Set up Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2 - Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2
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Set up Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2

Describes the prerequisites, permissions, and configurations that you should consider when preparing to use Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances for your SQL Server workloads.

Topics for setting up SQL Server on Amazon EC2

Prerequisites for using SQL Server on Amazon EC2

Complete the tasks in this section to start using SQL Server on Amazon EC2 instances for the first time:

  1. Sign up for an AWS account

  2. Create a user with administrative access

  3. Create a key pair

  4. Create a security group

Sign up for an AWS account

If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.

To sign up for an AWS account

  1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

  2. Follow the online instructions.

    Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

    When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.

AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to https://aws.amazon.com/ and choosing My Account.

Create a user with administrative access

After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.

Secure your AWS account root user

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password.

    For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

  2. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.

    For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Create a user with administrative access

  1. Enable IAM Identity Center.

    For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

  2. In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.

    For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Sign in as the user with administrative access

  • To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.

    For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

Assign access to additional users

  1. In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.

    For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

  2. Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.

    For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Create a key pair

AWS uses public-key cryptography to secure the login information for your instance. You specify the name of the key pair when you launch your instance, then provide the private key to obtain the administrator password for your Windows instance so you can log in using RDP.

If you haven't created a key pair already, you can create one by using the Amazon EC2 console. Note that if you plan to launch instances in multiple Regions, you'll need to create a key pair in each Region. For more information about Regions, see Regions and Zones in the User Guide for Windows Instances.

To create your key pair

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Key Pairs.

  3. Choose Create key pair.

  4. For Name, enter a descriptive name for the key pair. Amazon EC2 associates the public key with the name that you specify as the key name. A key name can include up to 255 ASCII characters. It can’t include leading or trailing spaces.

  5. For Key pair type, choose either RSA or ED25519. Note that ED25519 keys are not supported for Windows instances.

  6. For Private key file format, choose the format in which to save the private key. To save the private key in a format that can be used with OpenSSH, choose pem. To save the private key in a format that can be used with PuTTY, choose ppk.

    If you chose ED25519 in the previous step, the Private key file format options do not appear, and the private key format defaults to pem.

  7. Choose Create key pair.

  8. The private key file is automatically downloaded by your browser. The base file name is the name you specified as the name of your key pair, and the file name extension is determined by the file format you chose. Save the private key file in a safe place.

    Important

    This is the only chance for you to save the private key file.

For more information, see Amazon EC2 key pairs and Windows instances in the User Guide for Windows Instances.

Create a security group

Security groups act as a firewall for associated instances, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level. You must add rules to a security group that enable you to connect to your instance from your IP address using RDP. You can also add rules that allow inbound and outbound HTTP and HTTPS access from anywhere.

Note that if you plan to launch instances in multiple Regions, you'll need to create a security group in each Region. For more information about Regions, see Regions and Zones in the User Guide for Windows Instances.

Prerequisites

You'll need the public IPv4 address of your local computer. The security group editor in the Amazon EC2 console can automatically detect the public IPv4 address for you. Alternatively, you can use the search phrase "what is my IP address" in an Internet browser, or use the following service: Check IP. If you are connecting through an Internet service provider (ISP) or from behind a firewall without a static IP address, you need to find out the range of IP addresses used by client computers.

You can create a custom security group using one of the following methods.

New Amazon EC2 console
To create a security group with least privilege

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. From the top navigation bar, select a Region for the security group. Security groups are specific to a Region, so you should select the same Region in which you created your key pair.

  3. In the left navigation pane, choose Security Groups.

  4. Choose Create security group.

  5. For Basic details, do the following:

    1. Enter a name for the new security group and a description. Use a name that is easy for you to remember, such as your user name, followed by _SG_, plus the Region name. For example, me_SG_uswest2.

    2. In the VPC list, select your default VPC for the Region.

  6. For Inbound rules, create rules that allow specific traffic to reach your instance. For example, use the following rules for a web server that accepts HTTP and HTTPS traffic. For more examples, see Security group rules for different use cases in the User Guide for Windows Instances.

    1. Choose Add rule. For Type, choose HTTP. For Source, choose Anywhere.

    2. Choose Add rule. For Type, choose HTTPS. For Source, choose Anywhere.

    3. Choose Add rule. For Type, choose RDP. For Source, do one of the following:

      • Choose My IP to automatically add the public IPv4 address of your local computer.

      • Choose Custom and specify the public IPv4 address of your computer or network in CIDR notation. To specify an individual IP address in CIDR notation, add the routing suffix /32, for example, 203.0.113.25/32. If your company or your router allocates addresses from a range, specify the entire range, such as 203.0.113.0/24.

      Warning

      For security reasons, do not choose Anywhere for Source with a rule for RDP. This would allow access to your instance from all IP addresses on the internet. This is acceptable for a short time in a test environment, but it is unsafe for production environments.

  7. For Outbound rules, keep the default rule, which allows all outbound traffic.

  8. Choose Create security group.

Old Amazon EC2 console
To create a security group with least privilege

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose Security Groups.

  3. Choose Create Security Group.

  4. Enter a name for the new security group and a description. Use a name that is easy for you to remember, such as your user name, followed by _SG_, plus the Region name. For example, me_SG_uswest2.

  5. In the VPC list, select your default VPC for the Region.

  6. On the Inbound rules tab, create the following rules (choose Add rule for each new rule):

    • Choose HTTP from the Type list, and make sure that Source is set to Anywhere (0.0.0.0/0).

    • Choose HTTPS from the Type list, and make sure that Source is set to Anywhere (0.0.0.0/0).

    • Choose RDP from the Type list. In the Source box, choose My IP to automatically populate the field with the public IPv4 address of your local computer. Alternatively, choose Custom and specify the public IPv4 address of your computer or network in CIDR notation. To specify an individual IP address in CIDR notation, add the routing suffix /32, for example, 203.0.113.25/32. If your company allocates addresses from a range, specify the entire range, such as 203.0.113.0/24.

      Warning

      For security reasons, do not allow RDP access from all IP addresses to your instance. This is acceptable for a short time in a test environment, but it is unsafe for production environments.

  7. On the Outbound rules tab, keep the default rule, which allows all outbound traffic.

  8. Choose Create security group.

Command line
To create a security group with least privilege

Use one of the following commands:

For more information, see Amazon EC2 security groups for Windows instances in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Permissions required to use SQL Server on Amazon EC2

For information about the permissions required to create or modify Amazon EC2 resources, or to perform tasks using the Amazon EC2 API, see IAM policies for Amazon EC2 in the User Guide for Windows Instances.