Aws Twill Module is a Twill (twill.idyll.org) module that allows the user to manage Amazon AWS instances (start-up, shutdown) without needing to type in their security credentials every time To use this package, you must have twill and boto installed. If you want to run the nosetests, you'll also need python-nose installed quick-n-dirty tutorial - lines starting with '>> ' define commands executed in the twill prompt - lines starting with '$ ' define commands executed in a terminal Start twill and load the extension: $ twill-sh >> extend_with atm.twillm Add new user credentials: >> adduser me myAWSAccessKeyID myAWSSecretKey myAWSPrivateKey This associates you accesskeyid, secretkey and your privatekey with the username 'me'. The username can be anything you want since it has nothing to do with Amazon's services, though you should make it short for your own sake. Add an image: >> addimage myimage ami-a0c83ec9 This associates the image id 'ami-a0c83ec9' with the easier-to-remember string 'myimage'. Once again, like the user name, the image name has nothing to do with Amazon and should be short so it is easy to remember. Tell atm to use the credentials you just entered: >> use_aws_creds me Now, lets start up an instance: >> startinstance myimage me m1.xlarge That command will fire up an m1.xlarge image. The instance type parameter is optional and, if left out, defaults to 'm1.large'. After the instance is started, its public DNS name is printed out below. To get a listing of currently running instances: >> showinstances To stop an instance by specifying its ID: >> stopinstance i-06e9ed6b To stop all instances: >> stopinstances Which prints out each image ID as it is stopped More Information: - After entering user/image information, it is automatically saved to a .atmconfig file that resides in the working directory. After creating this file, the next time you use atm this fill is loaded and parsed so that you do not have to enter that information a second time.