AWS CLI
Introduction:
AWS CLI (Command Line Interface) is a tool provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to interact with AWS services from the command line. It is a powerful and flexible interface that enables developers and system administrators to automate their AWS workflows and manage their cloud resources efficiently.
AWS CLI is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it can be installed as a standalone tool or as part of the AWS SDKs. It supports a wide range of AWS services, including Amazon S3, EC2, Lambda, RDS, CloudFormation, and many others.
With AWS CLI, users can perform a variety of tasks, such as creating and managing instances, configuring security groups, uploading and downloading files to/from S3 buckets, and running Lambda functions, among others. The tool provides a set of commands that can be used to perform these tasks, and users can also write scripts using the AWS CLI to automate complex workflows.
AWS CLI is a powerful tool that can greatly enhance the productivity of developers and system administrators who work with AWS services. It provides a fast and efficient way to manage AWS resources and automate workflows, and it can be easily integrated into existing automation and scripting tools.
This article focuses on the following pointers:
What is AWS CLI?
What are the Benefits of AWS CLI?
What are the Best Practices of AWS CLI?
How to install AWS CLI?
What is AWS CLI?
AWS CLI (Command Line Interface) is a tool provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to interact with AWS services from the command line. It is a unified tool to manage various AWS services like EC2, S3, RDS, etc.
AWS CLI provides a command-line interface to interact with AWS services instead of going through the web console. It offers a consistent user experience for managing and automating AWS services, and it can be used in conjunction with other AWS tools like AWS CloudFormation and AWS SDKs to develop and deploy applications.
AWS CLI is built on top of the AWS SDKs for various programming languages and uses the same API calls as the SDKs to interact with AWS services. It provides a set of high-level commands that can be used to perform various operations on AWS resources, including creating and deleting resources, managing security, and accessing data.
The AWS CLI is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems and can be installed as a standalone tool or as part of the AWS SDKs. It is designed to be scriptable and can be used to automate various tasks, such as deploying and managing applications, configuring infrastructure, and monitoring AWS services.
What are the Benefits of AWS CLI?
Now that we have a fair understanding of what is AWS CLI, let us find all the advantages that are making this tool so popular. In the below section, we are going to discuss some of the great benefits of AWS CLI.
Easy Installation
There are many toolkits that were available before the AWS CLI was introduced. There are so many complex steps involved when one has to install these toolkits like AWS API. There was a need to put up with the multiple environment variables, but now with this new tool, this process has become very much easier. When the developer needs to install the AWS CLI, they can do it very quickly as it is very simple and standardized to use. The installation process has become very much smoother with this new tool.
Time-saving
Even though the AWS management services are very user-friendly, there are many times, it becomes hard to use this tool. We can understand with an example. If you need to search for a big file in the AWS Management services, then you have to log in to your account and look for the right bucket and the right file. But when you are using the AWS CLI, you just have to write that in a line that is the right command, and the task that was taking so much time will be completed within a matter of seconds. This tool is very fast and easy to use as compared to other AWS services.
Process Automation
If we look at the biggest benefit that the team is going to have with the AWS CLI is the ability to automate the whole process while using the AWS services using scripts. Using this, the developers can control and manage the AWS services and this can free the developers from logging in to the AWS Management Console. So, if you are looking to automate the given cloud infrastructure then going for shell scripting can be the best way. And with AWS CLI, you will have an option to do so. This task of automation can be very beneficial for the team when they are going through a critical time in the project.
Supports all Amazon Web Services
Before this tool was not there, there was a need for a dedicated CLI tool when you just want to use the EC2 service from Amazon. It was good to use but one of the major drawbacks was that it can be used for other amazon web services and this is why it was becoming obsolete. This gave birth to the AWS CLI where you are able to control all the AWS services with just one tool and this saves time and energy for all the people working on the project.
There are indeed so many benefits to this tool as this is becoming one of the major choices for developers all over the world. If you wish to learn more about the automated processes and developments, then you can go for the best AWS DevOps Certification Training and get the certification for your better career growth.
What are the Best Practices of AWS CLI?
After going through the benefits of using this tool, let us now look at the best practices that one should be following while using this tool. Indeed, this tool is very great to use, but with the right knowledge, greater things can be achieved.
Secure your credentials
When you are going to use this tool, you should protect your password. You are going to have an advantage of managing the AWS applications in an easier way with this tool, but this command-line interface is also going to give away to the hackers as well as the white hat users to take advantage of your credentials. So, to avoid this, you should not use the root accounts for day-to-day interactions. Also, you should not generate the access key for your root accounts.
Take backup regularly
There could be various emergencies where you could lose your data but one should be prepared for things like this. Using the Amazon EBS snapshots, you should always back up your instance very often. Not only this, there are various guides available that can be used which can help you to automate the backup process so that no important information is missed at any time.
Secure your applications
Securing your application is very much necessary and there are various ways that you can use to secure those applications. When you are only allowing the app layer access to your database layer, you can achieve this. You should only be allowing the outside world connection when there is an absolute need for the same. Moreover, you should deny all the other traffic on the internet.
Understand your responsibility
There are many things like the data, operating system, and security that are managed by the user itself. There are other things like infrastructure and services that are being managed by Amazon. So there is a shared responsibility of that platform so whether you are going to use the standard GUI or the command-line interface, you should always go for the best practices to have a responsibility for the same.
Always use a trusted Advisor
If you wish to make the best of your Amazon platform and the services that you are going to use, then going for a trusted advisor can work at great lengths for you. They are helpful when you need to analyze your environment and want to adhere to the best practices that are needed. Things like security issues, gaps in reliability, and saving money can be well adjusted when you have a trusted advisor for your machine.
There are so many things that you can use the AWS CLI like web page hosting, being an architect, security, email, EC2, and much more. So, the above-mentioned practices come in very handy and will help you get the best of the AWS CLI so that you can have the best experience that you are looking for.
How to install AWS CLI?
To install AWS CLI (Command Line Interface), follow these steps:
- Check if Python is installed on your system by running the following command in your terminal:
cssCopy codepython --version
If you do not have Python installed, download and install the latest version from the official Python website.
- Download the AWS CLI installation package for your operating system from the AWS CLI official website.
- Follow the installation instructions for your operating system:
- Windows: Run the downloaded MSI installer package and follow the instructions on the screen.
- macOS: Open the downloaded DMG file and run the installation package. Follow the instructions on the screen.
- Linux: Extract the downloaded ZIP file and run the installation script using the following command:
bashCopy codesudo ./install
- Verify that AWS CLI is installed correctly by running the following command in your terminal:
cssCopy codeaws --version
This should output the version of AWS CLI that you installed on your system.
After installing AWS CLI, you can configure it by running the aws configure command in your terminal and providing your AWS access key ID, secret access key, default region, and output format. This will allow you to use AWS CLI to interact with your AWS services from the command line.
Configuration of AWS CLI
Step 4: For the configuration, you can use the below-mentioned command.
$ aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKI************
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: wJalr********
Default region name [None]: us-west-2
Default output format [None]: json
Now when you realize that the AWS CLI has been successfully installed on your machine, you need to. There will be four-piece of information that will prompt in front of you when you are going to run the above-mentioned command. The first two are mandatory.
In this, you are going to have the AWS Access Key ID as well as the AWS secret Access Key. These are going to serve as the account credentials. The other two pieces of information that you need to put are the region and the output format which can be configured later as well. Also, you can generate new credentials with this AWS Identity if you do not have them already.
With this, your AWS CLI is all set and you can experience the powerful tool as it goes.
Final Word
There are many tools that can be used in AWS, but with AWS CLI, you are going to have an amazing experience. With the shared access to various other services and other options. It is one of the most powerful tools and once you start using this tool, you are going to get the best features. The latest version is AWS CLI Version 2. It supports all the latest features. While developing the application, there are various services needed and Amazon Web Services is one of the biggest platforms for the same. The AWS CLI makes the life of developers easier with its quick and standard commands.
