# Insufficient permissions with ec2-user SSH user, how to log in as wowza user?

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/insufficient-permissions-with-ec2-user-ssh-user-how-to-log-in-as-wowza-user/40488>\
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\
**Created:** [May 24, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/insufficient-permissions-with-ec2-user-ssh-user-how-to-log-in-as-wowza-user/40488 "2013-05-24T12:54:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Erik\_Lyngved](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/94ad74/32.png) [@Erik\_Lyngved](https://community.wowza.com/u/Erik_Lyngved)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/insufficient-permissions-with-ec2-user-ssh-user-how-to-log-in-as-wowza-user/40488/1 "2013-05-24T12:54:26Z")

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Hello,

I used the ami-c2fd6dab AMI (us-east-1) to build an instance with wowza. I can’t figure out how to SSH in to the ec2 instance with the wowza user, is that even possible? I SSH in using ec2-user and the .pem file that AWS generated for me. But I can’t use that identity, or figure out how to use a password.

When I log in as ec2-user I try to start and stop the server, but get permission denied errors:

```auto
[ec2-user@ip-10-191-39-232 ~]$ service WowzaMediaServer stop
WowzaMediaServer: stopping
waiting for processes to exit^[[A
waiting for processes to exit^[[Brm: cannot remove `/var/run/WowzaMediaServer.pid': Permission denied
                                                           [OK]
[ec2-user@ip-10-191-39-232 ~]$ service WowzaMediaServer start
/etc/init.d/WowzaMediaServer: line 63: kill: (1330) - No such process
WowzaMediaServer is already running (1330): stopping
rm: cannot remove `/var/run/WowzaMediaServer.pid': Permission denied
WowzaMediaServer: starting [OK]
touch: cannot touch `/var/run/WowzaMediaServer': Permission denied

```

This doesn’t look like it’s really restarting the server.

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Erik\_Lyngved](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/94ad74/32.png) [@Erik\_Lyngved](https://community.wowza.com/u/Erik_Lyngved)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/insufficient-permissions-with-ec2-user-ssh-user-how-to-log-in-as-wowza-user/40488/2 "2013-05-24T13:32:09Z")

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I found that I had to enable password logins for ec2 as the root user.

Login as ec2-user

Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd\_config file (make sure to sudo)

set **PasswordAuthentication yes**

Run **sudo /etc/init.d/sshd reload**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Richard\_Lanham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Richard\_Lanham](https://community.wowza.com/u/Richard_Lanham)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/insufficient-permissions-with-ec2-user-ssh-user-how-to-log-in-as-wowza-user/40488/3 "2013-05-24T20:39:43Z")

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Also note that to run as root once you have logged in with “ec2-user”, do this:

```auto
sudo su -

```

Richard