Scenario

A simple landing page must be served from an EC2 instance. The instance should be reachable over HTTP and associated with its own security group.

Task

Create a security group named web-sg that allows TCP port 80 (HTTP) from any IPv4 address.

Launch an EC2 instance with the following configuration:

Select any available AMI in the current region (you may use aws ec2 describe-images to find one).

Ensure the instance automatically creates the following file during startup:

/var/www/html/index.html with the content: Hello from web-1

Note: You can use either the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI to complete this task.

Step 1: Create the security group

SG_ID=$(aws ec2 create-security-group \
  --group-name web-sg \
  --description "Web server security group" \
  --query 'GroupId' --output text)

Step 2: Add inbound HTTP rule

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id "$SG_ID" \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 80 \
  --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

Allows HTTP traffic from anywhere to reach the web server.

Step 3: Create the user data script

cat > userdata.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p /var/www/html
echo "Hello from web-1" > /var/www/html/index.html
EOF

This script runs on first boot and creates the landing page.

Step 4: Find an available AMI

AMI_ID=$(aws ec2 describe-images --filters "Name=architecture,Values=x86_64" --query 'Images[0].ImageId' --output text)
echo $AMI_ID

Step 5: Launch the instance

aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id "$AMI_ID" \
  --instance-type t2.micro \
  --security-group-ids "$SG_ID" \
  --user-data file://userdata.sh \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=web-1}]'

Launches a t2.micro instance with the security group, user data script, and the Name tag.

Step 6: Verify the instance

aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=web-1" \
  --query 'Reservations[0].Instances[0].{Id:InstanceId,Type:InstanceType,State:State.Name,SG:SecurityGroups[0].GroupName}'

Should show the instance as running with t2.micro type and web-sg security group.