{"id":169,"date":"2021-10-27T06:02:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T06:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/18.141.20.153\/?p=169"},"modified":"2023-05-08T11:30:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T11:30:48","slug":"how-to-launch-and-connect-to-a-macos-instance-on-amazon-ec2-and-access-it-through-a-gui-using-vnc-client","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learning.workfall.com\/learning\/blog\/how-to-launch-and-connect-to-a-macos-instance-on-amazon-ec2-and-access-it-through-a-gui-using-vnc-client\/","title":{"rendered":"How to launch and connect to a MacOS instance on Amazon EC2 and access it through a GUI using VNC Client?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 11<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

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Amazon EC2 MacOS Instances allow to execution of on-demand MacOS workloads in the cloud, expanding AWS’ flexibility, scalability, and cost advantages to all Apple developers. Developers working on apps for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Safari may use EC2 MacOS Instances to provision and access MacOS environments in minutes, dynamically scale capacity as needed, and take advantage of AWS’ pay-as-you-go pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, we will see a business use case where Mr. James wants to use MacOS for a short period of time and how he is able to resolve his problem by creating a MacOS Instance on Amazon EC2<\/a> and accessing it through a GUI using VNC Client. We will see how we can create a Dedicated Host that is to be attached to the EC2 MacOS Instance. We will also have a look at how we can connect to the EC2 MacOS Instance via SSH and via VNC Viewer to start up the GUI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon EC2 MacOS Instance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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EC2 MacOS instances do not fall under the free tier so based on the storage and its usage, you will be charged accordingly. The configurations for windows and linux instances are comparatively easy but when it comes to configuring the EC2 MacOS Instance, we need to perform some add-on configurations. We need to create a dedicated host for the EC2 MacOS instance that needs to be connected to the EC2 instance that we create. Additional setup for VNC is needed for starting up the MacOS GUI if you are using Windows OS. In case you are using MacOS itself, then you can use Screen Sharing to connect to the MacOS GUI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smooth usage of the MacOS will depend on the storage you assign for your instance but make sure that adding extra storage might give a huge hike in the cost so make sure to switch off the MacOS Instance as soon as it is not needed. There is a 24-hour minimum allocation duration that is applicable to the Dedicated Host itself, not to your mac1.metal instance. You can launch and terminate mac1.metal instances as you want on that mac1 Dedicated Host, for example, to switch between a MacOS Catalina-based AMI and a MacOS Big Sur-based AMI. However, once you allocate a Mac1 Dedicated Host, you cannot release it until 24 hours later (the minimum lease period is 24 hours for the physical server). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once past those initial 24 hours, you can release the host anytime you want. This time period is to comply with the MacOS Software Licensing Agreement. As with all Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts, you pay per second for the entire duration that Dedicated Host is allocated to your account. Instances launched or terminated on that Dedicated Host have no separate charge. Since the minimum host allocation duration for mac1 Dedicated Hosts is 24 hours, by definition, you pay for a minimum 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hands-on<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Mr. James is using Windows OS but he wants to perform some small operations on MacOS for its data analysis purpose. James uses a Windows OS and is unable to install dual boot on its system because of storage and time constraints. The analysis report deadline is closing by and James needs a quick solution to have a MacOS in hand and quickly get done with the analysis. Now, since the task requirement is only for a small duration, James cannot buy a new MacBook altogether. So he decides on making use of an EC2 MacOS Instance to quickly get its task completed with the least cost and within the expected timeband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, we will see how Mr. James can quickly get started launching a MacOS Instance and connecting to its GUI (MacOS) to accomplish its time-constraint task. We will have a look at how we can create a dedicated host for a MacOS Instance. We will then switch on the auto-assigning of IPv4 addresses to the instances. Moving further we will see how to create a MacOS Instance with the newly created dedicated host attached to it. Then we will assign the storage for smooth flow of the GUI and create a security group to connect to the instance via a local machine with SSH rule attached to it. Then we will execute a few commands on the command line to change the flow of traffic and start up the Remote Management. Since Mr. James has Windows OS, we will then see how to install RealVNC Viewer, and create an account to start up the MacOS GUI on Windows. At last, we will test the connection via installing an application from the App Store and running it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To implement this, we will do the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n