How do I connect to the desktop machine in AWS?

[jsun]

The easiest way is to open a browser, go to the public IP address of the EC2 instance (e.g., "http://54.202.128.192"). It will ask for VNC password. The initial VNC password is the instance ID (e.g., "i-06bbfdc81d1865238").

You can also use VNC client software, such as tigerVNC, tightVNC, real VNC, to connect to the instance. Please note for Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 the port number is 4901, while for Ubuntu 18.04 the port number is 5900 (the default VNC port). For VNC client that does not have a separate port field (e.g., tigerVNC), you need to add the port number after the IP address (e.g. "54.202.128.192:5901").

For Ubuntu 18.04, there are 2 additional methods to connect to the instance

• Open the URL with encrypted HTTPS protocol (e.g., "https://54.202.128.192")
• Use RDP client (e.g., MS Remote Desktop Connection or Linux rdesktop).