Install and Configure the AWS CLI

Task 1: Connecting to the Red Hat EC2 Instance using SSH

Since I was using Windows, I followed these specific steps:

1. I selected the Details drop-down menu above the instructions and clicked Show. A Credentials window appeared.
2. I downloaded the PPK file by clicking the Download PPK button and saved the labsuser.ppk file to my Downloads directory.
3. I made a note of the PublicIP address provided in the credentials window.
4. I closed the Details panel by clicking the X.
5. Since I didn't have PuTTY installed, I had to download it first from the provided link.
6. I opened putty.exe and set up my connection to the EC2 instance using the PublicIP and the PPK file.

Task 2: Installing the AWS CLI on the Red Hat Linux Instance

Once I was connected to the instance via SSH, I executed the following steps to install the AWS CLI:

1. I downloaded the AWS CLI installation package using curl:

2. I unzipped the installer file with the -u option to skip the prompts for overwriting existing files:

3. I ran the installation program using sudo to grant write permissions to the directory:

4. To verify that the installation was successful, I checked the version:

The output showed something like aws-cli/2.7.24 Python/3.8.8 Linux/4.14.133-113.105.amzn2.x86_64 botocore/2.4.5

The version numbers change over time and might be different.

5. To further verify that the AWS CLI was working properly, I ran the help command:

When the prompt showed :, I entered q to exit.

Task 3: Observing IAM Configuration Details in the AWS Management Console

Next, I switched to exploring the IAM configuration in the AWS Management Console:

1. In the AWS Management Console, I typed "IAM" in the Search box and selected IAM to navigate to the IAM console.

I noticed some messages indicating that I didn't have permission to observe certain IAM service details, but I knew I could safely ignore these.

2. In the navigation pane, I clicked on Users, then selected awsstudent.
3. On the Permissions tab, I expanded the lab_policy by clicking the arrow icon, and then clicked the {} JSON button.

I examined the lab_policy document, which was formatted in JSON. I noticed that this IAM policy grants the awsstudent user access to specific AWS services in the account.

4. I moved to the Security credentials tab and located the awsstudent user's access key ID in the Access keys section.

I noted that once an access key is created, you must save the secret access key locally at creation time. I found both the access key ID and the secret access key in the Details dropdown list at the top of the instructions.

Task 4: Configuring the AWS CLI to Connect to the AWS Account

Back in my SSH session terminal window, I ran the configuration command:

At the prompts, I entered the following information:

• AWS Access Key ID: I copied and pasted the AccessKey value from the Details dropdown.
• AWS Secret Access Key: I copied and pasted the SecretKey value from the Details dropdown.
• Default region name: I entered us-west-2
• Default output format: I entered json

Task 5: Observing IAM Configuration Details using the AWS CLI

To test if my configuration was working properly, I ran this command:

I was pleased to see that the test was successful—I received a JSON response that included a list of IAM users in the account.

Activity 1 Challenge: Downloading the lab_policy Document

For this challenge, I needed to use the AWS CLI Command Reference documentation and the AWS CLI to download the lab_policy document in a JSON-formatted IAM policy document—the same document I had previously seen in the AWS Management Console.

I approached this methodically:

1. First, I consulted the IAM AWS CLI Command Reference documentation to understand what commands I would need. I found that clicking on the hyperlinks for commands provided detailed information about what they would return and how to use them.
2. I needed to list policies, but I had to filter for customer-managed policies (local scope) since the lab_policy was a customer-managed policy:

From the output, I identified the policy ARN for lab_policy: arn:aws:iam::774668408888:policy/lab_policy

3. Next, I needed to find a command to get a specific policy version. I discovered I would need the version number of the lab_policy document to retrieve its JSON representation:

This showed me that the default version was v1.

4. With the ARN and version ID in hand, I retrieved the specific JSON representation:

This command displayed the full JSON document of the policy version.

5. Finally, I needed to save the output to a file. I used the > command to pipe the output to a file:

This saved the JSON policy document to a file named lab_policy.json in my current directory.

Throughout this process, I made sure to:

• Double-check the ARN and version ID to avoid errors
• Review the saved JSON document to ensure it was complete and accurate
• Keep my commands organized for easy reference