How to Use AWS CLI in Docker Container ?

The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) is a powerful tool that allows users to interact with AWS services directly from the terminal. Integrating AWS CLI within a Docker container can significantly streamline workflows, especially for development and deployment processes that rely on cloud infrastructure. This article will guide you through the steps of installing and configuring AWS CLI in a Docker container, ensuring a consistent and portable environment for managing AWS resources. Whether you’re a developer or a system administrator, mastering this setup will enhance your efficiency and productivity.

The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is an open-source tool that enables you to interact with AWS services using commands in your command-line shell. With minimal configuration, the AWS CLI provides you with the ability to quickly and easily access the same functionality as the browser-based AWS Management Console from the comfort of your terminal program.

A Docker container is a runtime instance of an image. Allows developers to package applications with all parts needed such as libraries and other dependencies. Docker Containers are runtime instances of Docker images. Containers contain the whole kit required for an application, so the application can be run in an isolated way. For eg.- Suppose there is an image of Ubuntu OS with NGINX SERVER when this image is run with the docker run command, then a container will be created and NGINX SERVER will be running on Ubuntu OS.

To install the AWS CLI within a container that is running Docker, follow the instructions listed below.

Step 1: Pull the sample image from the Docker Nginx image.

Step 2: Use a Docker container to run the Nginx image. To obtain the docker container’s ID after running, use the “docker ps” command.

Step 3: The `docker exec` is a docker command that allows users to run commands inside a running Docker container, bridging the gap between the container environment and the host system. This command opens up possibilities for troubleshooting and debugging. It performs administrative-related tasks within a live container.

docker exec -it <container ID> bin/bash

Step 4: Download and install AWS CLI using the following commands as shown in the image below. Inside the docker container

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

Step 5: Since it was a Docker container, there won’t be an unzip command available. To install that command, use the ones listed below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install unzip

Depending on the situation, “sudo” can be utilised. In this case, however, I wasn’t using it because I was already logged in as root to a Docker container.

Step 6: Verify weather AWS CLI installed or not using the following version.

aws --version 

Follow the steps mentioned below to use AWS CLI indocker container.

Step 1: Use the following command to configure the AWS (Amazon Web Services) credentials by which was cli will interact to aws account.

aws configure

After executing the above command it will ask for AWS Access key and secret key to know how to generate them refer to the

Step 2: Configure AWS CLI to Disable Paging: You can configure the AWS CLI to disable the use of a pager, which will prevent it from attempting to use less or any other pager program. You can do this by setting the AWS_PAGER environment variable to an empty string:

export AWS_PAGER=""

Step 3: The output of the command shows that there is one running instance. Here are some of the details about the instance:

• Instance ID: i-0ff86c22f8ed01eef
• Image ID: ami-04b70fa74e45c3917
• Instance Type: t2.micro

The Instance ID is a unique identifier for the instance. The Image ID is the ID of the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that was used to launch the instance. The Instance Type is the type of EC2 instance that you launched. In this case, the t2.micro is a burstable micro instance. Burstable instances are a type of instance that provide a baseline level of CPU performance, with the ability to burst to higher levels for short periods of time.

What is Dockerfile Extension?

Dockerfile is the source code of docker image and basically there is no extension for Dockerfile or you may use “.dockerfile or .Dockerfile” they can be used but they are not mandatory. The standard file name is Dockerfile.

Dockerfile Copy Directory

The COPY command or instruction in the dockerfile is used to copy the directories from docker host to the docker image.

Dockerfile vs Docker Compose

• Dockerfile: Dockerfile consists of all the steps that are required to create docker image. Dockerfile consists of base image and the all remaining environmental variables.
• Docker Compose: YAML file consists of multi-container applications.Simplifies the orchestration and configuration of Dockerized applications by specifying services, networks, and volumes.