Run AWS CLI commands on All regions - awsall | Devops Junction

What is awsall CLI tool

This is a simple solution we have created to execute your AWS CLI commands on all AWS regions without having to mention --region argument all the time.

Let's say you want to list the instances as a table with selected fields but you want to do that for all the AWS regions.

Or let's suppose you want to list all your EC2 instances, Load Balancers or EFS or any AWS resources across all AWS regions.

You would usually choose to run the commands on a loop or specify the --region and re run the commands.

With awsall. you dont have to do that. It will take care of re running your commands across the regions and get the desired results.

Where it can be used

This can be used on the workstations that supports linux shells. preferably bash or zsh I have tested this on the MAC and Linux distributions.

 

Prerequisites

• Functionining AWS CLI setup ( Refer this article if you are new to AWS CLI)
• Permission to modify your own user's ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file

How to install awsall

It is a simple solution which does not need any software installation or download.

Based on the shell you are using edit your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file

These files are executed when a user SSH in or launch a new terminal.

By Adding the following source code ( shell function ) into those files and  re launching the terminal or  by executing source ~/.bashrc or source ~/.zshrc the installation is complete.

Here is the script that you have to add

function awsall {
  export AWS_PAGER=""
  for i in `aws ec2 describe-regions – query "Regions[].{Name:RegionName}" – output text|sort -r`
  do
  echo "------"
  echo $i
  echo "------"
  echo -e "\n"
  if [ `echo "$@"|grep -i '\-\-region'|wc -l` -eq 1 ]
  then
      echo "You cannot use – region flag while using awsall"
      break
  fi
  aws $@ – region $i
  sleep 2
  done

  trap "break" INT TERM
}

You can add this function at the end of the bashrc or zshrc file.

How to use awsall

Once you have added this snippet  and re launched or sourced your startup configuration file.

You can start using this as a replacement for aws command only when you want the command to be executed on all regions

For example.

let's suppose you execute the following command to list the instances on your default region

aws ec2 describe-instances

you can simply replace aws with awsall to execute the same CLI command across all regions

awsall ec2 describe-instances

 

Let it be any complicated aws cli command like the ones you see here on the below article, with lot of filters and queries and formatting

AWS EC2 CLI List Examples – Describe instances | Devops Junction

 

awsall would just execute it by just adding --region flag automatically and run it across all the regions.

It works with literally any AWS CLI command like aws ec2 , aws efs etc. so its not just EC2

How awsall works

All the hardworks and the commands are yours.

awsall just takes care of executing the same command across all regions dynamically.

It basically get what you give after awsall and replace it with aws and append --region argument to it and execute it across all regions in a loop with 2 seconds to sleep between each region.

 Since awsall automatically adds the --region argument to the command you have written.  you cannot use awsall with – region argument.

In that case. you can use just aws cli itself. If you want to execute a command on a specific region

awsall is not needed there anyway. is not it ?

 

How the region names are fetched

awsall executes the following aws cli command to get the regions from AWS itself

aws ec2 describe-regions – query "Regions[].{Name:RegionName}" – output text|sort -r

It is reverse sorted to keep the most used us-east and us-west on top.

 

A Quick Demo

Here is a quick Demo of me executing awsall and showing how it works

How to Stop while the awsall is running

Before we go to conclusion,  Sometimes we do not want to wait for awsall to complete all the regions.

In such cases. if you awsall to stop immediately. Please press CTRL+C twice. that should do it.

 

Conclusion

I know there are lot of tools like awless and others that solve the aws CLI related problems better. But all the tools limit you to a region specific.

I thought awsall would solve that problem for all of us.

If you have any better idea or modification on this. please feel free to comment.

 

Cheers
Sarav AK

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