You will need to create a public/private key pair to use later on in the quick start setup. The key pair will be saved as a file that you should keep in a secure place where only people that need it can access it:
- Go to Services in the AWS management console at the top of the screen:
Services location on console
- Then, click on EC2 in the Compute section:
EC2 location
- From the EC2 Dashboard, click on Key Pairs:
- Click on the Create Key Pair button:
- Give it a name such as vpc_keypair and click on Create. Avoid using capital letters, spaces, or non-standard characters in the name. This will make it more portable to different operating systems and file storage systems.
- After clicking on the create button, you will get a download of the key pair file with the .pem extension (that is vpc_keypair.pem). Make sure you know where the file is saved. Now is a good time to move it to the secure location where you want to keep it. The console screen will update it, and you will see your new key pair listed:
