connecting to AWS EC2 instance tutorial

[SwainGIS]

I am attempting to transfer my web application to an AWS EC2 instance. I am able to ftp to my AWS server using the command prompt. However when defining my site within Dreamweaver CC 2017 I am getting errors. Where is the tutorial for this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Kurt

[Nancy OShea]

I also use Amazon for hosting assets used by my web sites.  It's not possible to upload files to Amazon with Dreamweaver or Filezilla FTP client.  This is an Amazon thing. The procedure is to log-in to your AWS account and use Amazon's proprietary file uploader.  

Nancy 

[EbaySeller]

Nancy OShea wrote:

I also use Amazon for hosting assets used by my web sites. It's not possible to upload files to Amazon with Dreamweaver or Filezilla FTP client. This is an Amazon thing. The procedure is to log-in to your AWS account and use Amazon's proprietary file uploader.

Nancy

Unfortunately, this is incorrect information. You most certainly can use an FTP client to SSH into an EC2 instance using a .pem file and upload your website files. A quick search on Google will show you many articles that explain the process. You can also use FTP client to upload to an S3 bucket using an AWS key and secret. Are you using an EC2 instance like the OP asked about or are you simply uploading static files to an S3 bucket to use through CloudFront? It looks like you have a lot to learn about AWS.

[SwainGIS]

Nancy, thanks for this feedback. I found some tutorials for using AWS/FileZilla and obtained the required .pem key file, per those instructions. FileZilla does connect but then fails attempting to obtain the directory structure. I sent a link to this thread to an Amazon engineer for comment. It is a shame I am unable to find a "transfer my files to your EC2" tutorial within the AWS training site.

The FTP client in Dreamweaver seems very weak to me. I am able to use it on my other hosted sites at other vendor's servers. AWS must be coping with security issues to make it so complicated.

[Nancy OShea]

Amazon is a totally different beast from ordinary web hosts.  Lots of security layers, authentication, encryption keys, etc...  The learning curve can be quiet steep at first  but it gets easier with time.  AWS has improved their file uploader.  For me, it's much faster than SFTP.  And the panel provides easy access to the various advanced options.

Nancy

[SwainGIS]

I got this from an AWS engineer:

**************************************************************************************

Hi Kurt,

I downloaded FileZilla and tested
it against my test Windows EC2 FTP instance.

Worked like a charm. 
Very fast… faster than WinSCP.

There were some security group
settings that I had to make in order to have either WinSCP or FileZilla work.

Those are:

Protocol/Port/Source

TCP      
21           [my ip address]

TCP
     
49152-65535       [my ip address]

You then need to make sure that
the settings on your FTP service are correct.

*********************************************************************

I checked my AWS instance security group settings and we had previously added a slightly wider range just as seen in his example. Perhaps that is why I can old school command prompt ftp no issues. I am still unable to use FileZilla. One thing he did point out is that the youTube tutorials for AWS/Filezilla are NOT on Win OS. So, no .prm file is required!

I deleted my two ftp sites, one for a static site and one for my GIS dynamic site. I created one new ftp site connected to the root folder of my static html site. Still FileZilla connects, attempts to obtain the file structure, and then disconnects. I assume he means the IIS ftp  site settings, which I left at default.

If all this effort fails, I'll shut up and use the embedded AWS tool.

Thanks again, Nancy.

Kurt

[EbaySeller]

SwainGIS wrote:

I got this from an AWS engineer:

**************************************************************************************

Hi Kurt,

I downloaded FileZilla and tested
it against my test Windows EC2 FTP instance.

Worked like a charm.
Very fast… faster than WinSCP.

There were some security group
settings that I had to make in order to have either WinSCP or FileZilla work.

Those are:

Protocol/Port/Source

TCP
21 [my ip address]

TCP

49152-65535 [my ip address]

You then need to make sure that
the settings on your FTP service are correct.

*********************************************************************

I checked my AWS instance security group settings and we had previously added a slightly wider range just as seen in his example. Perhaps that is why I can old school command prompt ftp no issues. I am still unable to use FileZilla. One thing he did point out is that the youTube tutorials for AWS/Filezilla are NOT on Win OS. So, no .prm file is required!

I deleted my two ftp sites, one for a static site and one for my GIS dynamic site. I created one new ftp site connected to the root folder of my static html site. Still FileZilla connects, attempts to obtain the file structure, and then disconnects. I assume he means the IIS ftp site settings, which I left at default.

If all this effort fails, I'll shut up and use the embedded AWS tool.

Thanks again, Nancy.

Kurt

If you're using SSH protocol in an FTP client then make sure that SSH port 22 is open and accessible by your IP (restrict to just your IP for security reasons) in your AWS EC2 security group settings.

One more thing: make sure your local .pem file that you're trying to use to connect has the appropriate permission settings. If the .pem file is accessible to ppl other than yourself you'll most likely get a Permission denied (publickey) warning when trying to connect.

[EbaySeller]

SwainGIS wrote:

I found some tutorials for using AWS/FileZilla and obtained the required .pem key file, per those instructions.

It might also be that you're using an incorrect .pem file. You can not, by your own words, "obtain" a .pem key file after an EC2 instance is launched. You either create and download a new .pem file at the time you launch a new instance or you tell AWS to use an existing .pem file for your EC2 instance that you already downloaded in the past and is being used in another instance. Either of those options are determined at the time you launch the EC2 instance and can not be changed later on. You can never (EVER!) download a .pem file from AWS after the EC2 instance is launched, nor can you ever edit the EC2 instance to have it use a different .pem file than the one you configured during the launch of the instance. You may have to launch a new instance and ensure you're using the correct .pem file that's associated with the instance.