How do I log in to my EC2 Windows instance with my local administrator or domain credentials?

Resolution

Important: Before you begin, create a snapshot of the Amazon EC2 instance's Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume to back up the instance.

If you lost your Windows administrator password or the password expired, then reset the administrator password.

To use domain credentials to connect to the EC2 Windows instance, take the following actions:

• Make sure that you used the correct credentials.
• Verify that the instance can reach a DNS server that hosts the domain's DNS zone, or can resolve DNS names in that domain. For more information, see Procedure: verify DNS resolution on the Microsoft website.
• Make sure that you configured the correct DNS server as the Preferred DNS server. For instructions about how to configure the DNS server, see Manually join EC2 Windows instance on Joining an Amazon EC2 Windows instance to your AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory.
• Verify that the required ports to connect to your target domain are open and available to your instance. For a list of required ports, see How to configure a firewall for Active Directory domains and trusts on the Microsoft website.
• Make sure that the account isn't locked out. To troubleshoot this issue, see Troubleshoot account lockout problems with a Microsoft Entra Domain Services managed domain on the Microsoft website.

For more information about domain authentication errors, see How do I troubleshoot authentication errors when I use RDP to connect to an EC2 Windows instance?

Related information

Troubleshoot issues connecting to your Amazon EC2 Windows instance