This might be a rather simple question, but is it possible to log into an EC2 Windows Server instance over RDP, using an IAM user's credentials, or am I stuck using the password from the KeyPair?
2 Answers
The only way to do that would be to have IAM identity center setup with SSM Fleet manager. From the documentation:
Fleet Manager integrates with IAM Identity Center so you can connect to your instances without providing additional credentials.
Otherwise, you have to specify either username/password or a the .pem file:
When connecting to your instance, you can use Windows credentials or the Amazon EC2 key pair (.pem file) associated with the instance for authentication.
EC2 instance access over RDP steps as below:
- In aws ec2 service site with your IAM login. screenshot reference
- Select your windows server in EC2 instance list. let respective EC2 instance in running state. note then only "Connect" button will be active.
- Select connect button. In the new window select 'RDP client' > select the 'Get Password'.
- In 'Get password Window', import the pem which was associated with respective windows served in EC2 service. select 'Decrypt password'.
- Copy the password, keep pasted in txt file for your future use.
- Run 'mstsc' for remote desktop and type the public DNS address (which you can get it from above step 3 window) and login as .\Administrator and use the copied password for login.
Pre requisite steps to edited in EC2 windows instance:
- Start the Windows Registry editor (type regedit in the "Start > Run" dialog)
- Navigate to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa] "LimitBlankPasswordUse"=dword:00000001 3. Change LimitBlankPasswordUse to 0 (zero) to enable the use of blank passwords, 1 to prevent blank passwords over the network.
this solution considered as alternate.
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