AWS Authentication Basics

Installing AWS CLI and Configuring Environment Variables AWS CLI (Command Line Interface) is a powerful tool that lets you interact with AWS services directly from your terminal. To get started with AWS CLI, you’ll need to install the software, configure it's path, and manage authentication effectively. Add AWS CLI to System Path: On Windows: The installer usually handles this automatically. If not, you can manually add the path (e.g., C:\Program Files\Amazon\AWSCLI\bin ) to your system environment variables. On macOS/Linux: The installation script should handle this. If not, you can add the path to your shell configuration file (e.g., .bashrc , .zshrc ) with the following line: export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin/aws Using .pem Files for Authentication to instances AWS uses key pairs (.pem files) to securely connect to your instances. These files contain the private key and are essential for accessing resources via CLI. Here’s how you can manage them: ssh -i /path/to/your-key.pem ec2-use