Why can't I connect to my EC2 instance?

Last updated: 2021-09-29

To connect to your EC2 instance, complete the following prerequisites:

• Verify that the security group attached to your instance allows access to port 22 for Linux and port 3389 for Windows.
• Verify that your network access control list (ACL) allows access to the instance.
• Verify that your routing table has a route for the connection.

If the preceding prerequisites are met and you can't connect to the instance, do the following:

1.    Verify that your EC2 instance is passing status checks. For more information. see the following:

• Why is my EC2 Linux instance unreachable and failing one or both of its status checks?
• Why is my EC2 Windows instance down with an instance status check failure?
• Why is my EC2 Windows instance down with a system status check failure or status check 0/2?

2.    If your instance passed the status checks and you're getting connection errors on your instance when trying to connect, see the following:

• How do I troubleshoot problems connecting to my Amazon EC2 Linux instance using SSH?
• Troubleshoot connecting to your instance (Linux)
• Troubleshoot connecting to your Windows instance
• How do I troubleshoot authentication errors when I use RDP to connect to an EC2 Windows instance?