Error You must specify a region when running command aws ecs list-container-instances

Question

I am trying to use aws container service as per the documentation in http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/ECS_GetStarted.html

The below error is thrown when running the command:

aws ecs list-container-instances --cluster default

You must specify a region. You can also configure your region by running "aws configure".

The documentation does not mention anything about specifying a default region. How do we do it in a console?

Answer 1

I think you need to use for example:

aws ecs list-container-instances --cluster default --region us-east-1

This depends of your region of course.

Answer 2

"You must specify a region" is a not an ECS specific error, it can happen with any AWS API/CLI/SDK command.

For the CLI, either set the AWS_DEFAULT_REGION environment variable. e.g.

export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1

or set it in the CLI configuration file: ~/.aws/config

[default]
region=us-east-1

or pass/override it with the CLI call:

aws ecs list-container-instances --cluster default --region us-east-1

Answer 3

#1- Run this to configure the region once and for all:

aws configure set region us-east-1 --profile admin

• Change admin next to the profile if it's different.

• Change us-east-1 if your region is different.

#2- Run your command again:

aws ecs list-container-instances --cluster default

Answer 4

I posted too soon however the ways to configure are given in below link

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-started.html

and way to get access keys are given in below link

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-set-up.html#cli-signup