Amazon Lightsail Instance Management

This document provides a guide to common instance management tasks for your cPanel & WHM instance on Amazon Lightsail™.

Access Your Lightsail Instance

1. Log in to your Amazon Lightsail account.
2. The dashboard will display your instance under the Instances tab.

Manage Lightsail Instances

Important:

• We strongly recommend stopping unused instances to prevent unnecessary costs.
• If an instance is stopped, Amazon Lightsail retains its basic information, but some data may be removed. For example, a new IP address will be generated upon restart unless you have attached a static IP address.

To start, stop, reboot, or terminate an instance, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Amazon Lightsail account.
2. Click the three-dot menu icon next to your instance’s name.
3. Select the desired action from the menu:
   • Connect — Connect to your instance using a browser-based SSH client.
   • Manage — Open your instance within the Amazon Lightsail interface. Alternatively, you can click your instance’s name.
   • Stop — Pause the instance while retaining some, but not all, of its data. This action is only available for running instances.
   • Start — Restart a previously stopped instance.
   • Reboot — Restart the instance. This may be necessary after applying certain changes.
   • Delete — Permanently delete the instance. If a static IP address was attached, it will remain in your account. You can then attach it to a different instance or delete it separately.

Warning:

Deleting an instance will permanently remove all its data. A deleted instance cannot be restored.

A confirmation message will appear after you select an action. Confirm your choice to proceed.

Manage Lightsail Firewall Ports

When an Amazon Lightsail instance is initially created, only a limited number of ports are opened by default to ensure a secure experience for new users. However, certain core functionalities require additional ports to be manually opened.

The following firewall ports are open by default:

Open a Firewall Port

To open ports and enable additional features, follow these steps:

1. Determine which ports are required.
2. Log in to your Amazon Lightsail account.
3. Click your instance’s name.
4. Navigate to the Networking tab. This will display your instance’s Networking interface.
5. Scroll to the Firewall section and click Add rule.
6. Enter the necessary port information in the designated fields.
7. Click Create.

Close a Firewall Port

To close firewall ports, follow these steps:

1. Determine which ports need to be closed.
2. Log in to your Amazon Lightsail account.
3. Click your instance’s name.
4. Navigate to the Networking tab. This will display your virtual machine’s Networking interface.
5. Scroll to the Firewall section and locate the port you wish to close.
6. Click the trash can icon in the corresponding row for that port.

Manage or Delete Static IP Addresses

To manage or delete static IP addresses, proceed as follows:

1. Log in to your Amazon Lightsail account.
2. Navigate to the Networking tab. The Networking interface will appear.
3. Click the three-dot menu icon next to the Static IP address’s name.
4. Select the desired action from the menu:
   • Manage — Open the IP address interface. From here, you can attach, detach, or view the details of your IP address.
   • Delete — Permanently delete this IP address.

Note:

Static IP addresses are free when attached to an instance but incur charges when detached. We advise deleting any static IP addresses you do not intend to reuse to avoid unnecessary costs.

Delete an Amazon Lightsail Instance

To delete an instance, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Amazon Lightsail account.
2. Click your instance’s name to open its management interface.
3. Navigate to the Delete tab.
4. Click Delete instance. A confirmation message will appear.
5. Click Yes, delete. Once the deletion process begins, you will be redirected to the Amazon Lightsail console.
6. If a static IP address was previously attached to the instance, it will remain in your account. Static IP addresses are free when attached to an instance but incur charges when detached. You have the option to attach this static IP address to a different instance or delete it to prevent incurring charges.