Connecting to AWS EC2 instance through remote desktop

Question

I have an Ubuntu AWS EC2 instance running in the AWS cloud and in my Windows machine I am using PuTTy to connect to it. The problem with this way is that I just have one terminal CLI to access/edit all my code in EC2 instance, which has many files and folders.

Is there a way where I can connect to AWS EC2 to my Windows machine and access the code in my IDE? Something like Remote desktop connection?

Note: I can't test my code on my local machine because the services that I want to access have only whitelisted my AWS EC2 IP.

Answer 1

Step 1: Open a ec2 Ubuntu terminal using a PuTTY. Refer for more detail how to connect your Linux instance from Windows using PuTTY https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/putty.html

Step 2: Run the following commands on PuTTY Ubuntu terminal step by step

sudo apt update

Install xrdp to allow RDP connections:

sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

sudo apt install xrdp

Set a password for the ubuntu user:

sudo passwd ubuntu

Step 3:

• Go to AWS console (EC2 Dashboard)
• Click on Instances(running)
• Select your running Ubuntu instance
• Go to Security
• Click on Security Groups
• Click on Edit inbound rules
• In type drop down select RDP
• It by default select port 3389
• In Source add 0.0.0.0/0 IP
• Click on Save rules

Step 4:

• Open Remote Desktop Connection on windows machine
• Enter Computer: Public IPv4 DNS of Ubuntu ec2 and add username:your_user_name
• click on connect will open up GUI version of Ubuntu (linux), It ask for password please enter the set password.