def _get_aws_auth_param(self, params, secret_key, path='/'):
        keys = params.keys()
        keys.sort()
        pairs = []
        for key in keys:
            pairs.append(urllib.quote(key, safe='') + '=' +
                         urllib.quote(params[key], safe='-_~'))

        qs = '&'.join(pairs)
        string_to_sign = '\n'.join(('GET', self.host, path, qs))
                                         
        b64_hmac = base64.b64encode(
                        hmac.new(secret_key, string_to_sign, 
                            digestmod=sha256).digest())
        return b64_hmac
creates the signature required for AWS, per:
dataset/ETHPy150Open infincia/AEServmon/libcloud/drivers/ec2.py/EC2Connection._get_aws_auth_param