Amazon Web Services have become an integral part of maintaining and upgrading businesses worldwide. With excellent web and cloud services, AWS can be your go-to service provider for a wide range of services and tools, including virtual infrastructure and storage solutions. One of the most used services in AWS is EC2. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is similar to a virtual machine in the AWS cloud environment. This service is often used by developers who deploy their program in virtual environments configured with the infrastructure they require for their application.Often, downloading files from Google Drive is required when working on EC2 instances. However, downloading big files from Google Drive can be an issue. To resolve this issue, the command line tool gdown can be used. What is EC2 in Amazon Web Services?In the AWS environment, EC2 is a web service offering virtual machines. Unlike standard virtual machines, EC2 instances are pre-configured with an OS and some required software. The best thing about EC2 is it is scalable and resizable. EC2 instances are used widely across several fields, especially in DevOps and machine learning. How EC2 WorksWhile the web service is called EC2, every virtual server is called an EC2 instance. These instances offer you the necessary infrastructure that you require for developing and deploying your applications on the cloud. EC2 instances are very handy because you can configure the necessary infrastructure required for the application you are deploying and let EC2 scale it as per further needs. There are five types of EC2 instances - general, compute-optimized, memory-optimized, storage-optimized, and accelerated computing instances. Each type of instance is used for different purposes, such as storage, memory, and infrastructural needs.Here are some common use cases for EC2 instances:Deploying and scaling applications without using physical infrastructure, thus making the best use of cloud-based web services.Training ML models as EC2 instances can offer high-speed processing and high storage.Processing big data without having to invest in infrastructure.What is Gdown Command Line Tool?Gdown is a Python program and stands for “Google Drive Public File/Folder Downloader”. Using the command gdown, you can easily download any Google Drive files, especially in your EC2 instances. This command line tool is used in specific instances where the file that needs to be downloaded is very large in size or has restricted access. While initially it allowed only the downloading of files, the program is now adapted to download folders as well.How Gdown WorksWorking with Gdown is a simple and straightforward process. Here is how the command works to download files from Google Drive by interacting with the file-sharing system:To use the gdown command, you must activate the program by mentioning the URL of the Drive file you want to download. Using the file ID or the URL, the program will locate the file first.The next step is handling the file access. If the required file has already been shared with you or is a public file, the gdown command will access the file and download it. In the case of a restriction on accessing the file, the program prompts automatic authentication, thus skipping the security concerns.Once the access is acquired, the program will download your file. The Gdown program is often used to download very large files, especially for data analytics or machine learning processes.Installing Gdown on EC2Step 1: The first step is to launch an EC2 instance. Go to your AWS console and select the region you want. Once you have selected the region, go to the EC2 console and create a new EC2 instance. When you create a new instance in AWS, select the right type of EC2 instance you need per your requirements. Once you create the instance, you can configure the storage and other infrastructure.Step 2: Once you have created and connected to your instance, you have to install Python and Pip on your instance. Most of the time, Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) come pre-installed with Python, but as for Pip (the Python Installer Package), you might have to install it. You can run the required commands and install Pip.Step 3: Once Pip is installed, you can use it to install Gdown by using the following command:pip3 install gdownStep 4: Now that Gdown is installed on your EC2 instance, you can use the following command line to download any Google Drive file:gdown 'https://drive.google.com/uc?id=FILE_ID'You can use the actual File ID and download the file or folder required.Use Cases of Gdown in EC2The gdown command can be used for multiple use cases, especially in AWS EC2. Here are some examples of use cases where the Gdown program can be applied.Data RetrievalWhen you want to download certain files and folders into your EC2 instances on AWS, you can simply download any file from the gdown command. This is specifically useful when downloading large datasets into your instance.Automating Workflow and Integrating ToolsThe Gdown command can also be automated according to workflow needs. You can also use the program to integrate with other tools in the instance and improve your workflow.Cloud DevelopmentThe Gdown program can also be useful during cloud development because you will be downloading many resources during development. This can be seamlessly done through this command.The Bottom LineWorking with an AWS EC2 instance is very helpful for developers and cloud specialists - using EC2, you can deploy applications and perform complex tasks relating to machine learning and data analytics without investing in the physical infrastructure. The gdown command, a Python program, is very useful in EC2 instances as it lets you download publicly available Google Drive folders and files seamlessly. Installing the Gdown program on EC2 is very easy and involves only a few steps. Data retrieval and integration with other useful tools are easy when you install Gdown on your EC2 instances.Read Morehttps://devopsden.io/article/troubleshoot-an-error-deploying-in-kubernetes-clusterFollow us onhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/devopsden/
