How can I access the console of a booting EC2 instance in AWS?

Question

I'm new to AWS and am looking for a way to access my EC2's console so I can triage issues such:

• boot to single user mode
• view console output as system boots
• gain console access to debug GRUB issues

Answer 1

Background

When using cloud services such as AWS or Azure your ability to access the console of booting instances is typically restricted to a read-only type of interaction.

AWS does provide tools, so you just need to adjust your approach, if you're expecting to drop to single user mode or watch a booting system on a console.

For example, in the EC2 services area of AWS you can select a EC2 instance and then under the actions menu select either:

• Get System Log
• Get Instance Screenshot

Example

Step 1: Screenshot of actions menu

    

Step 2: Screenshot of "System Log"

     

Step 3: Screenshot of "instance's console"