[cs615asa] Some questions about env setup and X.509 certificate

[Julian Sexton]

>>> If you use the linux-lab to do these work, you do not need to do 
>>> preperations. The aws tools have been installed on the linux-lab 
>>> system. That's the reason why you do not need to configure the 
>>> environment variables. But if you do that on your personal computer, 
>>> you should follow those steps. The certificate and the private key, 
>>> I think, are used to make sure you are the person who is allowed to 
>>> use the AWS service. If you do not have the certification, you 
>>> cannot use Amazon Web Service; in specific, you cannot use "aws" 
>>> command to deploy your instances. The aws configure asks you to 
>>> enter your access key, that does the same work. 

Just to confirm, this assignment does require an amazon account, right? I actually went through the entire setup process, with private keys, certificates, aws configure, etc,  on the linux lab, so I'm still trying to figure out how much of this was unnecessary (and how much I need to undo to get it to use the school's account). As far as I can tell, "aws configure" needs information (key + id) from an amazon account (and I can't seem to find a way to unconfigure to test it), but how does it verify against that key and the school's certificate (two different owners)? Or does it just pick one of the two and verify that?

-Julian