Amazon LightSail

Amazon Web Services recently announced LightSail, a low-cost service for quickly launching a virtual server with limited options. Fewer steps and less technical knowledge are required to get a simple website up and running than with traditional AWS services like EC2. LightSail seems intended to compete with low-cost virtual hosting services such as GoDaddy's.

Upon selecting LightSail from the AWS management console, it opens in a new tab with its own subdomain, lightsail.aws.amazon.com. This isn't true of most other AWS services, and may imply that Amazon views LightSail in a separate category.

At work, where scalability and reliability are key, I have no plans to use LightSail. However, I did have a chance to put it to the test for a personal project, a new website for my band, The Showoffs. Users with no technology background might not find it easy to get started with LightSail. But if you're familiar with the basics of DNS and virtual hosting, LightSail offers a quick and affordable setup. In about an hour, I went from nothing -- no domain registered, no server, and no content -- to a functioning WordPress site.

Amazon provides documentation here. For my project, the articles on getting started, static IP addresses, and using WordPress with LightSail were particularly relevant. (On the other hand, this DNS article led me astray. It turned out not to be pertinent; all I had to do was create an A record in Route 53.)

The main steps to create theshowoffsband.com were as follows:

• In Route53, registered the domain name. This required replying to a verification email.
• In LightSail:
• Created an instance. I chose the WordPress 4.6.1 instance image and the $5/month instance plan.
• Created a static IP address.
• Created a DNS zone, but I think this step was unnecessary.
• Connected to the server using SSH. A button in the LightSail opens a browser-based SSH connection with a singe click (screenshot below).
• Obtained the WordPress credentials by running an Amazon-provided script.
• Returned to Route53 and created an A record mapping theshowoffsband.com to the static IP address. I then waited several minutes for the DNS record to propagate.
• Visited my new website's WordPress admin page, logged in, and started adding content.

The cost? $12 per year for the domain registration, and $5 per month for the virtual server. If you show up at the Showoffs' next gig, it will have been worth it!

SSH connection to the LightSail virtual server with a single click