How to Setup EC2 API Command line Tools on Windows PC

Download API Tools from http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=351&categoryID=88

Extract the zip file to C:\ folder (to avoid paths with quotes issues in windows). I also renamed the folder to “ec2-api-tools”

Set Java Home Environment Variable. Usually this looks like “C:\Program Files\Java\jrexxx”. Find out exact path on your computer

From Command Prompt

> cd C:\ec2-api-tools
> set JAVA_HOME=”C:\Program Files\Java\jre6″

Set EC2_HOME variable

> set EC2_HOME=C:\ec2-api-tools

Now Get Private key and Certificate Files and keep in C:\ec2-api-tools\keys\ folder for convenience.

Now you can test api-tools

> C:\ec2-api-tools\bin>ec2-describe-availability-zones -K C:\ec2-api-tools\keys\pk-xxx.pem -C C:\ec2-api-tools\keys\cert-xxx.pem