Creating Your AWS Server

Welcome to Part 2 of Installing Sendy and Virtualmin on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

This page describes how to create your AWS server (or ‘instance’) for hosting Sendy and Virtualmin. (Source: AWS)

Here are the steps to follow

1) If you have just completed Part 1, you should already be logged in to AWS and the EC2 service.

Otherwise, log in to the AWS console at https://aws.amazon.com/

Make sure Your AWS Region is set correctly:

Select EC2 from the Services menu:

2) Select Instances from the left-hand menu:

3) Select Launch Instance and then Launch Instance:

You will then be asked to Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI):

4) Locate the Amazon Machine Image called Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (HVM), SSD Volume Type:

Make sure 64-bit (x86) is selected. Then click Select.

Select t2.micro and click Next: Configure Instance Details.

6) You will now be asked to Configure Instance Details:

For Enable termination protection, select Protect against accidental termination.

The other fields can be left as their defaults. Then click Next: Add Storage.

7) You will now be asked to Add Storage:

Enter your chosen allocated server storage (EBS) within the Size (GiB) column (see Before You Start above).

Volume Type should be set to General Purpose SSD (GP2).

Select Delete on Termination if not already set.

Then click Next: Add Tags.

8) You will now be asked to Add Tags:

There is no need to add any tags. Click Next: Configure Security Group.

9) You will now be asked to Configure Security Group.

Select Select an existing security group:

10) Select the security group created in Part 1:

If need be, click the middle box on the right-hand side to double-check the security group’s rules. Then click Review and Launch.

11) You will now be asked to Review Instance Launch:

Click Previous if any of the details are wrong, and go back through the same process to correct any errors.

Otherwise, click Launch.

12) You will now be asked to Select an existing key pair or create a new key pair.

Select Create a new key pair from the drop-down menu:

Enter a key pair name of your choice. For the purposes of this guide, Colcol Test Demo Key Pair has been used. Something like SendyAWSKeyPair will be fine.

Then click Download Key Pair. A private key file (*.pem) will then be downloaded to your computer, and will be needed for Part 3. 

Drag this private key file to your desktop:

13) Click Launch Instances:

14) You should receive a Launch Status message showing the Instance ID of your server:

Click the Instance ID.

15) You should see your new server listed with Instance State set to pending and Status Checks set to Initializing:

16) After a few minutes, you should see your new server listed with Instance State set to running:

17) Then after a few minutes, you should see your new server listed with Status Checks set to 2/2 checks passed:

18) Click the edit icon within the Name column:

19) Enter a name for your server:

For the purposes of the guide, Colcol Test Demo has been used. Something like LIVE Sendy will be fine. Click the tick to save.

20) All done!

Stay logged into AWS, and click here to start Part 3. Alternatively, click here to return to the Introduction.

If you have any questions or comments about this page, please let me know so I can keep this website as helpful as possible.

Happy installing!

Maynard Paton​

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