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AWS — Quick Start & Common Commands

This page gives a practical quick start for developers and DevOps engineers using AWS: account tips, CLI setup, and common resource commands.

Account & security tips

  • Use an organizational account (AWS Organizations) for multiple accounts and billing separation.
  • Enable MFA for root and important IAM users.
  • Create least-privilege IAM roles and use role-assumption for automation.
  • Tag resources with Owner, Environment, and Project for cost allocation.

AWS CLI setup

Install the AWS CLI and configure credentials:

python -m pip install --user awscli
aws configure
# Provide Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, region (ap-south-1), and output (json)

Use named profiles for multiple accounts:

aws configure --profile sandbox
aws s3 ls --profile sandbox

Common CLI examples

  • Create an S3 bucket: 
    aws s3 mb s3://my-bucket-name --region ap-south-1
  • Upload a file: 
    aws s3 cp ./artifact.zip s3://my-bucket-name/
  • Launch a small EC2 instance (example using Amazon Linux 2): 
    aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 --count 1 --instance-type t3.micro --key-name MyKeyPair --security-group-ids sg-01234567 --subnet-id subnet-01234567
  • Describe instances: 
    aws ec2 describe-instances

IAM best practices

  • Use IAM roles for EC2/containers instead of long-lived credentials.
  • Grant least privilege and use permission boundaries for sensitive roles.
  • Rotate service credentials and use AWS Secrets Manager for secrets.

Cost & governance

  • Enable Cost Explorer, set budgets and alerts.
  • Use reserved instances or savings plans for stable workloads.
  • Implement lifecycle policies for S3 to move older objects to cheaper storage.

If you'd like, I can add runnable examples (CloudFormation/Terraform snippets) or a short walkthrough: "Create an EC2 + S3 static website" for the projects page.