AWS CLI Quick Guide

This document will give you quick example commands that you can copy/paste and modify for your own use. This shoud get you up and running with the AWS CLI quickly so that you can start automating tasks and saving yourself time as fast as possible.

If you want to install the AWS CLI, checkout our AWS CLI - Install and Setup Guide.

If you need a different region than the one that you have configured, you can append the “–region” option to most commands.



aws ec2 describe-instances --output table --region us-west-1

EC2 Instances

Describe instances:



aws ec2 describe-instances

Filter matching instances:



aws ec2 describe-instances --filters 'Name=tag:Name,Values=dev-lab-server-23b-*'

Start/stop/reboot instances:



aws ec2 start-instances  --instance-ids i-0b22a22eec53b1234 
aws ec2 stop-instances   --instance-ids i-0b22a22eec53b1234
aws ec2 reboot-instances --instance-ids i-0b22a22eec53b1234

Terminate an instance ( remove –dry-run to actually do it ):



aws ec2 terminate-instances --dry-run --instance-ids i-0b22a22eec53b1234

EC2 Volumes

Describe volumes:



aws ec2 describe-volumes

Attach a volume to an instance:



aws ec2 attach-volume  --volume-id vol-1d5cf8dd --instance-id i-0b22a22eec53b1234 --device /dev/sde

Run an instance:



aws ec2 run-instances --dry-run --image-id ami-08111123 --count 1 --instance-type t2.micro --key-name Key1 --security-groups sg1

EC2 Images

Create an image:



aws ec2 create-image --instance-id i-0b22a22eec53b1234 --name "Test AMI" --description "my testing AMI"

Describe an image:



aws ec2 describe-images --image-ids ami-2d574123

Deregister an image and delete a snapshot:



aws ec2 deregister-image --image-id ami-2d574123 && aws ec2 delete-snapshot --snapshot-id snap-4e665123

Delete a snapshot:



aws ec2 delete-snapshot --snapshot-id snap-4e665123

EC2 Key Pairs

Describe key pairs:



aws ec2 describe-key-pairs

Create a key pair:



aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name Key1

Delete a key pair:



aws ec2 delete-key-pair --key-name Key2

EC2 Security Groups

Create a security group:



aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name my-sg1 --description "A security group I created"

EC2 Tags

Tag a resource:



aws ec2 create-tags --resources i-ddddbb12 --tags Key=Office,Value=NYC1

Get console output:



aws ec2 get-console-output --instance-id i-0b22a22eec53b1234

Monitor instance:



aws ec2 monitor-instances --instance-ids i-0b22a22eec53b1234

Unmonitor an instance:



aws ec2 unmonitor-instances --instance-ids i-0b22a22eec53b1234

S3 Storage

Use the make bucket command to create a bucket:



aws s3 mb s3://mybucket1

Use the remove bucket command to delete a bucket:



aws s3 rb s3://mybucket1

List S3 Buckets:



aws s3 ls

Recursively list objects in a bucket:



aws s3 ls s3://mybucket1 --recursive

Find total size of all ojbects inside a givine S3 bucket:



aws s3 ls s3://mybucket1 --recursive  --human-readable --summarize

Copy / upload file to a bucket:



aws s3 cp file.txt s3://mybucket1

Copy / upload file to a bucket using full path:



aws s3 cp /data/sub1/file.txt s3://mybucket1

Download file from bucket to a specified local directory:



aws s3 cp s3://mybucket1/file.txt /my_data/dir1

Download file from bucket and specify destination file name:



aws s3 cp s3://mybucket1/file.txt file_version2.txt

Move a file to a bucket:



aws s3 mv file.txt s3://mybucket1