Skip to main content
This walkthrough demonstrates a simple Multi-AZ setup by launching two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones within the same AWS region. Deploying instances across multiple AZs increases availability and resilience: if one AZ experiences an outage, the instance in the other AZ can continue serving traffic. What you’ll do
  • Launch two EC2 instances (WebServerA and WebServerB) in different Availability Zones (for example, us-east-2a and us-east-2b).
  • Verify both instances reach healthy status checks.
  • Review next steps to make the setup production-ready (load balancing, Auto Scaling, and key management).
  1. Open the EC2 console
  • From the AWS Management Console search bar, type EC2 and select the EC2 service to open the dashboard.
  • On the dashboard, click “Instances” in the left navigation to proceed.
A screenshot of the Amazon Web Services EC2 dashboard (US East — Ohio) showing the Resources panel with counts for Instances, Security groups, Elastic IPs, volumes and other EC2 resources. The left sidebar shows EC2 navigation items like Dashboard, Instances and Launch Templates.
  1. Launch the first instance (Web Server A)
  • Click “Launch instances”.
  • In the Name and tags step, give the instance a recognizable name such as WebServerA so it’s easy to identify later.
A screenshot of the AWS EC2 "Launch an instance" console showing the "Name and tags" field with "Web" entered and the "Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image)" section below.
  • For the AMI, use the default Amazon Linux image (commonly free tier eligible).
  • Choose an instance type appropriate for your needs; for this demo, select a free-tier eligible type such as t3.micro to avoid charges.
Screenshot of the AWS EC2 "Launch an instance" web console showing the Instance type section with a t3.micro selected and its pricing/details (marked free tier eligible).
  • For Key pair (login) choose “Proceed without a key pair” for this demo to simplify the walkthrough. Do not do this in production—without a key pair you will not be able to SSH into the instance.
Proceeding without a key pair is not recommended for production. Without a key pair you will not be able to SSH into the instance using a private key. Use this option only for demo/testing where direct SSH access is not required.
A screenshot of the AWS EC2 "Launch an instance" console showing the Key pair (login) section with the option "Proceed without a key pair (Not recommended)" and part of the Network settings.
  • Expand Network settings and click “Edit” to explicitly set the Availability Zone. For this example select us-east-2a (the exact AZ names vary by region). Leave other network options at their defaults unless you have specific requirements.
  • Click “Launch” to create the instance. The console will start the launch process and show progress.
A web browser screenshot of the AWS EC2 "Launch an instance" page showing a blue progress bar at 80% for "Launch initiation." Below it is a message asking the user to wait and not close the browser while the instance is launching.
  1. Launch the second instance (Web Server B) in a different AZ
  • Repeat the “Launch instances” flow.
  • Name this instance WebServerB.
  • Use the same AMI and instance type as WebServerA.
  • For this demo, you may again select “Proceed without a key pair” (see the warning above).
  • Under Network settings → Edit, set the Availability Zone to a different one in the same region, for example us-east-2b.
  • Use the same security group as the first instance (or create a security group that allows only the inbound traffic you need, e.g., port 80 and 22 for SSH in production).
  • Launch the instance.
  1. Verify both instances
  • Return to the Instances view. You should see both WebServerA and WebServerB listed. They may initially show status checks as “Initializing”; refresh after a short wait.
A screenshot of the AWS EC2 Instances console. It shows two running t3.micro instances (WebServerA and WebServerB) with status checks listed as "Initializing" in the us-east-2 region.
  • After initialization completes, both instances should show healthy status checks (for example, 2/2 or 3/3 depending on your account settings).
A screenshot of the AWS EC2 Instances console listing two running instances (WebServerB and WebServerA) filtered by "Instance state = running." Both are t3.micro instances with 3/3 status checks passed.
Quick reference: recommended settings for this demo Summary and next steps
  • You have deployed two EC2 instances in the same region but in different Availability Zones (for example, us-east-2a and us-east-2b). This basic Multi-AZ placement reduces single-AZ dependency and improves availability.
  • To harden and scale this pattern for production:
    • Add an Elastic Load Balancer to distribute traffic across instances and AZs.
    • Configure an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) with subnets spanning multiple AZs to maintain instance count and health across failures.
    • Use proper key pair management, IAM policies, and secure security group rules.
    • Consider using an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) baked with your application and monitoring with CloudWatch.
Deploying instances across multiple Availability Zones is a foundational high-availability pattern. For production, combine this pattern with Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling Groups, proper key management, and monitoring to achieve resilience and operational readiness.
Links and references

Watch Video