Error "You must specify a region" when running any aws CLI command

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?

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.

"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 add it into the command (you will need this every time you use a region-specific command)

AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1 aws ecs list-container-instances --cluster default

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

#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

Just to add to answers by Mr. Dimitrov and Jason, if you are using a specific profile and you have put your region setting there,then for all the requests you need to add

"--profile" option.

For example:

Lets say you have AWS Playground profile, and the ~/.aws/config has [profile playground] which further has something like,

[profile playground] region=us-east-1

then, use something like below

aws ecs list-container-instances --cluster default --profile playground

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

If you have configured all what is needed in .aws/config and .aws/credentials but still have this error - double-check names in square brackets.

It should be [profile myLovelyAccName] in config and [myLovelyAccName] in credentials.

Two points to note:

• the word "profile" and one space after - in the config file only
• no typos in the acc name!