How to manage multiple AWS accounts with AWS CLI Profiles

1. What Are AWS CLI Profiles?

AWS CLI profiles allow you to configure and manage multiple sets of AWS credentials and settings. Each profile corresponds to a specific AWS account or role, enabling you to seamlessly switch between them while using the AWS CLI.

2. Configuring Multiple Profiles

To set up profiles, follow these steps:

Using aws configure command

1. Run the Configuration command:

aws configure --profile profile_name

Replace it profile_name with a name like dev "or."prodaccount2

• Enter the Required Information:
  • AWS Access Key ID
  • AWS Secret Access Key
  • Default Region Name (e.g., us-west-2)
  • Default Output Format (e.g., json)
• Repeat for each AWS account, using different profile names.

Manually Editing Configuration Files

For finer control, you can manually edit the configuration files.

• Credentials File

vim ~/.aws/credentials %USERPROFILE%\.aws\credentials

Using AWS CLI with Multiple Profiles

To run AWS CLI commands using a specific profile, use the --profile option:

aws s3 ls --profile profile1

Setting Environment Variables (Optional)

For convenience, you can set the AWS_PROFILE environment variable to use a specific profile for the duration of your terminal session:

export AWS_PROFILE=profile1

Verifying Your Configuration

To ensure your profiles are set up correctly, you can check your account identity:

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile profile1