If you read my previous post, ”How to Set Up WordPress on AWS EC2 with Bitnami’s AMI” then you may be wondering how to go about logging into your Instance using SSH to perform command line operations. Bitnami provides documentation on how to do this on Windows but what if you want to log in with Mac OS X’s built-in Terminal.app? For security reasons, Amazon requires that you log in with a Private Key instead of with a login name and password. Follow along as we use Terminal.app to log in to your EC2 Instance.

1. Open Terminal.app. Found in Application > Utilities folder. Or open with a simple Spotlight Search.

2. Open a New Remote Connection

3. Type “ssh -i ” followed by the path to your PEM file and ” bitnami@” your Instance’s IP number.

Note, you can also drag your PEM file to the input field to have Terminal type out the path for you. By default, “bitnami” will login username. You can add or remove users for your Instance with the instructions in this document.

Voilà! You should now be logged into your EC2 Instance on AWS.