developer-environment-setup

AWS CLI Configuration Guide

Installation

Windows

msiexec.exe /i https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.msi

macOS

brew install awscli

Linux

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

Configuration

# Configure AWS credentials
aws configure

# Set specific profile
aws configure --profile production

# List profiles
aws configure list-profiles

# View configuration
aws configure list

Common AWS CLI Commands

S3 Operations

# List buckets
aws s3 ls

# Create bucket
aws s3 mb s3://my-bucket-name

# Upload file
aws s3 cp file.txt s3://my-bucket/

# Upload directory
aws s3 cp mydir/ s3://my-bucket/mydir/ --recursive

# Download file
aws s3 cp s3://my-bucket/file.txt ./

# Sync directories
aws s3 sync ./local-dir s3://my-bucket/remote-dir

# Delete file
aws s3 rm s3://my-bucket/file.txt

# Delete bucket
aws s3 rb s3://my-bucket --force

EC2 Operations

# List instances
aws ec2 describe-instances

# Start instance
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

# Stop instance
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

# Create instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0 \
  --instance-type t2.micro \
  --key-name MyKeyPair \
  --security-group-ids sg-903004f8 \
  --subnet-id subnet-6e7f829e

# Terminate instance
aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

Lambda Operations

# List functions
aws lambda list-functions

# Invoke function
aws lambda invoke \
  --function-name my-function \
  --payload '{"key": "value"}' \
  response.json

# Create function
aws lambda create-function \
  --function-name my-function \
  --runtime nodejs20.x \
  --role arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-role \
  --handler index.handler \
  --zip-file fileb://function.zip

# Update function code
aws lambda update-function-code \
  --function-name my-function \
  --zip-file fileb://function.zip

RDS Operations

# List DB instances
aws rds describe-db-instances

# Create DB instance
aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier mydb \
  --db-instance-class db.t3.micro \
  --engine postgres \
  --master-username admin \
  --master-user-password password123 \
  --allocated-storage 20

# Delete DB instance
aws rds delete-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier mydb \
  --skip-final-snapshot

CloudFormation

# Create stack
aws cloudformation create-stack \
  --stack-name my-stack \
  --template-body file://template.yaml

# Update stack
aws cloudformation update-stack \
  --stack-name my-stack \
  --template-body file://template.yaml

# Delete stack
aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name my-stack

# Describe stack
aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name my-stack

IAM Operations

# List users
aws iam list-users

# Create user
aws iam create-user --user-name new-user

# Create access key
aws iam create-access-key --user-name new-user

# List policies
aws iam list-policies

# Attach policy
aws iam attach-user-policy \
  --user-name new-user \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonS3FullAccess

AWS CLI Tips

Use Output Formats

# JSON (default)
aws ec2 describe-instances --output json

# Table
aws ec2 describe-instances --output table

# Text
aws ec2 describe-instances --output text

# YAML
aws ec2 describe-instances --output yaml

Query Results with JMESPath

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

# Filter results
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[?State.Name==`running`]'

Use Profiles

# Set default profile
export AWS_PROFILE=production

# Use profile in command
aws s3 ls --profile production

Dry Run

# Test command without executing
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0 --dry-run

Environment Variables

# AWS credentials
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1

# AWS profile
export AWS_PROFILE=production

AWS CLI Configuration File

~/.aws/config:

[default]
region = us-east-1
output = json

[profile production]
region = us-west-2
output = json

[profile development]
region = us-east-1
output = table

~/.aws/credentials:

[default]
aws_access_key_id = AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key = wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

[production]
aws_access_key_id = AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key = wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

Best Practices

  1. Use IAM roles when possible instead of access keys
  2. Never commit credentials to version control
  3. Use MFA for sensitive operations
  4. Set up budget alerts to monitor costs
  5. Use least privilege principle for permissions
  6. Enable CloudTrail for audit logging
  7. Rotate credentials regularly
  8. Use AWS Secrets Manager for sensitive data

Useful Resources

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