•6 min
Getting Started with AWS EC2: A Practical Guide
What EC2 is, when to use it, how to launch, secure, and deploy a simple app.
EC2 is Amazon's elastic compute in the cloud. Think of it as a virtual machine you can start in minutes and pay for only while it's running.
When to use EC2: when you want full control over the OS, networking, and runtime. It's great for APIs, workers, and long-running services. If you need zero-maintenance containers, consider ECS or EKS.
Setup summary I use:
- Choose Amazon Linux 2023 or Ubuntu LTS.
- Instance type: t3.micro or t3.small for side projects.
- Storage: 16–32 GB gp3 is enough.
- Security group: open only 22 (SSH) to your IP and 80/443 for web.
- Key pair: create and keep it safe.
Hygiene:
- Create a non-root user; disable password SSH; use ufw or iptables.
- Keep the system updated.
- Use a process manager (pm2/systemd) so apps restart on crash.
Deployment approach:
- For Node/Next, build locally or CI, then deploy artifacts via SSH, or use Docker.
- For TLS, use a reverse proxy (nginx or Caddy). I prefer Caddy for its automatic HTTPS.
Cost tips:
- Stop dev instances when not in use.
- Use savings plans or spot for batch workloads.
EC2 gives you flexibility without locking you in. Start small, automate later, and keep security tight from day one.