How to Enable ping on Amazon ec2 server

This post describes how to enable pinging on your amazon ec2 server.

  • Log in to amazon aws console and click ec2 tab
  • Find the security group  of your ec2 instance under Security Groups on the wc2 page
  • Create a key and certificate which you will use with ec2-authorize command.
    • On the top right of the screen click the down arrow next to your name
    • Click Security Credentials on the dropdown menu. You will be redirected to Security Credentials page
    • Click X.509 Certicates tab under Access Credentials section
    • Click Create a new Certificate
    • Download the private key and certificate in the resulting dialog that appears
  • Upload the private key and certificate to your ec2 server by sftp
  • Install ec2-api-tools package if not already installed
    • To do this, enable ubuntu multiverse repository if not already enabled
      • To do this, back up your sources list by running
        $sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup 
      • Open /etc/apt/sources.list
      • Uncomment the lines for multiverse list by removing the leading # symbols
      • Save and close the file
      • Retrieve updated package lists by running
        $sudo apt-get update
  • Enable icmp ping by running
    $ec2-authorize -K /path/to/private/key \
    -C /path/to/certificate your-instance-security-group \
    -P icmp -t -1:-1 -s 0.0.0.0/0