Seamlessly join a Windows EC2 instance

This procedure seamlessly joins a Windows EC2 instance to your AD Connector directory.

To seamlessly join a Windows EC2 instance

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. From the Region selector in the navigation bar, choose the same Region as the existing directory.

3. Choose Launch Instance.

4. On the Step 1 page, choose Select for the appropriate AMI.

5. On the Step 2 page, select the appropriate instance type, and then choose Next: Configure Instance Details.

6. On the Step 3 page, do the following, and then choose Next: Add Storage:

   1. For Network, choose the VPC that your directory was created in.

   2. For Subnet, choose one of the public subnets in your VPC. The subnet that you choose must have all external traffic routed to an internet gateway. If this is not the case, you won't be able to connect to the instance remotely.

   3. For Auto-assign Public IP, choose Enable.

      For more information about public and private IP addressing, see Amazon EC2 instance IP addressing in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Windows Instances.

   4. For Domain join directory, choose your domain from the list.

   5. For IAM role, do one of the following:

      Select an IAM role that has the AWS managed policies AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore and AmazonSSMDirectoryServiceAccess attached to it.

      -or-

      If you haven't created an IAM role that has the AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore and AmazonSSMDirectoryServiceAccess managed policies attached to it, choose the Create new IAM role link, and then do the following:

      1. Choose Create role.

      2. Under Select type of trusted entity, choose AWS service.

      3. Under Choose the service that this role will use, in the full list of services, choose EC2.

      4. Under Select your use case, choose EC2, and the choose Next: Permissions.

      5. In the list of policies, select the AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore and AmazonSSMDirectoryServiceAccess policies. (To filter the list, type SSM in the search box.)

         Note

         AmazonSSMDirectoryServiceAccess provides the permissions to join instances to an Active Directory managed by AWS Directory Service. AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore provides the minimum permissions necessary to use the Systems Manager service. For more information about creating a role with these permissions, and for information about other permissions and policies you can assign to your IAM role, see Create an IAM instance profile for Systems Manager in the AWS Systems Manager User Guide.

      6. Choose Next: Tags.

      7. (Optional) Add one or more tag key-value pairs to organize, track, or control access for this role, and then choose Next: Review.

      8. For Role name, enter a name for your new role, such as EC2DomainJoin or another name that you prefer.

      9. (Optional) For Role description, enter a description.

      10. Choose Create role.

      11. Go back to the Step 3 page. For IAM role, choose the refresh icon next to IAM role. Your new role should be visible in the menu. Choose it and leave the rest of the settings on this page with their default values, and then choose Next: Add Storage.

7. On both the Step 4 and Step 5 pages, leave the default settings or make changes as needed, and then choose the Next buttons.

8. On the Step 6 page, select a security group for the instance that has been configured to allow remote access to the instance from your network, and then choose Review and Launch.

9. On the Step 7 page, choose Launch, select a key pair, and then choose Launch Instance.