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oluoma stella onyeukwa
oluoma stella onyeukwa

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Creating an Amazon EC2 instance and installing the IIS web server.

This tutorial shows how to build an EC2 instance on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and install the IIS web server on it.

What is AWS?

AWS is a comprehensive and popular cloud platform with a global presence that provides safe and affordable cloud computing services, including computation, storage, databases, machine learning, networking, and more, based in data centers spread across the globe. A virtual server in the AWS cloud environment is called an Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instance.

Table of contents

The three simple steps to create an Amazon EC2 console are as follows:.

Step 1: Sign in into AWS management console and create the EC2 instance.

  • go to Google and search for AWS management console.

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  • Sign in to the console or create a profile.

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  • Search for EC2 on the home page.

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  • Select EC2 and scroll down and launch instance.

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  • Give the instance a name and add tags.

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  • In the Application and OS Images under the Quick Start tab, select an OS image for your instance.

  • Select Windows.

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  • Select the free Microsoft Windows server 2025 Base as the Amazon machine image.

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  • select t3.micro under instance type.

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  • For key pair, Create new key pair.

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  • Give the keypair a name, ensure key pair type is RSA then craete a key pair. Notice the keypair file is downloaded.

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  • Scroll down to Firewall (security groups), select Ensure RDP from anywhere and Allow HTTP from the internet are both selected. This will ensure your server can be accessed anywhere over the internet.

  • Launch instance and wait for it to be successful.

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Step 2: Connect to the instance and create the IIS web server

  • Connect to instance.

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  • Select the RDP Client tab, check the Connect using RDP and Download the RDP file.

  • Wait for the file to download.

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  • Select Get password.

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  • Upload private key file, navigate and select the key file downloaded previously.

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  • Decrypt password.

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  • Copy password.

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  • Open the RDP file that was downloaded and Connect.

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  • Paste the password previously copied. Ok

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Step 3: Create the IIS web server.

  • Search for PowerShell on the desktop, run as Admin.

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  • Enter the command Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools. Press Enter.

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  • Wait for it to finish loading.

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  • Notice the Exit Code says successful.

  • Exit the remote desktop to the AWS management console. Select the instance, copy the public IP address.

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  • Paste the IP address in a new tab on your browser.

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  • Press Enter and observe the web server that was deployed.

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  • Notice the IIS web server was successfully accessed from the public internet.

  • To ensure you dont run out your credit on AWS, Terminate and delete Instance immediately after usage.

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Top comments (1)

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tjasper profile image
Oluwaloseyi Oluwatofunmi Emmanuel

Well detailed article! Thanks for sharing.