Manage AWS via CLI

4 min readNov 26, 2020

What is AWS ?

Amazon Web Services is a subsidiary of Amazon providing on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis.

Why AWS ?

Amazon hosts their data centers across the world, allowing users to choose where they want their data and applications to live. By offering more than 30 availability zones, AWS lets you run your technology right where your users are accessing it, resulting in a measurable performance boost.

What is AWS CLI ?

The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) is a unified tool to manage your AWS services. With just one tool to download and configure, you can control multiple AWS services from the command line and automate them through scripts.

What We are going to perform in this tutorial :

1. Create a key pair
2. Create a security group
3. Launch an instance using the above created key pair and security group.
4. Create an EBS volume of 1 GB.
5. Attach EBS to instance created in step 3.

First we need to install AWS CLI on local system :

You can download CLI installation Binary from here .

Installation steps are shown below :

We first need an AWS account to perform this , You can create one here.

Now We need to create one IAM User for creating keys , and generate keys

You can find guide to do this here.

let’s get started :

verify AWS CLI :

aws --version

You will get output like :

aws-cli/2.1.4 Python/3.7.9 Windows/10 exe/AMD64

Run :

aws configure

Put your Keys when asked :

aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKXAXX6XXXXXXXXXX
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: vgXXSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Default region name [None]: us-west-2
Default output format [None]: txt

Create a Key Pair :

aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name aws_task3

You will get key pair :

aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name aws_task
5c:7a:0b:e2:7f:c2:ee:a4:60:1e:cd:44:42:e8:84:74:e2:47:9f:cb     -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----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n7uyARnp13qo3Go0KsOsBT9YuIGDuZQ2GFVA+AEcWtCnLQ6iPplBuJIrG1mNGVXF
GVsbmqALzg05KzSOuc6I2DSlMhcx3RJmbzB4/dQlb7uCu5ys5aARwtiUcUBUDdVj
GgMHbqkCgYEA861Z9VOwJnUEkkpHjyOxfxthFDDE9QQrtOWrn01jyK1orJ+8vauQ
h5VRVqDtNRaus5MMaBjGeq63RZ43KxP6/o5SvPItL3XSMLpwLLkk4DGJ+vTs2htY
dF8Ss7W8DhtR+R2eGckwjoGdkwSq+jLdrY9r/l63wXbBuRG7hEcJIvMCgYEAyDjM
UoUWTepPv8/X8pCfM3pCjEOtHoxqUEaulVpxM9OTo+m1DSZhXzwpxzqibpwhfKEQ
EjGKSbhMlXQik5PThwW2muURebmiZ7tKAuWqk0XPjLneLPDzNNYAzAjGqYVY5n6p
UV4rALCU1pWPXUR6aMma/TkJ+Kg0CgYEAuODOPta28AaaaE+ZCV4A
Xjqspf/2fxsh+gbC9oNl8Ky4nTg4oAMaDfRZGQvRzRSfiblIkXYyqIQEovpOSw3G
wfnDhn2LkNWomrXpQ9VYyAxt7oyDY1uZ+fjkHJsGygEqaYJyIIhHoedvYUsKWffb
vsHxIrZKSfBcS0vhZcqxk1minehU7Usnj0/EpJxHbD
+J3s+GqIuS/x0IDvzx3NMxOwhMx/1H+ft7SLWWfWaB2ykh7+dkHQyWG3tFtNg7R3
SAGBVB67LRjWFruyOX7D43kFTCUCHLEL8Ejr9UtqAD+L3Bw9/Bil1RDUgO53U7Nw
3VhSrGUCf02zPHlFfTNy5/z3GlL/BY6sifr7Hie7APwaDnx0j9obw7jMzCzghu6C
wDA83s+ZvksI+1AzSklBx7tOfmfO+pPqIW1zAIBIjAfQB1WB8zLVjdUslKv+TiR4
5kTTTCDrpGNC0KsWwnb5t6dunCy1IecO6H9or0A8ftFhCnQDdqk=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----   aws_task        key-0be0dfd7866e45c

Create a security group

aws ec2 create-security-group --description "This is Task3 Security group" --group-name Task3_SGOUTPUT : sg-05bXXXXXXXabd58

Launch an instance using the above created key pair and security group

You will need :

Instance ID

Image ID : Default AMI for ubuntu => ami-07a0da1997b55b23e

Key Name

Subnet ID

Security Group (id with sg)

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-07a0da97b55b23e --instance-type t2.micro --key-name aws_task3  --security-group-ids sg-05bXX692f99abd58  --subnet-id subnet-139304e --count 1OUTPUT :  820205001403    r-0c4b7a32706c397c1
INSTANCES       0       x86_64  744e38-46be-43-9c7dfa43f450f568    False   True    xen     ami-07a0da17b55b23e   i-0e8ed175057c41ade     t2.micro        aws_task3       2020-11-25T9:04:10+00:00       ip-172-31-13-6.us-west-2.compute.internal       172.31.13.6             /dev/xvda       ebs     True            subnet-13304e hvm     vpc-23410d5b
CAPACITYRESERVATIONSPECIFICATION        open
CPUOPTIONS      1       1
ENCLAVEOPTIONS  False
METADATAOPTIONS enabled 1       optional        pending
MONITORING      disabled
NETWORKINTERFACES               interface       0a:64:77:cd:f1:8d       eni-07643a15ff6e66ca2   820205001403    ip-172-31-13-6.us-west-2.compute.internal       172.31.13.6     True    in-use  subnet-1398304e vpc-23410d5b
ATTACHMENT      2020-11-25T09:04:10+00:00       eni-attach-02fa006fd15778e90    True    0       0       attaching
GROUPS  sg-05b6a9692f99abd58    Task3_SG
PRIVATEIPADDRESSES      True    ip-172-31-13-6.us-west-2.compute.internal       172.31.13.6
PLACEMENT       us-west-2c              default
SECURITYGROUPS  sg-05b6a9692f99abd58    Task3_SG
STATE   0       pending
STATEREASON     pending pending

Create an EBS volume of 1 GB.

Create EBS Volume in same zone that our instance have launched :

aws ec2 create-volume --availability-zone us-west-2c --volume-type gp2 --size 1OUTPUT : us-west-2a      2020-11-25T09:06:57+00:00       False   100     False   1               creating        vol-078b8d1a3530d0   gp2

Attach the above created EBS volume to the instance you created in the previous steps

aws ec2 attach-volume --device /dev/xvdb --instance-id i-0e8edXXX7c41ade --volume-id vol-0ac486XX14d3959OUTPUT : 2020-11-25T09:09:24.806000+00:00        /dev/xvdb       i-0e8ed17505XXXade     attaching       vol-0ac48314d3959

That’s it…

This tutorial is over here, You can explore more commands in aws cli documentation.

Thanks.