Getting Started with AWS Local Zones

In this step, you enable an AWS Local Zone in your account. By default, Local Zones are disabled.

 

1.1

Sign in to the AWS Management Console. Next to the Region selector, choose the Local Zones selector tab, and then choose Manage Local zones to open the AWS Global View where you can see all available Local Zones.

 

 

1.2

Select the Local Zone you want to enable and choose Opt-in.

 

 

1.3

Confirm by choosing Opt-in Zone group.

 

 

1.4

Wait a few minutes. The selected Local Zone will be enabled in your account and show as Opted in.

 

 

1.5

From the Local Zones selector pane, select the Local Zone to navigate to its parent Region. For more info about Local Zones architecture, refer to this document.

 

2.1

Ensure the parent Region of your Local Zone is selected in the console. In the search bar, enter VPC and select it from the displayed results.
 

 

2.2

Confirm that you have a default VPC. The Default VPC column should display Yes.
 

 

2.3

Confirm that an internet gateway (IGW) is attached to the default VPC. In the left navigation pane, select Internet gateways and verify that an IGW is attached to the same VPC ID from step 2.2.
 

 

2.4

Verify that the default route table (RTB) attached to the VPC has a default route to the internet gateway:

• Under VPC in the left navigation pane, select Route tables.
• The Main column should display Yes. Select this RTB (checkbox in the first column) and navigate to the Routes tab in the bottom pane.
• Confirm there is a default route (0.0.0.0/0) with IGW ID from step 2.3 as the Target.
   

 

2.5

Your default VPC has default subnets only in the parent Region’s Availability Zones. Create a subnet mapped to the Local Zone you enabled in step 1.3: 

• In the left navigation pane, select Subnets and choose Create subnet.
   

• From the VPC ID dropdown, select the VPC ID noted in step 2.2.
• In the Subnet name field, enter a descriptive name.
• From the Availability Zone dropdown, select the Local Zone enabled in step 1.3.
• From the IPv4 VPC CIDR block dropdown, select the VPC’s CIDR address.
• In the IPv4 subnet CIDR block field, enter a non-overlapping subnet address.
• Choose Create subnet.
   

 

2.6

Navigate to the VPC dashboard and select Subnets in the left navigation pane. Select the newly created subnet and verify it is in the correct Local Zone by checking the zone name under the Availability Zone field. Also, confirm it has the main route table verified in step 2.4.
 

3.1

While staying in the same parent Region console, navigate to EC2 in the AWS Management Console and choose Launch instance.
 

 

3.2

In the Launch an Instance window:

• Enter a Name for the EC2 instance.
• Under AMI, select Quick Start, then choose Amazon Linux 2023 AMI.
   

• Under Instance type, select t3.micro from the dropdown.

Note: This tutorial uses a T3 instance and an Amazon Linux 2023 AMI as an example. Instance type availability varies by Local Zone. If T3 is not available in your selected Local Zone, choose another available instance type from the Local Zones features page and proceed with the remaining steps.

 

3.3

Create a key pair to connect to your EC2 instance securely:

• Choose Create a new key pair.
   

• Enter a name in the Key pair name field.
• Select RSA as key pair type.
• Select .pem as the private key file format (If you plan to connect using PuTTY, select .ppk instead).
• Choose Create key pair to download the file automatically.
• Save the .pem or .ppk file in an accessible folder on your local machine. You will need this to access the EC2 instance in a later step.

Important Note: Loss of key pair will inhibit your SSH access to EC2 instance.
 

 

3.4

In Network settings, choose Edit:
 

• From the VPC dropdown, select the VPC ID noted in step 2.2.
• From the Subnet dropdown, select the Local Zone subnet created in step 2.6.
• Set Auto-assign public IP to Enable.

 

3.5

Create a security group to allow access to specific ports on EC2 instance:

• Allow port 22 (SSH) — required to connect to your instance.
• Allow port 80 (HTTP) — required for the speed test application.

Note: Rules with source of 0.0.0.0/0 allow all IP addresses to access your instance. For better security, restrict access to known IP addresses only.  You will delete this security group in Step 5. 
 

 

3.6

Leave the remaining values as default under Configure storage and choose Launch instance.
 

4.1

Verify that the EC2 Instance state is running and 2/2 status checks passed.

Note the Public IP address—you'll need it to connect via SSH.
 

 

4.2 

Choose Connect, select the SSH client tab, and copy the example SSH command. On your local machine, open a terminal, navigate to the folder where you saved the key pair file in step 3.3, and run the command. 
 

 

4.3

After logging into the EC2 instance, install Docker container and a lightweight speed test application by running the following commands.

• Install Docker container: sudo dnf install -y docker
• Start Docker: sudo systemctl start docker
• Verify Docker is installed correctly: sudo docker info
• Run a lightweight speed test application: sudo docker run --name speedtest -d -p 80:80 e7db/speedtest

 

4.4

On your local machine, open a browser and go to:

http://<insert your ec2 public ip here>

Choose the Start button to begin the test. Once complete, you will see results for latency, jitter, download speed, and upload speed from your local machine to the EC2 instance in the Local Zone.
 

Compare these results with those from the latency test portal for your selected Local Zone. If you also run this test against an instance in the parent Region, you will typically see lower latency from the Local Zone instance because the traffic routes directly to the Local Zone’s Network Border Group rather than traversing to the parent Region’s Availability Zones.

This confirms the AWS infrastructure location that provides you the lowest latency from your physical location.

After completing the tutorial, delete the resources you created to stop incurring costs.

 

5.1

Terminate the EC2 instance: 

• In the EC2 console left navigation pane, under Instances, select Instances.
• Select the instance created in step 3.6.
• From the Instance state dropdown, choose Terminate instance.
   

 

5.2 

Wait for instance termination to complete:

In the instances list, wait until the instance state shows “Terminated”. This releases the associated network interface and security group dependencies.

 

5.3 

Delete the security group:

• In the VPC console left navigation pane, select Security groups.
• Select the security group name created in step 3.5. 
• In the Details tab, verify the correct security group is selected.
• From the Actions dropdown, choose Delete security groups.
   

 

5.4

Delete the subnet in your Local Zone:

• In the VPC console left navigation pane, select Subnets.
• Select the subnet you created in the Local Zone. 
• From the Actions dropdown, choose Delete subnet.
   

 

5.5

Delete the key pair:

• In the EC2 console left navigation pane, under Network & Security, select Key Pairs.
• Select the Key pair created in step 3.3.
• From the Actions dropdown, choose Delete.
• On your local machine, delete the .pem or .ppk file you downloaded in step 3.3.