Install tooling

Progress checklist

AWS CLI at or above the minimum version
Channel APIs visible in aws kinesis help
Java 11+ and Maven available
jq available for demo.sh

Overview

Install and version-check these tools before Prerequisites and the walkthrough. The lab needs a current AWS CLI so aws kinesis create-channel exists.

Version matrix

Tool	Minimum	Demo / verified here	Why
AWS CLI v2	2.36.35	2.36.38	`create-channel` shipped in 2.36.35; 2.36.38 is the latest stable used for this guide
Java	11	21 (OpenJDK)	Replay sample `pom.xml` targets 11; 17/21 LTS also work
Maven	3.8+	3.9.6	Builds the replay JAR
jq	1.6+	1.7.1	`scripts/demo.sh` reads `.lab-state.json`

Install AWS CLI v2

Follow the official install guide.

User-local install — works when you cannot write to /usr/local:

curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-2.36.38.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin" "$HOME/.local/share/aws-cli"
./aws/install \
  --bin-dir "$HOME/.local/bin" \
  --install-dir "$HOME/.local/share/aws-cli" \
  --update
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
aws --version

Put export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" in your shell profile so a newer system CLI cannot shadow it. Use awscli-exe-linux-aarch64-2.36.38.zip on ARM.

curl -fsSL https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
aws --version

# requires root for /usr/local installs
sudo aws update
# or:
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-2.36.38.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install --update
aws --version

Confirm the pin

which aws
aws --version

Looks like after a successful pin to 2.36.38:

~/.local/bin/aws
aws-cli/2.36.38 Python/3.14.6 Linux/… exe/x86_64.fedora.41

Confirm the channel APIs exist (this is the gate that fails on older CLIs):

aws kinesis help | grep channel

Looks like:

       o create-channel
       o delete-channel
       o describe-channel
       o list-channels
       o update-channel

Gate check you can paste:

aws --version
# expect: aws-cli/2.36.38 …

aws kinesis help | grep -E 'create-channel|describe-channel' || {
  echo "Channel APIs missing — upgrade AWS CLI to >= 2.36.35"
  exit 1
}

Install Java, Maven, and jq

Needed for optional ./scripts/demo.sh replay. up / status / producer / down need the AWS CLI and jq (producer also needs zip). Optional viz needs python3 (stdlib only) to build the HTML report.

# Fedora / RHEL-family example — use your distro equivalents
sudo dnf install -y java-21-openjdk-devel maven jq

Confirm versions

java -version
mvn -version | head -3
jq --version

Looks like on this authoring host (OpenJDK 21, Maven 3.9.6, jq 1.7.1):

openjdk version "21.0.9" 2025-10-21

Apache Maven 3.9.6 (Red Hat 3.9.6-7)
Maven home: /usr/share/maven
Java version: 21.0.9, vendor: Red Hat, Inc., runtime: /usr/lib/jvm/java-21-openjdk

jq-1.7.1

Configure the profile

aws configure --profile sandbox
export AWS_PROFILE=sandbox
export AWS_REGION=ap-southeast-2
aws sts get-caller-identity

demo.sh refuses to run without both variables set, and refuses AWS CLI versions below 2.36.35.

Continue to Prerequisites, then the CLI overview.