singhj

Sometimes the easiest option is to give someone a key to your instance and revoke it after they are done.

We create a key pair, put the public key on the server, give them the private key.
To create the key pair for suzy,
    cd ~/.ssh
    ssh-keygen -b 1024 -f suzy -t dsa
    cat suzy.pub >> authorized_keys
    cat suzy
    rm suzy*

singhj

Early Stage IT devises and implements IT strategy for start-ups and entrepreneurs using cloud computing and SaaS components. DataThinks.org is a service of Early Stage IT and focuses on Big Data Analytics.

I am the President of Early Stage IT.

singhj

# Context. 
# The motivation for this gist: http://www.datathinks.org/2012/03/Big-Data-Laboratory
# create the mount point
sudo mkdir /mnt/bisum
# mount the volume, assuming the volume is mounted at /dev/sdf
sudo mount /dev/xvdf /mnt/bisum

singhj

# Adapted from multiple places on the web including LJ Villanueva. http://research.coquipr.com/archives/183
sudo apt-get update
# Note, this next line can take a good 20 minutes 
sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-desktop
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freenx-team
sudo sed -i 's/natty/lucid/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freenx-team-ppa-natty.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo aptitude install -y freenx
mkdir downloads
cd downloads

singhj

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

singhj

# stop services
# sudo service apache2 stop

# unmount the file system
sudo umount /mnt

# detach the volume using AWS console
# take a snapshot using AWS console
# make a new volume
# attach the volume