description = "Example of a manual install of Docker Engine on a cloud provider, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2. Shows how to create an EC2 instance, and install Docker Engine on it."
You can install Docker Engine directly to servers you have on cloud providers. This example shows how to create an <ahref="https://aws.amazon.com/"target="_blank"> Amazon Web Services (AWS)</a> EC2 instance, and install Docker Engine on it.
You can use this same general approach to create Dockerized hosts on other cloud providers.
### Step 1. Sign up for AWS
1. If you are not already an AWS user, sign up for <ahref="https://aws.amazon.com/"target="_blank"> AWS</a> to create an account and get root access to EC2 cloud computers. If you have an Amazon account, you can use it as your root user account.
2. Create an IAM (Identity and Access Management) administrator user, an admin group, and a key pair associated with a region.
From the AWS menus, select **Services** > **IAM** to get started.
See the AWS documentation on <ahref="http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/get-set-up-for-amazon-ec2.html"target="_blank">Setting Up with Amazon EC2</a>. Follow the steps for "Create an IAM User" and "Create a Key Pair".
If you are just getting started with AWS and EC2, you do not need to create a virtual private cloud (VPC) or specify a subnet. The newer EC2-VPC platform (accounts created after 2013-12-04) comes with a default VPC and subnet in each availability zone. When you launch an instance, it automatically uses the default VPC.
### Step 2. Configure and start an EC2 instance
Launch an instance to create a virtual machine (VM) with a specified operating system (OS) as follows.
1. Log into AWS with your IAM credentials.
On the AWS home page, click **EC2** to go to the dashboard, then click **Launch Instance**.
AWS EC2 virtual servers are called *instances* in Amazon parlance. Once you set up an account, IAM user and key pair, you are ready to launch an instance. It is at this point that you select the OS for the VM.
2. Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with the OS and applications you want. For this example, we select an Ubuntu server.
When you choose to launch, you need to select a key pair to use. Save the `.pem` file to use in the next steps.
The instance is now up-and-running. The menu path to get back to your EC2 instance on AWS is: **EC2 (Virtual Servers in Cloud)** > **EC2 Dashboard** > **Resources** > **Running instances**.
To get help with your private key file, instance IP address, and how to log into the instance via SSH, click the **Connect** button at the top of the AWS instance dashboard.
### Step 3. Log in from a terminal, configure apt, and get packages
1. Log in to the EC2 instance from a command line terminal.
Change directories into the directory containing the SSH key and run this command (or give the path to it as part of the command):
$ ssh -i "YourKey" ubuntu@xx.xxx.xxx.xxx
For our example:
$ cd ~/Desktop/keys/amazon_ec2
$ ssh -i "my-key-pair.pem" ubuntu@xx.xxx.xxx.xxx
We'll follow the instructions for installing Docker on Ubuntu at https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/ubuntulinux/. The next few steps reflect those instructions.
2. Check the kernel version to make sure it's 3.10 or higher.
From now on when you run `apt-get upgrade`, `apt` pulls from the new repository.
### Step 4. Install recommended prerequisites for the OS
For Ubuntu Trusty (and some other versions), it’s recommended to install the `linux-image-extra` kernel package, which allows you use the `aufs` storage driver, so we'll do that now.
_Looking for a quicker way to do Docker cloud installs and provision multiple hosts?_ You can use [Docker Machine](https://docs.docker.com/machine/overview/) to provision hosts.
