Install EC2 API tools

The EC2 API tools are commands that wrap the Amazon EC2 API actions. Refer to the Amazon EC2 documentation for more information.

• Before installing, make sure you have the multiverse repository enabled. Add the following lines to the /etc/apt/sources.list file (this is an example for the us-east zone, other zones may differ):

  deb http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse
  deb-src http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse
  deb http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse
  deb-src http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse
  

• Run the following commands to install the tools:

  $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get install ec2-api-tools
  

• Check the version of the installed tools:

  $ ec2-version
  1.3-46266 2009-11-30
  

Another approach is to install Bitnami Cloud Tools, which packages the Amazon Web Services command-line tools with preconfigured Java, Ruby and Perl language runtimes. It is a self-contained, easy to use distribution with one goal in mind: to make it simple to get started using AWS services from the command line. Find more information on Bitnami Cloud Tools.