I've been trying to set up the AWS command-line tools following Eric's most useful guide at http://alestic.com/2012/09/aws-command-line-tools.

I can't seem to find a good how-to for how to generate the x509 certificate and private key, and how that relates to the various security files the guide creates.

Update:

I have found a couple of links that describe the some steps. These steps seem to work, however I'm not sure if this is secure & the best way to do it:

1) Create a private key

openssl genrsa -out my-private-key.pem 2048

2) Create x.509 cert

openssl req -new -x509 -key my-private-key.pem -out my-x509-cert.pem -days 365

Hit enter to accept all of the defaults.

Then, from the IAM Dashboard, User, select a user & click on the "Security Credentials" tab. Click on "Manage Signing Certificates", then "Upload Signing Certificate", paste in the contents of my-x509-cert.pem, click OK and it should be accepted.

One step that is discussed, but not required for me, was the addition and subsequent removal of a pass phrase on the private key. Should I have been prompted for one, and is my cert potentially unsafe because of this?