Recommended setup for multiple AWS accounts?

[jonathaneunice]

If one is managing instances across multiple AWS accounts (with different credentials, obviously), what is the recommended way to set this up?

[espenak]

I would set this up in one of the following ways:

Alternative 1

This works well if you have one primary account, and other accounts that you use less frequently. Use separate awsfab config files for each project. Use aswfab_config.py for the most used account, and other config-files for the other accounts (E.g.: awsfab_myaccount.py). For all accounts except the one using awsfab_config.py, you have to use --awsfab-settings to specify the config module (E.g.: awsfab --awsfab-settings awsfab_myaccount). See awsfab --help for more info.

Tip

Use a python module with common settings to avoid duplicating settings. I usually create aswfab_config_common.py, and import it with from awsfab_config_common import * at the top of each config.

Alternative 2

Use separate directories for each account, and keep common tasks and settings as a python module. This works great for completely separate installs that share mostly the same settings and tasks. The common stuff can go in a VCS repo, and each install can have their own VCS repo. Furthermore, you can CD into a directory and use awsfab without the need for --awsfab-settings.

Tip

I prefer to use buildout for each account repo. This ensures that each account can be checked out from VCS at any time, and just work. This is the buildout config I use:

[buildout]

parts =
    python

extensions =
    buildout.dumppickedversions
    mr.developer

# Note that the common tasks repo is added here, and in [sources]
eggs =
    awsfabrictasks
    common_awsfabstuff

# mr.developer options
auto-checkout = *
always-checkout = true


[versions]
boto = 2.4.1
zc.buildout = 1.5.2
zc.recipe.egg = 1.3.2
Fabric = 1.4.1
pycrypto = 2.5
ssh = 1.7.13
mr.developer = 1.21
awsfabrictasks = 1.0.14


[python]
recipe = zc.recipe.egg
interpreter = python
eggs =
    ${buildout:eggs}


## mr.developer sources
[sources]
#awsfabrictasks = git git@github.com:espenak/awsfabrictasks.git
common_awsfabstuff = git espen@example.com:/path/to/common_awsfabstuff.git