Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is the cloud service offering from Amazon.
Once you have an account, you can interact in several ways. There is of course the browser-based 'console' which is overwhelming and complicated. Then there is also the console-based commands when logged into an instance. That is referred to as the AWS CLI <ref>http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/index.html AWS CLI</ref>. But thankfully, there are a couple of command-line toolsets for manipulating the API and also Amazon Machine Images (AMI) right from the comfort of your own home.
* http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/CommandLineReference/set-up-ec2-cli-linux.html Getting setup
* [https://aws.amazon.com/developertools/Amazon-EC2/351 Amazon EC2 API Tools] The API tools serve as the client interface to the Amazon EC2 web service. Use these tools to register and launch instances, manipulate security groups, and more.
* [http://aws.amazon.com/developertools/368 Amazon EC2 AMI Tools] are command-line utilities to bundle an Amazon Machine Image (AMI), create an AMI from an existing machine or installed volume, and upload a bundled AMI to Amazon S3.
== Example ec2-cli commands ==
<source lang="bash">
ec2-describe-instances
ec2-stop-instances i-ca51833a
ec2-terminate-instances -h
</source>
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[[Category:Virtualization]]