Up and running: Ubuntu on EC2

##Up-and-running with Ethereum: Ubuntu on EC2

1. Launch a new EC2 instance from the management console at aws.amazon.com. T2 micro instances are free (one per account is, anyway).

2. At step 1, “Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI),” find and select an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS image. At writing, one is listed as a quick start option.

3. Options in steps two through five can be left at their defaults.

4. In step 6, make sure you allow SSH access to your machine. It may be necessary to also open Ethereum-specific ports here, but I’ve had inconsistent results in that regard. For now, I recommend opening 30000 - 35000 to all sources (0.0.0.0/0).

5. If you’ve never used AWS before, generate a new keypair, download it and put it somewhere you won’t accidentally delete it. Without your keypair the only interaction you can have with your AWS instance is to shut it down.

6. If you don’t have SSH installed on your own computer, do that now. Check if you do by typing ssh -v on your command line.

7. From the directory where you stored your keypair: ssh -i <yourkeypair> ubuntu@<yourEC2IPaddress>

8. Say yes to the RSA fingerprint challenge to continue connecting. You are now logged in as root.

9. You’ll want to add a password to this account just for extra security. Enter $ sudo passwd ubuntu and enter a password you’ll remember.

10. Now we’ll actually install Ethereum. Warning: installing qt can take a long time. On a T2 box it may well kill your CPU credit balance (which regenerates over time).

    $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum-qt
    $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum
    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get install cpp-ethereum
    

11. In the future you can use

    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
    

to ensure your Ethereum packages are up-to-date.