Cannot ping AWS EC2 instance

Question

Add a new EC2 security group inbound rule:

• Type: Custom ICMP rule
• Protocol: Echo Request
• Port: N/A
• Source: your choice (I would select Anywhere to be able to ping from any machine)

A few years late but hopefully this will help someone else...

1) First make sure the EC2 instance has a public IP. If has a Public DNS or Public IP address (circled below) then you should be good. This will be the address you ping.

2) Next make sure the Amazon network rules allow Echo Requests. Go to the Security Group for the EC2.

• right click, select inbound rules
• A: select Add Rule
• B: Select Custom ICMP Rule - IPv4
• C: Select Echo Request
• D: Select either Anywhere or My IP
• E: Select Save

3) Next, Windows firewall blocks inbound Echo requests by default. Allow Echo requests by creating a windows firewall exception...

• Go to Start and type Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
• Select inbound rules

4) Done! Hopefully you should now be able to ping your server.

You have to edit the Security Group to which your EC2 instance belongs and allow access (or alternatively create a new one and add the instance to it).

By default everything is denied. The exception you need to add to the Security Group depends on the service you need to make available to the internet.

If it is a webserver you will need to allow access to port 80 for 0.0.0.0/0 (which means any IP address).

To allow pinging the instance you need to enable ICMP traffic.

The AWS Web Console provides some of the most commonly used options in the relevant dropdown list.

The custom ICMP rule in the security group is not what it takes, a least for me. But the following rule will work:

Type: All ICMP 
Protocol: TCP
Port range: 0 - 65535
Source: Anywhere - 0.0.0.0/0

After doing this you will be able to ping other instances. You should see something like:

PING 10.0.0.15 (10.0.0.15): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=3.9 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=3.9 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=10.6 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=40.6 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=3.8 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=5.3 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=6.5 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=3.5 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=21.0 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=3.5 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=3.5 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=59.7 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=3.5 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=3.5 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=4.8 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=3.1 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=3.1 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=3.0 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.14: icmp_seq=19 ttl=64 time=3.1 ms

--- 10.0.0.14 ping statistics ---
20 packets transmitted, 19 packets received, 5% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 3.0/9.9/59.7 ms

That´s it.

1. Go to EC2 Dashboard and click "Running Instances" on "Security Groups", select the group of your instance which you need to add security.
2. click on the "Inbound" tab
3. Click "Edit" Button (It will open an popup window)
4. click "Add Rule"
5. Select the "Custom ICMP rule - IPv4" as Type
6. Select "Echo Request" and "Echo Response" as the Protocol (Port Range by default show as "N/A)
7. Enter the "0.0.0.0/0" as Source
8. Click "Save"

Please go through the below checklists

1) You have to first check whether the instance is launched in a subnet where it is reachable from the internet

For that check whether the instance launched subnet has an internet gateway attached to it.For details of networking in AWS please go through the below link.

public and private subnets in aws vpc

2) Check whether you have proper security group rules added,If notAdd the below rule in the security group attached to instance.A Security group is firewall attached to every instance launched.The security groups contain the inbound/outbound rules which allow the traffic in/out of the instance.by default every security group allow all outbound traffic from the instance and no inbound traffic to the instance.Check the below link for more details of the traffic.

security group documentation

Type: custom ICMPV4

Protocol: ICMP

Portrange : Echo Request

Source: 0.0.0.0/0

3) Check whether you have the enough rules in the subnet level firewall called NACL.An NACL is a stateless firewall which needs both inbound and outbound traffic separately specified.NACL is applied at the subnet level, all the instances under the subnet will come under the NACL rules.Below is the link which will have more details on it.

NACL documentation

Inbound Rules . Outbound Rules

Type: Custom IPV4 Type: Custom IPV4

Protocol: ICMP Protocol: ICMP

Portrange: ECHO REQUEST Portrange: ECHO REPLY

Source: 0.0.0.0/0 Destination: 0.0.0.0/0

Allow/Deny: Allow Allow/Deny: Allow

4) check any firewalls like IPTABLES and disble for testing the ping.