Setting Up RDP into AWS Bastion Host Password

In our previous post, we launched an EC2 instance in a public subnet and configured an Internet Gateway for VPC and set up routes in the route table to allow incoming traffic. In this post, we will set up a bastion server in our public subnet, allowing internet traffic. We will first connect to this bastion server, from which we can then connect to a private EC2 instance using RDP.

A bastion host is an instance that sits within your public subnet and is typically accessed using SSH or RDP. The purpose of a bastion host is to restrict access to a private network from an external network. In our scenario, our instance has no public IP, it is in a Private Subnet (no direct route from the internet). This means we cannot currently SSH into EC2 instances on the private subnet from our home/office or using a development machine.

To overcome this issue, we need to set up a bastion host and NAT instances in our VPC. With security groups configured, we were able to SSH to EC2 instances in public subnets. However, when we want to access EC2 instances in private subnets, we need a way to connect to them securely.

By setting up a bastion host, we can establish remote connectivity and then act as a jump server, allowing us to use RDP or SSH to login to other instances within private subnets deeper within our network. In this post, we will explore why we need bastion hosts and some of the options available to us.

By following these steps, you will be able to set up a bastion host in your AWS VPC, allowing secure access to EC2 instances in private subnets from external networks.

Rdp into aws bastion host password