Connect to the EC2 Serial Console

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

Select the instance and choose Actions, Monitor and troubleshoot, EC2 Serial Console, Connect.

Alternatively, select the instance and choose Connect, EC2 Serial Console, Connect.

An in-browser terminal window opens.

Press Enter. If a login prompt returns, you are connected to the serial console.

If the screen remains black, you can use the following information to help resolve issues with connecting to the serial console:

(Linux instances only) At the login prompt, enter the username of the password-based user that you set up previously, and then press Enter.

(Linux instances only) At the Password prompt, enter the password, and then press Enter.

Push your SSH public key to the instance to start a serial console session

Use the send-serial-console-ssh-public-key command to push your SSH public key to the instance. This starts a serial console session.

If a serial console session has already been started for this instance, the command fails because you can only have one session open at a time. It takes 30 seconds to tear down a session after you've disconnected from the serial console in order to allow a new session.

aws ec2-instance-connect send-serial-console-ssh-public-key \
    --instance-id i-001234a4bf70dec41EXAMPLE \
    --serial-port 0 \
    --ssh-public-key file://my_key.pub \
    --region us-east-1

Connect to the serial console using your private key

Use the ssh command to connect to the serial console before the public key is removed from the serial console service. You have 60 seconds before it is removed.

Use the private key that corresponds to the public key.

The username format is instance-id.port0, which comprises the instance ID and port 0. In the following example, the username is i-001234a4bf70dec41EXAMPLE.port0.

The endpoint of the serial console service is different for each Region. See the EC2 Serial Console endpoints and fingerprints table for each Region's endpoint. In the following example, the serial console service is in the us-east-1 Region.

ssh -i my_key i-001234a4bf70dec41EXAMPLE.port0@serial-console.ec2-instance-connect.us-east-1.aws

The following example uses timeout 3600 to set your SSH session to terminate after 1 hour. Processes started during the session may continue running on your instance after the session terminates.

timeout 3600 ssh -i my_key i-001234a4bf70dec41EXAMPLE.port0@serial-console.ec2-instance-connect.us-east-1.aws

(Optional) Verify the fingerprint

When you connect for the first time to the serial console, you are prompted to verify the fingerprint. You can compare the serial console fingerprint with the fingerprint that's displayed for verification. If these fingerprints don't match, someone might be attempting a "man-in-the-middle" attack. If they match, you can confidently connect to the serial console.

The following fingerprint is for the serial console service in the us-east-1 Region. For the fingerprints for each Region, see EC2 Serial Console endpoints and fingerprints.

SHA256:dXwn5ma/xadVMeBZGEru5l2gx+yI5LDiJaLUcz0FMmw

Press Enter. If a prompt returns, you are connected to the serial console.

If the screen remains black, you can use the following information to help resolve issues with connecting to the serial console:

(Linux instances only) At the login prompt, enter the username of the password-based user that you set up previously, and then press Enter.

(Linux instances only) At the Password prompt, enter the password, and then press Enter.