AWS Management Console Cheat Sheet

The AWS Management Console is the primary web-based graphical user interface (GUI) for accessing and managing the full suite of Amazon Web Services. It provides a centralized platform to perform a wide range of tasks, from launching virtual servers to monitoring your AWS spending, without needing to use command-line tools.

Unified Console Home: A customizable dashboard that provides a single pane of glass to view and manage your AWS resources. You can add, remove, and rearrange widgets for things like "Recently visited services," "AWS Health," "Cost and usage," and "Trusted Advisor."
Universal Search: A powerful search bar at the top of the console that allows you to quickly find services, features, documentation, and your own created resources (like EC2 instances or S3 buckets) by name or tag.
Service Navigation: Access any of the 200+ AWS services through the "Services" menu, which categorizes services for easier discovery. You can also pin your most-used services to the top navigation bar for quick access.
Region Selector: Easily switch between AWS Regions from the top navigation bar. Remember, many resources are region-specific, so always ensure you are working in the correct region.
AWS CloudShell: An integrated, browser-based shell that is pre-authenticated with your console credentials. It provides immediate access to the AWS CLI and other tools for command-line management.

Access and Security

Sign-in Process: You can sign in to the console as the Root User or as an IAM User.
- Root User: The email address and password used to create the account. It has complete and unrestricted access. Best Practice: Do not use the root user for everyday tasks. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on it and store the credentials securely.
- IAM User: An identity with specific, granular permissions that you create in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). This is the recommended way to interact with AWS.
Custom Sign-in URL: IAM users sign in via a unique URL that includes your AWS account ID or an account alias: https://<your_account_id_or_alias>.signin.aws.amazon.com/console/
Secure Sessions: Console login sessions automatically expire after 12 hours for added security, requiring you to sign in again.

Resource Organization and Management

Resource Groups

A Resource Group is a logical collection of AWS resources within the same region that share common criteria. This makes it easier to manage and automate tasks on a large number of related resources at once.
You can create a resource group based on two types of queries:
- Tag-based: The group includes all resources that share a specific tag key or key-value pair.
- AWS CloudFormation stack-based: The group includes all resources that are part of a specific CloudFormation stack.

Tag Editor

The Tag Editor is a global service that allows you to find and manage tags for your AWS resources in bulk.
Tags are key-value pairs that act as metadata for organizing resources, tracking costs, automating tasks, and managing permissions.
With the Tag Editor, you can:
- Search for resources across multiple services and regions based on their tags or lack of tags.
- Add, edit, or delete tags for multiple resources at once, which is far more efficient than tagging resources individually.
- Ensure consistent tagging policies across your environment.

Cost Management

The console provides integrated access to the AWS Billing and Cost Management Dashboard.
Here you can:
- View your current and past monthly spending.
- Use AWS Cost Explorer to visualize and analyze your costs and usage with detailed graphs and filtering.
- Create AWS Budgets to set spending limits and receive alerts when costs exceed your defined thresholds.

AWS Console Mobile Application

AWS offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.
It allows you to view your resources, monitor AWS Health, see CloudWatch alarms, and perform a limited set of operational tasks while on the go.

AWS Management Console