If you are an Amazon Web Services (AWS), users must understand how to create IAM users. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a powerful, secure access to your resources. It will enable administrators to easily create, manage, and control access permissions for multiple users. In this article, we will cover the steps needed to create IAM users in AWS so that you can better manage your resources.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating IAM Users in AWS
With AWS, creating new IAM users for your organization can be a straightforward process. This article will provide an overview of the steps involved in creating and managing individual IAM users in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment. We’ll discuss the importance of understanding your user roles and access levels and how to configure multi-factor authentication (MFA) for added security.
The guide will also give an overview of the steps you can take to manage the permissions for your users and how to create a group of IAM users. If you need more information on using AWS services and features, we recommend reviewing the following articles: What is IAM?
Step 1: Log in to your AWS Management console and select the “Services” menu. In the dropdown, select “Security, Identity, & Compliance.” Then you need to choose the “IAM.” You can also use the search bar to find AWS services.
Step 2: It will open Identity and Access Management (IAM) dashboard. So we are in the IAM dashboard. And the first thing we want to do is to create an IAM user. So I’m going to go under users and click on Add users.
Step 3: Here, you need to enter user details and may select “Provide user access to the AWS Management Console.” It’s optional, but I’m creating a user with Administrator access. If you’re not selecting this option, the user will access only AWS CLI resources.
There is a Blue highlighted Info box where you must select “I want to create an IAM user” If you choose the recommended option, It’ll redirect to the Identity Center. Creating an AWS Organization account to access Identity Center would be best.
Step 4: Next, we need to select the console password details. I would choose an “auto-generated password.” If you’ve selected a custom password, it must meet the password policy.
I selected “Users must create a new password at next sign-in (recommended).” It means the user must set his password after login.
Once you complete all the given details, click on the Next button.
Step 5: In the next screen, you can specify the permissions for the user. You can either add the user to an existing group or create a new group for the user. By default, the user will not have any permissions, so you must add permissions to the group.
You can also add permissions directly to the user if you do not want to create a group.
Also, you copy the permissions from existing groups or users. Here I’m selecting “Attach policies directly.” Hence, I need to add permissions to the user directly.
Once you’re done, click the “Next” button.
Step 6: After you have set the user’s permissions, you can review the user’s settings and click on the “Create user” button to create the user.
You can also create “Tags” to organize or identify the IAM users. Here, I’m creating a Tag named “Administrators.” It helps me to manage all the users who have admin privileges.
Step 7: Once the user is created, it will present you with the user’s access key and secret access key (if you choose to generate them). In this guide, I selected an auto-generated password. Be sure to download the access keys or passwords and store them securely.
Step 8: Finally, you can share the user’s credentials with the user by providing them with the user’s name, access key, and secret access key. If you’ve created an IAM user with an auto-generated password, share them with a user. It is important to note that the user can access your AWS resources once you have granted them.
Also, you can send email instructions on using those credentials to log in to the AWS Management console.
Conclusion
Creating IAM users in AWS is a straightforward process. You can easily create new users, set their permissions, and share their credentials. Using IAM, you can ensure that your AWS resources are accessed only by authorized users and that access is granted on a need-to-know basis. IAM is an essential service for managing your AWS resources securely and should be an integral part of your security strategy.
