I have ec2 classic enabled on aws because my account is old. For the first time, I'm trying to make an instance of a type not allowed with ec2 classic. So apparently this involves making a VPC/subnet/gateway/routes/security group manually in order to get a basic server running that I can ssh into remotely. Apparently on non-ec2-classic accounts, there is a default VPC. Does anyone know if this makes it easier to get the ssh'able server I want? Is that default VPC configured for public access by default, or are there fewer steps you need to do than the ec2-classic account? Based on these docs, (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-classic-platform.html), I believe that is the case, that it is much easier to get an ssh server running with a default VPC, but I'm not 100% sure I'm reading it right. Is there a way to "disable" ec2 classic on an account if I want to enable this default vpc?

the default VPC has subnets that have a route to internet gateway and by default, instances placed into the subnets in the default VPC, get a public IP address

you can disable assignment of a public IP address, but if I recall correctly, it is on by default

so you can get a publicly reachable instance easily running in the default VPC

Thanks! Good to know. It looks like it is possible to convert my account to use the default VPC for a region that's currently on ec2 classic if I get rid of all ec2-classic resources in that region (or just use a different region).

Alternatively it looks like there are some cloud formation templates that I could also use to do essentially the same thing