Connect to your Mac instance using SSH or a GUI

You can connect to your Mac instance using SSH or a graphical user interface (GUI).

Connect to your instance using SSH

Important

Multiple users can access the OS simultaneously. Typically there is a 1:1 user:GUI session due to the built-in Screen Sharing service on port 5900. Using SSH within macOS supports multiple sessions up until the "Max Sessions" limit in the sshd_config file.

Amazon EC2 Mac instances do not allow remote root SSH by default. Password authentication is disabled to prevent brute-force password attacks. The ec2-user account is configured to log in remotely using SSH. The ec2-user account also has sudo privileges. After you connect to your instance, you can add other users.

To support connecting to your instance using SSH, launch the instance using a key pair and a security group that allows SSH access, and ensure that the instance has internet connectivity. You provide the .pem file for the key pair when you connect to the instance.

Use the following procedure to connect to your Mac instance using an SSH client. If you receive an error while attempting to connect to your instance, see Troubleshoot issues connecting to your Amazon EC2 Linux instance.

To connect to your instance using SSH

1. Verify that your local computer has an SSH client installed by entering ssh at the command line. If your computer doesn't recognize the command, search for an SSH client for your operating system and install it.

2. Get the public DNS name of your instance. Using the Amazon EC2 console, you can find the public DNS name on both the Details and the Networking tabs. Using the AWS CLI, you can find the public DNS name using the describe-instances command.

3. Locate the .pem file for the key pair that you specified when you launched the instance.

4. Connect to your instance using the following ssh command, specifying the public DNS name of the instance and the .pem file.

   ssh -i /path/key-pair-name.pem ec2-user@instance-public-dns-name

Connect to your instance's graphical user interface (GUI)

Use the following procedure to connect to your instance's GUI using VNC, Apple Remote Desktop (ARD), or the Apple Screen Sharing application (included with macOS).

Note

macOS 10.14 and later only allows control if Screen Sharing is enabled through System Preferences.

To connect to your instance using ARD client or VNC client

1. Verify that your local computer has an ARD client or a VNC client that supports ARD installed. On macOS, you can leverage the built-in Screen Sharing application. Otherwise, search for ARD for your operating system and install it.

2. From your local computer, connect to your instance using SSH.

3. Set up a password for the ec2-user account using the passwd command as follows.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo passwd ec2-user

4. Install and start macOS Screen Sharing using the following command.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo launchctl enable system/com.apple.screensharing
   sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist

5. Disconnect from your instance by typing exit and pressing Enter.

6. From your computer, connect to your instance using the following ssh command. In addition to the options shown in the previous section, use the -L option to enable port forwarding and forward all traffic on local port 5900 to the ARD server on the instance.

   ssh -L 5900:localhost:5900 -i /path/key-pair-name.pem ec2-user@instance-public-dns-name

7. From your local computer, use the ARD client or VNC client that supports ARD to connect to localhost:5900. For example, use the Screen Sharing application on macOS as follows:

   1. Open Finder and select Go.

   2. Select Connect to Server.

   3. In the Server Address field, enter vnc://localhost:5900.

   4. Log in as prompted, using ec2-user as the username and the password that you created for the ec2-user account.

Modify macOS screen resolution on Mac instances

After you connect to your EC2 Mac instance using ARD or a VNC client that supports ARD, you can modify the screen resolution of your macOS environment using any of the publicly available macOS tools or utilities, such as displayplacer.

To modify the screen resolution using displayplacer

1. Install displayplacer.

   [ec2-user ~]$ brew tap jakehilborn/jakehilborn && brew install displayplacer

2. Show the current screen information and possible screen resolutions.

   [ec2-user ~]$ displayplacer list

3. Apply the desired screen resolution.

   [ec2-user ~]$ displayplacer "id:<screenID> res:<width>x<height> origin:(0,0) degree:0"

   For example:

   RES="2560x1600"
   displayplacer "id:69784AF1-CD7D-B79B-E5D4-60D937407F68 res:${RES} scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0"