How to Install Aws Cli: Complete Guide

If you are working with AWS, you might have used the AWS Management Console, a web-based interface that allows you to access and manage your AWS resources. But did you know there is another way to interact with AWS: faster, more flexible, and more convenient? That way is the AWS Command Line Interface, or AWS CLI for short. In this blog, you will learn How to Install AWS CLI and use it to perform various tasks on AWS. But first, let’s understand what AWS CLI is and why you should use it.   

Table of Contents 

1) Understanding the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) 

2) Utilising the AWS Command Line Interface: Key applications 

3) Advantages of using the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) 

4) How does the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) operate? 

5) Installing AWS CLI version 2 on a Windows machine: Step-by-step guide 

6) Installing AWS CLI version 2 on a Linux system: Stepwise procedure 

7) Conclusion 

Understanding the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) 

AWS Command Line Interface, or CLI, is a tool that lets you manage and configure AWS services from the terminal. It is a tool that executes specific commands for every AWS service. With AWS CLI, you can quickly run simple functions like creating or deleting resources, launching and stopping instances, etc., and uploading and downloading files.  

It is also possible to use AWS CLI to access some of its more advanced functions, such as getting pre-signed URLs, calling Lambda functions, and logging CloudWatch logs, among others. 

Utilising the AWS Command Line Interface: Key applications 

The AWS Command Line Interface is used for several purposes, depending on your needs and preferences. Some of the critical applications of AWS CLI are:
 

a) Scripting and automation: You can use AWS CLI to write scripts automating repetitive or complex AWS tasks. For instance, writing a script that will automatically spin up a stack of EC2 instances, installing everything on them, and loading your application code is possible. AWS CLI can also be deployed with other platforms and tools like Cron, Jenkins or Ansible to achieve a workflow or pipeline. 

b) Development and testing: AWS CLI can quickly implement a quick test of your AWS applications. For example, you can use AWS CLI to initialise and test Lambda functions, upload and download objects from S3 buckets, and perform query operations against DynamoDB tables. Other ways to debug and troubleshoot your application include viewing the CloudFormation events, CloudWatch metrics and API Gateway logs using AWS CLI.   

c) Administration and monitoring: AWS CLI can enable us to manage and monitor our AWS resources. Some examples are using AWS CLI to list and describe resources, set and modify their attributes, and apply tags to resources. You can also use the command line to monitor the status and performance of resources, e.g., view load balancer health checks, EC2 usage, and CloudWatch monitoring health checks. 

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Advantages of using the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) 

The AWS Command Line Interface offers several advantages over the AWS Management Console and other methods of interacting with AWS. Some of the advantages are: 

a) Speed and efficiency:  

In this case, the AWS CLI is a tool that allows you to do many things efficiently and faster than you can through the AWS Management Console. For example, the AWS CLI enables you to create multiple resources through a single command instead of going through various screens and forms one after another. The additional advantage is that the AWS CLI can run these tasks in parallel, unlike the sequential approach.   

b) Flexibility and customisation: 

 AWS CLI is a specific tool allowing you to tweak and optimise your AWS workflow to the maximum. For instance, AWS CLI can control the result format, limit the results category, and control the pagination process. Another essential feature of AWS CLI is that it can enable you to access certain other functionalities that are not readily available or easy to access in the management console, like generating pre-signed URLs, calling the lambda function or getting the stream of CloudWatch logs.   

c) Portability and compatibility:  

You can use AWS CLI to call and access the functionality of AWS from any platform and environment. For example, you can use AWS CLI from your local machine, from an instance running on a remote server, an application running in a container, or an application running on a virtual machine. AWS CLI can also access AWS from any system, such as Windows/Linux or MacOS. There is also AWS CLI, which can assist you in accessing AWS from any shell, such as bash, PowerShell, or Zsh. 

How does the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) operate?  

The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) sends HTTP requests to the service endpoints and receives HTTP responses. The AWS CLI commands have three parts: the service name, the operation name, and the parameters.   

For example, the command aws s3 cp file.txt s3://my-bucket has the following parts: 

a) The service name: s3 indicates the AWS service to interact with, in this case, Amazon S3.  

b) Operation name: cp, which indicates the action to perform, in this case, copying a file.  

c) Parameters: file.txt and s3://my-bucket, which indicate both the source and destination of the copy operation, in this case, a local file and an S3 bucket. 

The AWS CLI commands are translated into HTTP requests following AWS API specifications. The HTTP requests are signed with your AWS credentials and stored in a configuration file or an environment variable. The HTTP requests are sent to the AWS service endpoints, and URLs are pointed to the AWS servers.  

The AWS service endpoints process the requests and return HTTP responses containing the status code, headers, and body. The AWS CLI commands parse the HTTP responses and display the output in the terminal, which can be JSON, text, or table format. 

Installing AWS CLI Version 2 on a Windows: Step-by-step guide 

To install AWS CLI version 2 on a Windows, you need to follow these steps:  

a) Download the AWS CLI version 2 installer for Windows from this link.  

b) You then need to run the downloaded file and follow the instructions on the screen. You can also choose the default options or customise them according to your preference.  

c) After the installation, open a new command prompt window and verify that the AWS CLI version 2 is installed by running the command aws --version. You should see an output similar to this:
 

d) To configure the AWS CLI version 2, run the command aws configure and enter your AWS access key ID, secret access key, default region, and default output format. You can obtain your AWS credentials from the AWS Management Console or IAM service. You can also leave the values blank or press Enter to use the default values.   

 For example:
 

e) To test the AWS CLI version 2, run a simple command, such as aws s3 ls, which lists the S3 buckets in your account. You should see an output similar to this:   

Installing AWS CLI Version 2 on a Linux System: Stepwise Procedure 

The AWS CLI version 2 is a command-line tool that allows easy interaction with AWS services from your Linux system. To install it, you then need to follow these steps:   

a) Download the installation file from the AWS website using the curl command. For example, to download the 64-bit Linux installer, you can use this command:
 

b) You can unzip the downloaded file using the unzip command. You need to have the unzip utility installed on your system. For example, you can use this command:
 

c) Run the install script inside the extracted folder using the sudo command. This will install the AWS CLI version 2 in the /usr/local/bin/aws directory. For example, you can use this command:
 

d) Verify the installation by running the aws --version command. This will show you the version and configuration details of the AWS CLI version 2. For example, you might see something like this:
 

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Conclusion 

In this blog, you have learned How to Install AWS CLI, a powerful tool that allows you to interact with AWS services from your command line. You have also learned about the benefits, features, and applications of AWS CLI and how it works behind the scenes.    

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