Install and Configure the AWS CLI

The configuration is under windows system.

Prepare - Set up the Red Hat EC2 instance

1. Download private key file

2. Download and configure PuTTY

   • open PuTTY and choose Connection, set Seconds between keepalives to 30 to keep the PuTTY session open for a longer period of time
   • chosse Session and paste the public DNS of the Host instance
   • Back to Connection and expand SSH, choose Auth and select privite key file under Credentials, choose open
   • when prompted login as, enter: ec2-user(where to configure this) and tap Enter, then connect to the instance

3. Verify python

   python3 --version
   

4. unzip utility

   sudo yum install -y unzip
   

5. download and install AWS CLI

   curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
   unzip awscliv2.zip
   sudo ./aws/install
   

6. verify CLI

   aws help
   

   type 1 to exit

7. Connect to AWS account

   • return the active SSH session and enter aws configure to enter id and accesskey
   • AWS Access Key ID - AccessKey
   • AWS Secret Access Key - Secret access key
   • Default region name: e.g. us-east-1
   • Default output format: json

8. observe IAM configuration details by using CLI

   aws iam list-users
   
   ---
   
   
   {
       "Users": [
           {
               "Path": "/",
               "UserName": "xxx",
               "UserId": "xxx",
               "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::xxx:user/xxx",
               "CreateDate": "2025-12-02T23:17:16+00:00"
           }
       ]
   }
   
   

9. download the policy e.g. lab_policy json file

   aws iam get-policy-version \
   --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::xxx:policy/lab_policy \
   --version-id v1 \
   --query "PolicyVersion.Document" \
   --output json > lab_policy.json