How to Connect to an Amazon EC2 Linux AMI Using SecureCRT

Posted by skufel on Sep 24, 2012 | Categories: Cloud, Infrastructure, Linux, Security, Virtualization | Comments: 6

Introduction

I recently started using the Amazon AWS EC2 platform for hosting systems in the cloud. For my operating system, I chose the Amazon Linux AMI, which is straightforward and quick to deploy.

After creating my instance, I downloaded the key pair needed for access. My preferred SSH client is SecureCRT, and here's a step-by-step guide on how to set it up to connect to an Amazon Linux AMI instance on the EC2 platform.

Requirements

• SecureCRT 7.0.1 or later
• Access to Amazon EC2 instance
• .pem file for SSH authentication

Configuration Steps

1. Start a New Session in SecureCRT:

   • Navigate to the Connection/SSH2 section when creating a new session.
   • Hostname: Enter the DNS name of the host, which you can find in the AWS Management Console.
   • Username: Use ec2-user as the default username for Amazon Linux AMI.
   • Authentication: Ensure only the PublicKey is enabled as the authentication option.

2. Set Up Authentication Parameters:

   • In the Session Options under Connection/SSH2, highlight PublicKey in the Authentication section and click Properties.
   • In the Public Key Properties window, select Use session public key settings.
   • In the Session settings section, choose Use identity or certificate file and navigate to the *.pem file you downloaded from the Amazon EC2 console.
   • Confirm by clicking OK, and then again in the Session Options window.

3. Connect to Your Instance:

   • In the Connect window, select the session you just created and click the Connect button.

Completion

Once connected, you will have access to your Amazon Linux AMI instance. Enjoy managing your cloud-based system via SecureCRT.