itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills/ec2

Name: ec2
Author: itsmostafa

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AWS EC2 virtual machine management — instances, security groups, key pairs, AMIs, EBS volumes, Auto Scaling Groups, Spot Instances, Session Manager, placement groups, and instance lifecycle automation. Trigger on ANY of these, even when EC2 isn't named explicitly: - Launching or provisioning: "spin up a server", "create a VM", "new instance", "run-instances", mention of instance types (t3, m5, c5, r6, g5, p4d, t4g, c7g, etc.) - SSH / connectivity problems: "connection refused", "connection timed out", "permission denied publickey", "can't connect to my instance", "SSH not working" - Instance management: resize, stop, start, terminate, reboot, change instance type - Cost optimization: stop dev instances overnight, save money on EC2, spot vs on-demand, reserved instances - Auto Scaling: ASG, launch template, mixed instances policy, scale to zero, scheduled scaling - Spot Instances: spot fleet, spot interruption, capacity-optimized, price-capacity-optimized - AMIs and backups: create image, custom AMI, EBS snapshot, DLM lifecycle policy, copy AMI - Monitoring: EC2 CPU utilization, CloudWatch metrics for instance, instance status checks, console output - Access methods: Session Manager, EC2 Instance Connect, bastion host, port forwarding - Security: IMDSv2, instance metadata, IAM role on instance, security group rules - User data and bootstrap scripts, cloud-init

Install

npx vskill@latest install itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills/ec2

SKILL.md

AWS EC2

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

Advanced patterns (Auto Scaling, Spot Fleets, Session Manager, Instance Connect, IMDS, Placement Groups, scheduled scaling): see instance-management.md.

Core Concepts
Common Patterns
CLI Reference
Best Practices
Troubleshooting
References

Core Concepts

Instance Types

Category	Example	Use Case
General Purpose	t3, m6i, t4g (Graviton)	Web servers, dev environments
Compute Optimized	c6i, c7g (Graviton)	Batch processing, gaming
Memory Optimized	r6i, r7g (Graviton)	Databases, caching
Storage Optimized	i3, d3	Data warehousing
Accelerated	p4d, g5	ML, graphics

Graviton (ARM) instances (t4g, m7g, c7g, r7g) are ~20% cheaper than x86 equivalents for the same performance — worth considering for new workloads.

Purchasing Options

Option	Description
On-Demand	Pay by the hour/second
Reserved	1-3 year commitment, up to 72% discount
Spot	Unused capacity, up to 90% discount — can be interrupted with 2-minute notice
Savings Plans	Flexible commitment-based discount

AMI (Amazon Machine Image)

Template containing OS, software, and configuration for launching instances. Use SSM Parameter Store to look up the latest official AMIs rather than hardcoding IDs:

bash

# Latest Amazon Linux 2 AMI
aws ssm get-parameter \
  --name /aws/service/ami-amazon-linux-latest/amzn2-ami-hvm-x86_64-gp2 \
  --query 'Parameter.Value' --output text
 
# Latest Amazon Linux 2023
aws ssm get-parameter \
  --name /aws/service/ami-amazon-linux-latest/al2023-ami-kernel-default-x86_64 \
  --query 'Parameter.Value' --output text
 
# Latest Ubuntu 22.04
aws ssm get-parameter \
  --name /aws/service/canonical/ubuntu/server/22.04/stable/current/amd64/hvm/ebs-gp2/ami-id \
  --query 'Parameter.Value' --output text

Security Groups

Virtual firewalls controlling inbound and outbound traffic. Changes take effect immediately — no restart required.

Common Patterns

Launch an Instance

bash

# Create key pair
aws ec2 create-key-pair \
  --key-name my-key \
  --query 'KeyMaterial' \
  --output text > my-key.pem
chmod 400 my-key.pem
 
# Create security group
aws ec2 create-security-group \
  --group-name web-server-sg \
  --description "Web server security group" \
  --vpc-id vpc-12345678
 
# Allow SSH and HTTP
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id sg-12345678 \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 22 \
  --cidr 10.0.0.0/8
 
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id sg-12345678 \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 80 \
  --cidr 0.0.0.0/0
 
# Launch instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --instance-type t3.micro \
  --key-name my-key \
  --security-group-ids sg-12345678 \
  --subnet-id subnet-12345678 \
  --associate-public-ip-address \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=web-server}]'
 
# Wait until running, then get IP
aws ec2 wait instance-running --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].PublicIpAddress' --output text

boto3:

python

import boto3
ec2 = boto3.resource('ec2')
instances = ec2.create_instances(
    ImageId='ami-0123456789abcdef0',
    InstanceType='t3.micro',
    KeyName='my-key',
    SecurityGroupIds=['sg-12345678'],
    SubnetId='subnet-12345678',
    MinCount=1,
    MaxCount=1,
    TagSpecifications=[{
        'ResourceType': 'instance',
        'Tags': [{'Key': 'Name', 'Value': 'web-server'}]
    }]
)
instance = instances[0]
instance.wait_until_running()
instance.reload()
print(f"Instance ID: {instance.id}")
print(f"Public IP: {instance.public_ip_address}")

User Data Script

OS package manager note:
- Amazon Linux 2: use amazon-linux-extras install nginx1 -y — yum install nginx fails because nginx is not in the default AL2 repos
- Amazon Linux 2023: use dnf install -y nginx
- Ubuntu: use apt-get install -y nginx
- Amazon Linux 2 / RHEL: httpd (Apache) is always available via yum install -y httpd

bash

# Amazon Linux 2 — nginx via amazon-linux-extras
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --instance-type t3.micro \
  --key-name my-key \
  --security-group-ids sg-12345678 \
  --subnet-id subnet-12345678 \
  --user-data '#!/bin/bash
amazon-linux-extras install nginx1 -y
systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable nginx
'
 
# Amazon Linux 2 — httpd (Apache, simpler alternative)
# --user-data '#!/bin/bash
# yum install -y httpd
# systemctl start httpd
# systemctl enable httpd
# echo "<h1>Hello from $(hostname -f)</h1>" > /var/www/html/index.html
# '

Attach IAM Role

bash

# Create instance profile
aws iam create-instance-profile \
  --instance-profile-name web-server-profile
 
aws iam add-role-to-instance-profile \
  --instance-profile-name web-server-profile \
  --role-name web-server-role
 
# Launch with profile
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --instance-type t3.micro \
  --iam-instance-profile Name=web-server-profile \
  ...

Create AMI from Instance

bash

aws ec2 create-image \
  --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --name "my-custom-ami-$(date +%Y%m%d)" \
  --description "Custom AMI with web server" \
  --no-reboot

Auto Scaling Group with Spot (Modern Approach)

The recommended way to use Spot Instances at scale is via Auto Scaling Groups with a mixed-instances policy — not the legacy request-spot-instances API. This supports instance diversification to minimize interruptions.

See instance-management.md for the full setup. Quick example:

bash

# 1. Create launch template with IMDSv2
aws ec2 create-launch-template \
  --launch-template-name my-lt \
  --launch-template-data '{
    "ImageId": "ami-0123456789abcdef0",
    "SecurityGroupIds": ["sg-12345678"],
    "IamInstanceProfile": {"Name": "my-profile"},
    "MetadataOptions": {"HttpTokens": "required", "HttpEndpoint": "enabled"}
  }'
 
# 2. Create ASG with mixed-instances (Spot + On-Demand diversification)
aws autoscaling create-auto-scaling-group \
  --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg \
  --min-size 0 --max-size 20 --desired-capacity 2 \
  --vpc-zone-identifier "subnet-111,subnet-222" \
  --mixed-instances-policy '{
    "LaunchTemplate": {
      "LaunchTemplateSpecification": {"LaunchTemplateName": "my-lt", "Version": "$Latest"},
      "Overrides": [
        {"InstanceType": "c5.xlarge"},
        {"InstanceType": "c5.2xlarge"},
        {"InstanceType": "c5a.xlarge"}
      ]
    },
    "InstancesDistribution": {
      "OnDemandBaseCapacity": 0,
      "OnDemandPercentageAboveBaseCapacity": 0,
      "SpotAllocationStrategy": "capacity-optimized"
    }
  }'

EBS Volume Management

bash

# Create volume
aws ec2 create-volume \
  --availability-zone us-east-1a \
  --size 100 \
  --volume-type gp3 \
  --iops 3000 \
  --throughput 125 \
  --encrypted
 
# Attach to instance
aws ec2 attach-volume \
  --volume-id vol-12345678 \
  --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --device /dev/sdf
 
# Create snapshot
aws ec2 create-snapshot \
  --volume-id vol-12345678 \
  --description "Daily backup"

CLI Reference

Instance Management

Command	Description
`aws ec2 run-instances`	Launch instances
`aws ec2 describe-instances`	List instances
`aws ec2 start-instances`	Start stopped instances
`aws ec2 stop-instances`	Stop running instances
`aws ec2 reboot-instances`	Reboot instances
`aws ec2 terminate-instances`	Terminate instances
`aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute`	Modify instance settings

Security Groups

Command	Description
`aws ec2 create-security-group`	Create security group
`aws ec2 describe-security-groups`	List security groups
`aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress`	Add inbound rule
`aws ec2 revoke-security-group-ingress`	Remove inbound rule
`aws ec2 authorize-security-group-egress`	Add outbound rule

AMIs

Command	Description
`aws ec2 describe-images`	List AMIs
`aws ec2 create-image`	Create AMI from instance
`aws ec2 copy-image`	Copy AMI to another region
`aws ec2 deregister-image`	Delete AMI

EBS Volumes

Command	Description
`aws ec2 create-volume`	Create EBS volume
`aws ec2 attach-volume`	Attach to instance
`aws ec2 detach-volume`	Detach from instance
`aws ec2 create-snapshot`	Create snapshot
`aws ec2 modify-volume`	Resize/modify volume

Best Practices

Security

Use IAM roles instead of access keys on instances
Restrict security groups — principle of least privilege
Use private subnets for backend instances
Enable IMDSv2 to prevent SSRF attacks
Encrypt EBS volumes at rest

bash

# Require IMDSv2 on existing instance
aws ec2 modify-instance-metadata-options \
  --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --http-tokens required \
  --http-endpoint enabled

Performance

Right-size instances — monitor and adjust
Use EBS-optimized instances
Choose appropriate EBS volume type (gp3 is the default good choice; io2 for high IOPS)
Use placement groups for low-latency networking (see instance-management.md)

Cost Optimization

Use Spot Instances for fault-tolerant workloads (batch, ML training, CI)
Stop/terminate unused instances
Use Reserved Instances or Savings Plans for steady-state workloads
Delete unused EBS volumes and snapshots
Consider Graviton (t4g, m7g, c7g) — ~20% cheaper for same performance

Reliability

Use Auto Scaling Groups for high availability (see instance-management.md)
Deploy across multiple AZs
Use Elastic Load Balancer for traffic distribution
Implement health checks

Troubleshooting

Cannot SSH to Instance

First: identify the error type — it points to different root causes:

Error	What it means	Primary suspects
`Connection refused`	Network is reachable, but SSH daemon is not listening	sshd crashed, sshd not installed, OS firewall (ufw/iptables) blocking, wrong port
`Connection timed out`	Packets never arrive	Security group blocks port 22, NACL blocks traffic, no public IP, wrong IP
`Permission denied`	Connected, but auth failed	Wrong key file, wrong username, key not authorized

Common username by OS:

OS	Default SSH user
Amazon Linux 2 / 2023	`ec2-user`
Ubuntu	`ubuntu`
Debian	`admin`
CentOS / RHEL	`ec2-user` or `centos`
Windows	`Administrator`

Diagnostic commands:

bash

# 1. Check instance state and public IP
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --query "Reservations[].Instances[].{State:State.Name,PublicIP:PublicIpAddress,StatusChecks:State.Name}"
 
# 2. Check instance status (system + instance checks)
aws ec2 describe-instance-status --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0
 
# 3. Check security group rules for port 22
aws ec2 describe-security-groups \
  --group-ids sg-12345678 \
  --query "SecurityGroups[].IpPermissions[?ToPort==\`22\`]"
 
# 4. Get console output to see boot logs, sshd errors, OOM events
aws ec2 get-console-output \
  --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --latest \
  --query Output --output text

If connection refused — get inside via Session Manager to fix sshd:

This is the start of the file. Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub.

Security

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Source

SKILL.md in the repositoryCheckingskills/ec2/SKILL.md

Popularity

Repository stars: 1,064
Repository forks: 437
7-day trend score: 35

Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Refreshed 8 Apr 2026, 6 months ago.

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Install

SKILL.md

AWS EC2

Table of Contents

Core Concepts

Instance Types

Purchasing Options

AMI (Amazon Machine Image)

Security Groups

Common Patterns

Launch an Instance

User Data Script

Attach IAM Role

Create AMI from Instance

Auto Scaling Group with Spot (Modern Approach)

EBS Volume Management

CLI Reference

Instance Management

Security Groups

AMIs

EBS Volumes

Best Practices

Security

Performance

Cost Optimization

Reliability

Troubleshooting

Cannot SSH to Instance

Security

Quality evaluation

Source

Popularity

Works with