Step-by-step answers based on AWS documentation, covering access keys, the Free Plan, Regions and quotas. For CloudPilot itself, see the user guide.
Updated October 15, 2026
Open an IAM user in the IAM console, go to the Security credentials tab and choose Create access key in the Access keys section. You get an access key ID and a secret access key. The secret is shown only once, so save it right away, and never create access keys for the root user.
Read the article: How to Create an AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access KeyUpdated October 16, 2026
For AWS accounts created on or after July 15, 2025, six EC2 instance types are Free Tier eligible: t3.micro, t3.small, t4g.micro, t4g.small, c7i-flex.large and m7i-flex.large. Accounts created earlier keep the old rules, which cover t2.micro and t3.micro.
Read the article: Which EC2 Instance Types Can You Use on the AWS Free Plan?Updated October 15, 2026
Lightsail sells bundled plans at a fixed monthly price that covers memory, vCPUs, SSD storage and a data transfer allowance, a good fit for personal sites, small apps and test environments. EC2 is pay-as-you-go with far more choice in instance types, networking and purchase options, suited to workloads that need fine-grained control, high performance or automatic scaling.
Read the article: Lightsail vs EC2: Key Differences and How to ChooseUpdated October 15, 2026
Regions launched after March 20, 2019, such as Hong Kong (ap-east-1) and Cape Town (af-south-1), are opt-in Regions and start disabled. Choose your account name at the top right of the console, open Account, select the Region under AWS Regions and choose Enable. It usually finishes in minutes but can take several hours.
Read the article: How to Enable AWS Opt-in Regions in Your AccountUpdated October 15, 2026
VcpuLimitExceeded means the vCPUs of your running On-Demand Instances in that Region, plus the new request, would exceed the quota for that instance family. Check quotas such as Running On-Demand Standard (A, C, D, H, I, M, R, T, Z) instances (quota code L-1216C47A) for that Region in the Service Quotas console and request an increase to the total vCPUs you need.
Read the article: EC2 VcpuLimitExceeded: How to Fix vCPU Quota Errors
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