EC2 Booting Issues Fix

Overview

This project aims to resolve EC2 booting issues arising from incorrect entries in the /etc/fstab file. It covers the reproduction of the issue, two methods for fixing booting problems—EC2 Serial Console and Rescue Instance—and validation steps.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have an active AWS account to create necessary infrastructure resources on the AWS cloud.

Booting Issues

Reproduce the Issue

1. Create an issue with incorrect /etc/fstab entries.
2. Attach a 5GB EBS volume (/dev/xvdf) to the EC2 instance.
3. Mount the file system on the /data directory and create a file named 'f1'.
4. Incorrectly update /etc/fstab: /dev/xvdf /data ext4 defaults 1.
5. Restart the EC2 instance from the AWS console.

Fix the Booting Issues

EC2 Serial Console

1. Open the Serial Console from the AWS console.
2. Correct the /etc/fstab entries:

   /dev/xvdf /data ext4 defaults 1 1

Rescue Instance

1. Stop the problematic EC2 instance and detach the root volume.
2. Launch a Rescue Instance, attach the root volume as a data volume, and fix /etc/fstab.
3. 
4. Detach the volume, terminate the Rescue Instance, and reattach the root volume to the original EC2 instance.
5. 
6. Start the EC2 instance.

Validation

Verify that the EC2 instance starts successfully.

Comments

• Use the EC2 Serial Console to address issues related to incorrect /etc/fstab entries.
• The Rescue Instance method is effective when the EC2 instance encounters booting failures.