AWS Command Line Basics

Lab Overview

The goal of this lab is to learn the basics of the AWS command line interface (CLI). You have already seen how you can use the AWS Web Console to create and manage cloud resouce. Everything you can do with the Web Console you can do with the CLI. One advantage of thbuild automation around performing tasks like creating users and fetching lists of virtual server.

Log into AWS Console

Before we can do anything you will need to get access AWS web console in your browser. The log in details for your lab provided AWS account are on the left hand of the lab. Each field has a copy link you can use.

Click on the Open Console link.

Copy/paste the Username, Password and click Sign In.

Conenect to FortiCNAPPUbuntu

Connect to the FortiCNAPPUbuntu Instance that was created automatically for you

Use the AWS CLI

The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) is a tool that enables users to interact with AWS services using command-line commands. It provides a direct way to manage AWS resources without needing to use the AWS Management Console.

Installing AWS CLI

Before using AWS CLI, ensure it is installed on your EC2 instance. You can check if AWS CLI is installed with:

aws --version

If it is not installed, install it using the following command (for Amazon Linux 2):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install unzip -y
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip -qq awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

Now run :

aws --version

Configuring AWS CLI

Once installed, you need to configure AWS CLI with your credentials. Use the following command:

aws configure

You will be prompted to enter:

AWS Access Key ID
AWS Secret Access Key
Default Region Name (e.g., us-east-1, us-west-2)
Default Output Format (json, text, or table)

Use us-east-1

This stores the credentials in ~/.aws/credentials and the configuration in ~/.aws/config.

Basic AWS CLI Commands

Check Current AWS Identity

To verify the credentials are working, run:

aws sts get-caller-identity

Check Current AWS Identity

aws iam list-attached-role-policies --role-name us-east-1CloudLabRole

This should return details about your IAM user or role.

List Available Regions

To see all AWS regions:

aws ec2 describe-regions --output table

EC2 Instance Management

List All EC2 Instances

aws ec2 describe-instances

Press q to exit back the terminal

aws ec2 describe-instances | jq

aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name,PublicIpAddress]' --output json

aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name,PublicIpAddress]' --output table

Dynamically Extract Instance ID

Instead of manually specifying the instance ID, we can extract it dynamically:

INSTANCE_ID=$(aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].InstanceId' --output text)
echo "Your Instance ID is: $INSTANCE_ID"

S3 Bucket Operations

We will use a predefined S3 bucket: training-bucket-demo and a sample file: sample.txt

List All S3 Buckets

aws s3 ls

IAM User and Role Management

List IAM Users

aws iam list-users

Create a New IAM User

aws iam create-user --user-name trainee-user

Your role does not allow you to create users

Conclusion

These are just a few essential AWS CLI commands to get started. The AWS CLI is powerful and can manage almost all AWS services directly from the terminal. To explore more, refer to the official AWS CLI documentation:

📌 AWS CLI Reference Guide