How to connect via SSH from AWS CloudShell to EC2 instance

Just a quick list of actions and tricks to write down how to connect from AWS CloudShell to an EC2 instance

I dropped a pint of beer on my Mac. šŸ˜¢

Suddenly, I realized how slow I am without my personal computer. I need to be able to develop quickly, anywhere. Of course, nothing can replace my favorite environment, but I want to be able to distribute my development tasks. Recently, I read the AWS CloudShell announcement.

A few years ago, it was a dream for me to have an SSH shell I could connect to from anywhere, for free! But how can I connect to an EC2 instance?

  1. Enter your CloudShell from your browser by clicking on the CloudShell icon in the AWS console navigation bar.
  2. Get your CloudShell instance IP: run curl ifconfig.co
  3. Create or update an inbound rule for your EC2 instanceā€™s security group:
    • Type: SSH
    • Source: The output from the command in step 2, e.g., 3.4.5.6/32.
    • For the description, I add: My IP on AWS CloudShell (run curl ifconfig.co)
  4. Upload your SSH key to a private S3 bucket, then use aws s3 cp to copy it to your CloudShell instance.
  5. Follow the instructions you get when you click the ā€œConnectā€ button in your EC2 instance dashboard. For example, you need to run chmod 400 on your SSH key (only once), and you also need to know the IP of your EC2 instance.

Good luck!