How to connect to an EC2 instance using PuTTY for Windows older than 10

Difficulty: 4/10

PuTTY configuration, SSH key conversion, Network access

Connecting via PuTTY

PuTTY does not natively support the .pem format used by AWS. You must use PuTTYgen to convert your .pem file into a .ppk file before initiating the connection.

Steps to Connect

1
Open PuTTYgen and click 'Load' to select your .pem file.
2
Click 'Save private key' to generate and save the .ppk file.
3
Open PuTTY and navigate to Connection > SSH > Auth > Credentials.
4
Browse for your .ppk file in the 'Private key file for authentication' field.
5
Return to Session, enter the instance public IP, and click 'Open'.

Scenario Questions

0-2 years experience

2-5 years experience

1Your team has a mix of Windows 8 and Windows 10 machines, and you notice the older machines can't connect to EC2 via PuTTY. How would you diagnose and resolve the incompatibility?

Follow-up Questions