awss 0.9.13

Description:

awss 0.9.13

Connect and Control Instances by Name or Selection from Instance List


Use AWSS to establish SSH connections and control instances without the need to know IP addresses, instance-ids or Names. This eliminates the need to leave the shell to use the Web Portal to retreive this information, which prevents workflow distruption and allows you to remain focused on the shell and the tasks at hand.
AWSS is extremely useful when the following items are unknown for a target instance:

The current IP address (changes frequently for on-demand instances)
The login-user required for connecting via SSH
The keyfile associated with the SSH account
The instance-id



Example screenshots
Running “awss ssh” without specifying any additional info allows you to select from list of running instances

Running “awss list” will list all instances and their details, including all tags (listed in blue)

Running “awss start” with a partial Name (and wildcard), lists matching results and allows selecting the target



Tested Platforms & Python Versions
Python 2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6
Platforms:

Linux
macOS (OS X)
Windows (see Windows Prereqs for ssh functionality)



Installation
This utility can be installed with pip:
pip install awss


Windows Prereqs
Windows does not have a built-in ssh command, so using the awss ssh command on windows requires:

Installation of PuTTY Suite

use the “Windows Installer”, install all options, and include it on your path


Converting ssh keys from Amazon’s “.pem” format to “.ppk” format

keys can be converted using the puttygen utility (installed with PuTTY Suite)


Powershell (native in of Windows since Windows XP Service Pack 3)



Configuration
SSH Access Keys (.pem or .ppk files)

Keys should be stored in the .aws folder in your home directory
Unix-type systems must set permission on files with a command such as sudo chmod 400 ~/.aws/*.pem
Windows systems must convert files to “.ppk” format, as described in Windows Prereqs

AWS Credentials can be stored using either one of these two methods:

Environment variables “AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID”, “AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY” and “AWS_DEFAULT_REGION”
Files named “credentials” and “config” in the .aws folder in your home directory

The Windows home directory is referred to by the environment variable %UserProfile%

{HOME}/.aws/credentials
[default]
aws_access_key_id=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
{HOME}/.aws/config
[default]
region=us-west-2
output=json

Information on AWS Credentials is in the AWS Getting Setup guide.
Information on configuration files in is the AWS Getting Started guide.



Command Details

SSH to Instance: awss ssh, awss ssh NAME or awss ssh -i ID

typing awss ssh without a name or ID will display all running instances

this allows the user to select from the list if they can’t remember the name
this can be combined with wilcards, for example awss ssh U* to display
a list of instances starting with “U” to select from


the login-name is automatically calculated based on the image-type of the instance
override the calculated login-name -u USERNAME
connect without PEM keys (if properly configured) -p
command specific help awss ssh -h


List Instances: awss list (other variations listed below)

list all instances (default), or use wilcards awss list D*
list running instances -r or –running
list stopped instances -s or –stopped
list instances with specified name awss list NAME
list instance with specified instance-id awss list -i ID
instance-state and NAME may be combined in queries

ex: list instances with NAME currently running: awss list NAME -r


command specific help awss list -h


Start Instance: awss start, awss start NAME or awss start -i ID

typing awss start without a name or ID will display all stopped instances

this allows the user to select from the list if they can’t remember the name
this can be combined with wilcards, for example awss start U* to display
a list of instances starting with “U” to select from


start instance by name or instance-id
command specific help awss start -h


Stop Instance: awss stop, awss stop NAME or awss stop -i ID

typing awss stop without a name or ID will display all running instances

this allows the user to select from the list if they can’t remember the name.
this can be combined with wilcards, for example awss stop U* to display
a list of instances starting with “U” to select from.


start instance by name or instance-id
command specific help awss stop -h