Unable to connect to EC2 Windows server.

0

Hi,

We have a windows server we are not able to access using the same access credentials we once were able to. It was created and managed by a former colleague and we just have the .pem file and its derivative password. We are trying to access it through RDP and after entering the username and password it keeps saying 'The credentials that were used to connect to <instance name> did not work. Please enter new credentials. the logon attempt failed'. We made sure the inbound rule lets RDP access to the respective IP addresses. Can someone clue me in what might be the underlying cause for the issue?

2 Answers
0

Hi, did you check the public key configured in the EC2 instance to validate that it corresponds to your .pem file for the private key ? I would start there to ensure that the EC2 is what I believe it is.

After that, you can try a console access to EC2 instance: a Windows terminal will be opened if successful. If it succeeds, this will validate your key and then it will boil down to an RDP config issue.

profile pictureAWS
EXPERT
answered 10 months ago
  • Upvoted as I'm not sure why someone downvoted this.

0

If all else fails you can take a snapshot and relaunch from it, providing new credentials you know are definitely OK.

It would be good to move to a more secure access mthod though - Fleet Manager RDP. The instance needs to have the SSM Agent running (which modern AMIs should have), and needs appropriate IAM role permissions. See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/fleet-setup-iam.html.

EXPERT
answered 10 months ago

You are not logged in. Log in to post an answer.

A good answer clearly answers the question and provides constructive feedback and encourages professional growth in the question asker.

Guidelines for Answering Questions