How do I capture a screenshot of an unreachable Amazon EC2 Windows instance for troubleshooting?

Short description

An EC2 Windows instance might be unreachable for various reasons, such as network configuration, permissions, or high CPU use. The status of an instance might be unreachable even if the instance is running and otherwise appears healthy. To help identify why the connection attempt fails or times out, use the Get Instance Screenshot feature.

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when running AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, make sure that you’re using the most recent version of the AWS CLI.

You can use the Amazon EC2 console or AWS CLI to get a screenshot of an unreachable instance. The Get Instance Screenshot feature returns an image of the Windows desktop. This image looks similar to the view when you directly connect to the instance with a display monitor.

For screenshot examples and troubleshooting steps for the issues that are featured in those examples, see Common screenshots.

Related information

Troubleshoot EC2 Windows instances

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