

Note:

If you see a message that says you cannot connect, reboot the EC2 instance and then try again to connect.

d. Log in to the remote EC2 instance desktop as administrator, and supply the Windows Administrator password you decrypted. The EC2 instance desktop opens on the local machine.

3. Set up the fully qualified domain name (FQDN, or FQN) for the Windows EC2 instance as follows:

a. On the Windows Start menu in the EC2 instance desktop, under All Programs, click EC2ConfigService Settings. Click the General tab and clear the Set Computer Name check box. Apply the change.

Note:

If you do not see EC2ConfigService Settings in the Windows Start menu, go to the Amazon directory under Program Files in your file system and locate and run the EC2 configuration application.

b. Update the machine host name for the EC2 instance to an FQN.

Important:

If you configured a DNS server (see Configuring a DNS Server), and you updated the DNS server with this EC2 instance’s IP address, the FQN for the machine host name must exactly match the entry in the DNS server.

c. When prompted to restart your computer, restart and then reconnect your local machine to the running EC2 instance using the instructions above.