How to Reboot AWS Lightsail Instance for a Beginner (With Images)
Tags: aws, lightsail, devops
Published: 2023-11-14 13:00:19

This article is intended for non-technical people who want to know how to reboot an AWS Lightsail instance via the AWS Console.

  AWS Lightsail is a Virtual Private Server (VPS) provider. Lightsail includes everything you need to launch your project quickly – virtual machines, containers, databases, CDN, load balancers, DNS management, etc. People love Lightsail because of its simplicity.

  AWS Lightsail is a lightweight version of EC2, with limited features compared to EC2. It has a low and relatively stable monthly price. And it is a good entrance for beginners who want to use VPS on AWS.

  AWS Console is a web application to navigate and manage AWS services.

To reboot your AWS Lightsail instance, follow these steps:
1. Login to the AWS console (https://console.aws.amazon.com/). After that, you will be redirected to the sign-in page. From here, you have two options, and they are:
  1. Login as root. Enter your email, and then enter your password on the next page. Lastly, you might be asked to enter an MFA code.
![Root Login](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/q3vuedbr9qjc8qbx0pbc.png)
  2. Login as an IAM user. You can enter your Account ID here and then your IAM username and password on the next page. Lastly, you might be asked to enter an MFA code.
![IAM user Login](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/397pg64oyvr8452qxbck.png)
2. Once logged in, you will be redirected to the home page. There are two important sections here. The first is the "Search Bar". You can search for anything from here. The other is the "Recently Visited" section, listing any recently visited AWS services.
![AWS Console](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dppoh4w0rogwjrdchzb2.png)
3. You can hit the Lightsail link in the "Recently Visited" section or type lightsail in the "Search Bar" and then hit the Lightsail result under the Services section.
![Console Search](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/pjwap9cx0enqzxruyqz3.png)
4. Now, you will be redirected to the AWS Lightsail page. The page will show how many instances you have. In my case, it shows 2 instances, Staging and Production. We will reboot the Production instance, so click the "Production" instance and we will be redirected to the instance details page.
![Lightsail Page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jv5x2nmzzmhksealkx1y.png)
5. The instance details page shows detailed information regarding your instance. To reboot the instance, click the Reboot button on the top right.
![Producton Instance](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/loncoke7eihmxg4jviyo.png)
6. It will take some time for the instance to finish rebooting. Wait about 3-5 minutes, then use [this online tool](https://semonto.com/tools/website-reachability-check) to test your website reachability. The tool will try to load your website from different server locations.
![Website Reachability Check](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wuiwahw0qpo4pfyfs3kf.png)
7. Enter your website URL, and then hit the "Check Reachability" button. It may take some time for it to return results. If the result shows a green-colored message like this, it means your server has finished rebooting and your website is fully operational:

`[Your website URL] is looking good! See below for more details.`

![Website Reachability Check Result](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qfqksw2n1tin6t2midg7.png)

## References:
- [AWS Lightsail FAQ](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- [What is Amazon EC2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/concepts.html)
- [What is the AWS Management Console?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsconsolehelpdocs/latest/gsg/learn-whats-new.html)

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