ec2connect

Table of Contents

bmc ec2connect connects to a running EC2 instance via SSH or AWS SSM Session Manager.

Usage #

bmc ec2connect                              # Interactive instance picker
bmc ec2connect nginx                        # Filter instances by name/ID/IP first
bmc ec2connect -i i-0abc123                 # Connect to a specific instance ID
bmc ec2connect -u ubuntu                    # SSH as a specific user (skips method picker)
bmc ec2connect -k ~/.ssh/mykey.pem          # SSH with a specific identity file (skips method picker)
bmc ec2connect -k ~/.ssh/mykey.pem -u ubuntu  # SSH with key and user (no prompts)

Connection methods #

SSH #

Requires ssh on your PATH. BMC prompts for the SSH user (root, ubuntu, ec2-user, or custom) unless -u is specified.

Use -k/--key to pass an SSH identity file (e.g. a .pem key pair). The path is passed directly to ssh -i — no validation is performed by bmc. Providing -k automatically selects SSH as the connection method.

SSM Session Manager #

Requires:

aws CLI v2
session-manager-plugin

Check with bmc doctor. No SSH keys or open ports needed.

Stopped instances #

If the selected instance is stopped, BMC behaviour depends on ec2.auto_start_stopped in config:

Value	Behaviour
`prompt` (default)	Ask whether to start the instance
`always`	Start automatically without prompting
`never`	Exit with an error

Prerequisites #

bmc doctor    # Check ssh, aws CLI, and session-manager-plugin