In this lab, you sign up for an AWS account and perform a few steps required to be able to log, create resources, and do other labs. These steps will include creating a new IAM user, creating an EC2 key pair, and configuring the command-line interface (CLI).
Be aware that you need a credit card in order to register for the AWS account. This is so Amazon can bill you if you exceed the free tier quotas.
Amazon provides a free trial for a year that allows you to provision some resources free of charge. To see a detailed list of what is provided in the free tier, visit http://aws.amazon.com/free.
WARNING, you will incur charges if you exceed the free quotas without any warning from AWS. So whenever you create resources when doing a tutorial, make sure you delete them when finished, so you don't get charged.
If you already have an AWS account, is it still important to complete some of the sections. Read through the section titles and perform the bits you have not yet done.
What you need
To complete this lab, you need:
- Internet Access
- The latest version of Google Chrome or another modern browser
- A credit card to register for an AWS account
In this lab, you:
- Register for the AWS free tier
- Create an IAM account and generate access keys
- Configure the AWS CLI
- Create and download an EC2 key pair
If you already have an AWS account or you have been provided an account, just make sure you can log into the AWS console and move to the next section.
Step 1
Go to http://aws.amazon.com.
Step 2
Click Sign In to the Console.
Step 3
Enter your email address and select I am a new user and click the Sign in button.
Step 4
Provide your name, email address, password, and click the Create Account button.
Step 5
On the Contact Information screen, select either Company or Personal account and provide the required information. Click the Create Account and Continue button.
Step 6
On the Payment Information screen, provide the required credit card information and click Continue.
Step 7
On the Identity Verification screen, perform the phone verification. You will need a phone number where you can receive an automated call.
Click the Call Me Now button. You will receive a call and must type the pin displayed on the screen.
Step 8
Once the verification is done, click Continue to select your support plan button.
Step 9
On the Support Plan screen, select the Basic (free) plan and click Continue.
Step 10
You should see the Welcome to Amazon Web Services screen.
Step 11
Click the Sign into the console button and log in with the account just created.
If you already have an account or just created one in the last section, you will also need to create an IAM account to use when logging into the AWS Management Console.
When using AWS, you should always try to perform tasks with an IAM account and not the main or root account.
Step 1
If not already logged in, log into AWS at http://aws.amazon.com.
Step 2
Click Services | IAM.
Step 3
Near the top of the Welcome to Identity and Access Management screen, you should see an IAM users sign-in link. Click Copy Link to copy this URL. Paste into a text editor so you will have it later. The URL will be in the form:
https://<Account_number>.signin.aws.amazon.com/console
Where <Account_number> is your AWS account number
Step 4
Click the Users link and then click Add User.
Step 5
Provide a Username of your choice (do not forget it).
Step 6
Select both Programmatic access and the AWS management console access.
Step 7
Select Custom password and provide a password of your choice (do not forget it).
Step 8
Uncheck the Require password reset.
Step 9
Click Next: Permissions.
Step 10
Select the Attach existing policies directly option.
Step 11
In the Filter text field, type admin and then check the checkbox next to the AdministratorAccess policy (It should be about 4 down).
Step 12
Click the Next: Review button. Click the Create User button.
You should see a Success screen. Do not click the Close button yet!
Step 13
Click the Download .csv button and if prompted, select to save the file. Chrome will automatically save the file in your Downloads folder without prompting, but some browsers will prompt.
Step 14
Go look in your downloads folder and there should be a file named either accesskeys.csv or credentials.csv. AWS is not consistent in the filename used, but it will be one these names.
Make sure you download the CSV file before leaving this screen.
Click the Close button.
Step 15
Near the top right of the window, click your name and select Sign Out.
Step 16
In the browser, go to the new sign in URL that was copied earlier in this section.
Step 17
Leave the Account field with your account number that was pre-populated and sign in with the username and password for the user just created.
This section contains the required steps to install the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI).
Step 1
Go to https://aws.amazon.com/tools/ and scroll down to the Command Line Tools section.
Step 2
Click the Install link under the AWS Command Line Interface section.
Step 3
On the left side, expand the Installing the AWS CLI section and click the link for your operating system.
Step 4
Follow the directions for your operating system.
For Windows, the easiest is to use the MSI installer, but Python can also be used.
For Linux or Mac, Python is required but the page will have the required steps if you do not already have Python.
To use the CLI, you need to configure it with the Access Keys you created when you created your IAM account.
Step 1
Navigate to your Downloads folder and open either the accesskeys.csv or credentials.csv file in a text editor. There will be only one of these files depending on how AWS generated it.
Step 2
This is a CSV file containing several values. The first line is a header line describing the different values in the file.
Copy the value for the Access key ID. It will start with something like "AKIA..."
Step 3
Open a new Terminal or command prompt on your workstation. At the command prompt, type:
aws configure
Then, press Enter.
Step 4
You will be prompted for your Access key ID. Paste the value just copied and press Enter.
Step 5
Switch back to the editor and copy the value for Secret Access Key.
Step 6
Paste that value in the command prompt and press Enter.
Step 7
For the Default region, name enter:
us-east-1
and press Enter. This set the default region to us-east-1 (N Virginia), you could use a different region if you wanted to or change this later.
Step 8
For Default output format, enter:
text
and press Enter.
Step 9
The CLI should now be set up. To test the CLI, issue the following commands.
aws ec2 describe-regions aws ec2 describe-availability-zones aws s3 ls
If you are using Windows and want to be able to connect to Linux machines that you create in AWS, you will need a SSH client.
The most popular SSH client is PuTTY. You will need to install PuTTY and a related utility called PuTTYgen. PuTTYgen is needed to convert the EC2 key that you just created into a format required by PuTTY.
Step 1
Download and install PuTTY from http://www.putty.org. Select the package that contains all the utilities. This ensures you will also install PuTTYgen.
This lab was provided by ROI Training.
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