As described in the User Guide, you can connect to your instance using a key pair as shown below. $ssh -oUserKnownHostsFile =/dev/null -i jachermocilla -guest- p2c.pem ubuntu@10.0.3.247 However, using a username and password to login maybe more convenient, especially if you are sharing access to others. This tutorial describes how to configure SSH for this on an Ubuntu instance. First login using the key pair as described above then become root. $sudo -s Second edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config. Set PasswordAuthentication to YES. #nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Third, restart the SSH server. #service ssh restart Fourth, create a new user. You need to supply the password and other information for the user. #adduser newusername Fifth, add newusername ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL to /etc/sudoers. This will give the new user sudo access. #nano /etc/sudoers Sixth, logout of the instance. #exit $exit That's it! You can now connect using username and password. $ssh -oUserKnownHostsFile =/dev/null newuser @10.0.3.247 |