Playing with IAM Users, Groups and Policies

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to work with IAM Users, Groups, and Policies.

Hafeez Baig
27 steps
2 minutes

Amazon Web Services

Refer to the following guide to learn how to use IAM in the cloud\ <https://scribehow.com/shared/Creating_an_IAM_User_and_User_Group_in_AWS_Management_Console__hWNiiXlcRJKFqYZZEJD-cg>

Sign in to **AWS Management Console** as an **IAM User** **Pre-requisite** - Ensure you have selected the AWS region closest to your location\ For this guide, we will be using us-east-2 (Ohio) as a preferred choice

Type **IAM** in the search bar and click on **IAM** to view the IAM Dashboard

**What is IAM in AWS?** IAM stands for Identity and Access Management. It is a service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. IAM enables you to control who can access your AWS resources and what actions they can perform.

On the **IAM** dashboard, click on the **Users** from the left bar

On the **Users** wizard, click on the User name **in28minutes-ops-user**

Refer to the following guide to learn how to create an IAM user\ <https://scribehow.com/shared/Creating_an_Operations_IAM_User__5JyMzA1rRUmvp81UmVh3gA>

**in28minutes-ops-user** wizard will open

To sign in with **in28minutes-ops-user** IAM user open the **New Private window** from the three dots widget on the top right corner of the browser

Search for **AWS Management Console** in any browser Click on the first link with the domain address - [[aws.amazon.com/aws_management_console]]

On the landing page click on the **Sign-In** button on the top right corner

On the Sign-in page select the IAM user radio button and enter the IAM user Account ID. Click **Next** button

Enter the IAM user name and password and click on **Sign in** button

On the AWS Management Console, click on the Regions dropdown from the top right side **Note:** Ensure you have selected the AWS region closest to your location. For this guide, we will be using us-east-2 (Ohio) as a preferred choice

Create an EC2 Instance with a name "**ops-users-ec2**"

Refer to the following guide to learn how to create an EC2 Instance\ <https://scribehow.com/shared/AWS__Creating_your_first_EC2_Instance__Xcu7ZVCdRfWx56YVktKgbQ>

To view the buckets, type **S3** in the search bar and click on **S3** to view the S3 Dashboard

On the left bar click on the **Buckets** from the left bar

**Buckets** wizard will open, you will notice **You don't have permissions to list buckets**

The error message indicates that there is no permissions to list buckets due to the absence of an Amazon S3 access policy assigned to the **in28minutes-ops-user** IAM user

Type **IAM** in the search bar and click on **IAM** to view the IAM Dashboard

On the IAM Dashboard, on the left bar click on the **Users**

**Users** wizard will open, click on the User name **in28-minutes-ops-user**

**in28minutes-ops-user** wizard will open, scroll to the **Permissions** **policies** section and click on the **Add permissions** dropdown button on the right side, select the option **Add permissions**

**Add permission** wizard will open, scroll to the **Permissions option section** and select the option **Attach policies directly**

Scroll to the **Permissions policies** section, In the search bar search for the **AmazonS3FullAccess**

Select the **AmazonS3FullAccess** policy

**What is AmazonS3FullAccess policy?** AmazonS3FullAccess policy is an AWS-managed policy that provides full access to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) resources within an AWS account. When you attach this policy to an IAM user, group, or role, it grants the user, group, or role permissions to perform any action on any S3 bucket and object within the account.

Scroll to the end of the page and click on the **Next** button

**Review** page will open, scroll the end of the page and click on the **Add permissions** button

1 policy added successfully

Go back to the **in28minutes-ops-user** IAM user and click on the **Reload** button on the top left corner to refresh the page

On the IAM dashboard the **Create bucket** button is now available

With the permissions granted, you can access the S3 bucket from the **in28minutes-ops-user** IAM user.

Congratulations on completing the lab and exploring IAM Users, Groups, and Policies! Well done!