Real-world scenario
Monitoring shows 95% CPU and OOM crashes. The app needs more vCPU and memory, but not a GPU. You move to an m6i.large.
By the end you can:
Follow the request/data flow through the architecture.
Work through each concept and mark it understood. This unlocks the knowledge check.
Resizable virtual machines running on AWS hardware, billed per second.
Why it matters
It is the raw building block of IaaS — full OS control when managed services are too restrictive.
When to use it
Use for lift-and-shift, custom runtimes, or stateful workloads. Avoid when a managed service (Lambda, Fargate, RDS) removes the ops burden.
Example
aws ec2 run-instances \
--image-id ami-0abcd1234 \
--instance-type t3.micro \
--key-name my-key \
--security-group-ids sg-0a1b2c3d \
--subnet-id subnet-0e1f2a3b \
--tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=web-01}]'Gotcha (exam trap)
Stopping an instance still bills for attached EBS volumes and Elastic IPs. Only terminating frees most charges.
Use the simulated AWS console below to complete each mission step. No real AWS account is required.
Launch an EC2 instance named "web-prod" using the Ubuntu Server 22.04 AMI and an m6i.large size.
Bleepx skills build on each other. Continue your learning path across Query, Lab, and Cloud.