diff --git a/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/sles.sh b/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/sles.sh
index 6f175d8c..22ee1be5 100644
--- a/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/sles.sh
+++ b/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/sles.sh
@@ -81,23 +81,12 @@ mkdir -p $etcd_dir /var/lib/data
 secure-ssh
 setup-user
 
-function install-aws-cli {
-  # suse-cloud/sles-15-sp1-v20200415 has no python, but offers python3.
-  # suse-cloud/sles-12-sp5-v20200227 has both, but it's python3 < 3.5 and is
-  # incompatible with awscli.
-  if command -v python; then
-    local python=$(command -v  python)
-  elif command -v python3; then
-    local python=$(command -v python3)
-  else
-    echo "No python available."
-    exit 2
-  fi
-  curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | $python -
-  $python -m pip install --upgrade awscli
-}
+if ! /usr/local/bin/aws --version; then
+  curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-2.0.30.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
+  unzip awscliv2.zip
+  ./aws/install
+fi
 
-install-aws-cli
 
 mkdir -p /var/lib/gravity/planet/etcd /var/lib/data
 
diff --git a/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/ubuntu.sh b/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/ubuntu.sh
index 7278fd00..b99b8de1 100644
--- a/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/ubuntu.sh
+++ b/assets/terraform/gce/bootstrap/ubuntu.sh
@@ -94,10 +94,14 @@ setup-user
 echo "APT::Acquire::Retries \"10\";" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80-retries
 
 apt-get update
-apt-get install -y chrony lvm2 curl wget thin-provisioning-tools python
+apt-get install -y chrony lvm2 curl wget thin-provisioning-tools
 
-curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python -
-pip install --upgrade awscli
+if ! /usr/local/bin/aws --version; then
+  apt-get install -y unzip
+  curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-2.0.30.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
+  unzip awscliv2.zip
+  ./aws/install
+fi
 
 if ! grep -qs "$etcd_dir" /proc/mounts; then
   mkfs.ext4 -F /dev/$etcd_device_name