EC2 Serial Console

Prerequisites for the EC2 Serial Console

• Ensure your instance type supports the EC2 Serial Console.
• Verify that your AWS account has enabled serial console access.
• Check that the instance has an enabled serial port.

Configure Access to the EC2 Serial Console

To enable EC2 Serial Console access, use the AWS CLI:

aws ec2 enable-serial-console-access

Ensure the IAM user or role has the necessary permissions:

{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": "ec2-instance-connect:SendSerialConsoleSSHPublicKey",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:region:account-id:instance/instance-id"
}

Connect to the EC2 Serial Console

To connect, use the AWS Management Console:

1. Navigate to the **EC2 Dashboard**.
2. Select the instance.
3. Click **Actions** → **Monitor and Troubleshoot** → **EC2 Serial Console**.
4. Click **Connect**.

Or, use the AWS CLI:

aws ec2-instance-connect send-serial-console-ssh-public-key \
    --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 \
    --serial-port 0 \
    --ssh-public-key file://my-key.pub

Disconnect from the EC2 Serial Console

To disconnect, simply close the terminal session or exit the SSH connection:

exit

Troubleshoot Your Amazon EC2 Instance Using the EC2 Serial Console

• Check system logs using:
Copy

dmesg | tail

• Restart a stuck instance:
Copy

reboot

• Reset networking:
Copy

systemctl restart network