Launch AWS EC2 nstance using SaltStack

Prepare environment: Install Required libraries.

virtualenv SaltStack
source SaltStack/bin/activate
pip install salt
pip install apache-libcloud
pip install awscli
pip install M2Crypto
pip install pyzmq

created a new user in AWS console using Identity Management console

testuser
Access Key ID:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO235M
Secret Access Key:
aVeBUeixIlt1ScfseCV344NMnrx4fecNnex9mNNmjyjWv

Note: Above Key ID and Access Key are replaced with junk vales and will not work.
Above user “testuser” was added to AdministratorAccess policy in IAM (identity access management) in AWS console (Web interface).

In order to spin new instance and to be able to connect to them afterwards , we need a key pair. Either we can generate a new pair and upload it to AWS or generate it in AWS console (web interface) itself. In my case I had already generated the KeyPair. This key pair is called as “MyEC2Key”. This can be viewed under “compute” -> “EC2” -> “Key Pair"
Now create a “Security Group” that will allow ssh.

aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name MySecurityGroupSSHOnly --description "Inbound SSH"
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-name MySecurityGroupSSHOnly --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --protocol tcp --port 22

Become root on MacBook now:

mkdir /etc/salt
touch /etc/salt/cloud.profiles
touch /etc/salt/cloud.providers

cat /etc/salt/cloud.profiles
base_ec2_private:
     provider: amazon_ireland_region
     image: ami-9d23aeea

cat /etc/salt/cloud.providers
amazon_ireland_region:
     id: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO235M
     key: aVeBUeixIlt1ScfseCV344NMnrx4fecNnex9mNNmjyjWv
     keyname: MyEC2Key
     private_key: /Users/MacUser/EC2/MyEC2Key.pem
     location: eu-west-1
     availability_zone: eu-west-1a
     securitygroup: MySecurityGroupSSHOnly
     size: t2.micro
     del_root_vol_on_destroy: True
     ssh_username: ec2-user
     rename_on_destroy: True
     ssh_interface: public_ips
     provider: ec2

Launch Instance now:

source ~MacUser/PythonVirtENVs/SaltStack/bin/activate
salt-cloud --profile=base_ec2_private First_Instance