EC2 Tips for Noobs 📝 😎

Congrats, cloud cadet! 🌤️

You’ve navigated EC2 families, sizes, AMIs, security, storage, and even scaling.

Before you go off and become an AWS wizard, here are some essential tips for noobs.

1. Start Small, Scale Later ⚡

• Use T2/T3 micro or small instances for testing and learning
• Don’t overspend on huge instances unless you need them 💸
• Remember: EC2 lets you resize anytime

2. Monitor Your Usage 👀

• Use CloudWatch to monitor CPU, memory, and network
• Helps you avoid surprises in billing
• Spot slow apps or bottlenecks before users notice 🐢

3. Stick to Free Tier for Learning 💰

• AWS Free Tier gives you:
  • 750 hours/month of t2.micro or t3.micro
  • 30 GB of EBS storage
• Perfect for experiments, demos, and practice projects 🎯

4. Backup Often with Snapshots 📸

• Take EBS snapshots regularly
• Helps recover your instance if something goes wrong 😱
• Snapshots = your cloud time machine ⏳

5. Security is Not Optional 🔐

• Only open necessary ports in Security Groups
• Keep your Key Pairs safe – losing them = no entry
• Use IAM roles when possible for app permissions 🛡️

6. Use Tags for Organization 🏷️

• Tag your instances (e.g., Project: Blog, Env: Dev)
• Makes it easier to find, manage, and automate resources

7. Learn the Pricing Basics 💸

• Bigger instances = more cost
• EBS storage, data transfer, and Elastic IPs can add up
• Check AWS Pricing Calculator before launching multiple instances

8. Common Noob Mistakes to Avoid ❌

• Leaving ports wide open – hackers love free entry
• Forgetting Key Pair download – then crying 😭
• Running big instances all month without monitoring – wallet pain 💳

Pro Tip for Kahnu’s Fellow Noobs

Treat EC2 like a Lego set: start with small pieces, build carefully, secure everything, and don’t forget to take snapshots of your masterpiece 🧱😎

And that’s a wrap for EC2! 🎉