Set Up Multiple AWS Accounts with AWS CLI

· 2 minute read

Managing multiple AWS accounts can be essential for various reasons, like separating personal projects from work-related tasks. In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up multiple AWS accounts in the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) and switch between them easily.

Setting Up Multiple AWS Accounts 🔗

To work with multiple AWS accounts using the AWS CLI, you need to set up named profiles for each account. Each profile contains the credentials and configuration details for a specific AWS account. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Configure AWS CLI Profiles 🔗

You need to create a profile for each AWS account. You can do this in your terminal or command prompt using the aws configure command.

  1. First set up a profile for your personal AWS account: aws configure --profile personal. You will be prompted to enter the following information:
  • AWS Access Key ID: Enter your personal AWS access key.
  • AWS Secret Access Key: Enter your personal AWS secret key.
  • Default region name: Enter your preferred AWS region (e.g., us-east-1).
  • Default output format: Choose the output format (e.g., json).
  1. Then set up your professional for your company’s AWS account: aws configure --profile company. Similarly, provide the access key, secret key, region, and output format for your company AWS account.

Step 2: Use Environment Variables to Switch Profiles 🔗

Instead of specifying the profile with every command, you can set an environment variable to specify which AWS profile you want to use for your AWS CLI commands. This way, you only need to set the profile once per session, and all subsequent commands will use that profile until you change it.

Set the environment variable (Unix/Linux/macOS): 🔗

The command below sets the AWS_PROFILE environment variable to personal, so all AWS CLI commands will use the personal profile.

export AWS_PROFILE=personal

When you need to switch to another profile, update the environment variable: export AWS_PROFILE=company

Check the current profile: 🔗

To see which profile is currently set: echo $AWS_PROFILE

Conclusion 🔗

By setting up named profiles and using environment variables, you can easily manage and switch between multiple AWS accounts in the AWS CLI. This setup allows you to streamline your workflow and avoid the hassle of specifying the profile with each command.

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