Description: Canaries aren't just hardware devices. You can run Canaries inside your EC2 Cloud infrastructure, using the same Console as the rest of your Canary fleet.
Note: Like other Cloud Canaries, a registered, but offline, Cloud Canary will still occupy a license. If you've terminated a bird onEC2, don't forget to decommission it on your Canary Console too. See guide here to decommission a Canary.
Follow the steps below to create your EC2 Cloud Canary:
Step 1:
Log in to your Console.
Step 2:
Click the + icon and click Add Canary.
Step 3:
Click Add EC2 Canary.
Step 4:
Click Launch on the AWS region you want to deploy your Canary into.
Note: If the account/region is not available on your Console, please see our guide here.
Step 5:
You will be taken to your AWS account where you will need to Sign In.
Step 6:
Select Review and Launch to continue your EC2 Cloud deployment.
Note: We will automatically selected the instance type. EC2 Cloud Canaries are not high powered and only require a t2.micro instance.
Step 7:
We will also automatically configure the instance details, storage, tags and security groups.
Once you are happy with the configuration, select Launch.
Note:
- The security group you select should allow traffic between the bird and the networks you want to monitor.
- Exposing your instance to the public internet will produce lots of noise. We recommend not opening up ports to 0.0.0.0/0.
Step 8:
Select Proceed without a key pair from the drop down and select Launch Instance.
Note: This is required by Amazon, but the Canary will not use the keys; there's no way to log in to the Canary remotely. You can also pick any keypair available in your EC2 environment.
Step 9:
Your instance is now launching.
Note: If the launch process returns an error regarding accepting terms, this page describes the steps you need to take.
Step 10:
Your instance is busy Initializing.
Step 11:
On your Console you should see a pop up to confirm your new Canary.
Click Add Canary.
Step 12:
Your EC2 Canary will boot and connect back to your Console.
You can setup your EC2 Canary from within your Console using the remote management - Guide found here.
You're done! ;-)
Costs per EC2 Cloud Canary
The AWS birds run on a t2.micro and depending on the regions, the estimated cost would be $5 to $8 per month.

EC2 Cloud Canary permissions:
We have crafted the EC2 Bird launch experience to be as seamless as possible.
For environments looking to setup a service account with least privilege to deploy EC2 Canary’s, the below permissions are required to launch an instance.
Permissions required:
AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress
CreateSecurityGroup
DescribeAccountAttributes
DescribeAvailabilityZones
DescribeCapacityReservations
DescribeHosts
DescribeImages
DescribeInstanceAttribute
DescribeInstanceCreditSpecifications
DescribeInstances
DescribeInstanceStatus
DescribeInstanceTypes
DescribeKeyPairs
DescribeLaunchTemplates
DescribeNetworkInterfaces
DescribePlacementGroups
DescribeSecurityGroups
DescribeSnapshots
DescribeSpotPriceHistory
DescribeSubnets
DescribeTags
DescribeVolumes
DescribeVolumesModifications
DescribeVolumeStatus
DescribeVpcs
GetDefaultCreditSpecification
GetEbsEncryptionByDefault
RunInstances