# Step 4: Provision an instance
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In this step, you will create or configure the instance that you will deploy the sample application to. You can deploy to an Amazon EC2 instance or an on-premises instance that is running one of the operating systems supported by CodeDeploy. For information see [Operating systems supported by the CodeDeploy agent](codedeploy-agent.md#codedeploy-agent-supported-operating-systems). (If you already have an instance configured for use in CodeDeploy deployments, skip to the next step.)

**To provision an instance**

1. Follow the instructions in [Launch an Amazon EC2 instance (console)](instances-ec2-create.md#instances-ec2-create-console) to provision an instance.

1. When launching the instance, remember to specify a tag on the **Add tags** page. For details on how to specify the tag, see [Launch an Amazon EC2 instance (console)](instances-ec2-create.md#instances-ec2-create-console).

**To verify that the CodeDeploy agent is running on the instance**
+ Follow the instructions in [Verify the CodeDeploy agent is running](codedeploy-agent-operations-verify.md) to verify that the agent is running.

After you have successfully provisioned the instance and verified the CodeDeploy agent is running, go to the next step.