Setting up my image on EC2

The set up I am working with is a Fedora Core 4 with Apache 2 and Mysql 5.

I used this video to help me get my image up and running. It is a good start for using EC2.

If you want a regular web site you need authorize port 80 for http - that’s the standard protocol. Https is the secure version used for some applications like credit cards. SSH is the protocol used for connecting to your EC2 instance using a terminal to do all the configuration stuff. And FTP is a common way of uploading and downloading files.

I modified the authorization to add ftp and https, which requires that port 21 and 443 be authorized in addition to ports 22 for SSH and 80 for http. If you watch the video you will see that you just have to use the ec2-authorize default -p XX where XX is the port number at the command line.

After running through the steps in the video I have an FC4 image up and running with apache 2, php5 and mysql 5.

Updating and installing stuff I need.

1. yum update (general update- say yes to downloads etc)

Install and set up the FTP server

1. yum install vsftpd (installs my ftp server)
2. cd /etc/vsftpd
3. cp vsftpd.conf vsftpd.conf_original - make a copy
4. vim vsftpd.conf ( change anonymous_enable=YES to anonymous_enable=NO to block anonymous ftp connections)
5. chkconfig –level 345 vsftpd on (so it starts automatically on reboot)
6. service vsftpd start

Configure the firewall

Lokkit is a simple firewall. Make sure to set up SSH so you can get back into your instance later - dumb mistake I made a few time before I figured that our.

1. lokkit
2. TAB over to customize, hit enter
3. TAB to WWW, FTP, SSH, HTTPS and press the space bar each time so they each have an asterisk next to them
4. TAB to ok, hit enter
5. TAB to ok, hit enter

Set up some users so you can log in as something other than root.

1. adduser user_name_you_want_to_use
2. passwd user_name_you_want_to_use (need to enter password twice to prompts)
3. visudo (to change permissions. Find the line that says “root ALL=(ALL) ALL” and add a new line “user_name_you_want_to_use ALL=(ALL) ALL” without the quotes and save it)

Ok. I now have my instance up and running.