Lab 1: Introduction to AWS IAM

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that enables Amazon Web
Services (AWS) customers to manage users and user permissions in AWS. With IAM, you
can centrally manage users, security credentials such as access keys,
and permissions that control which AWS resources users can access.

Topics covered
This lab will demonstrate:

• Exploring pre-created IAM Users and Groups

• Inspecting IAM policies as applied to the pre-created groups
• Following a real-world scenario, adding users to groups with specific capabilities
enabled
• Locating and using the IAM sign-in URL
• Experimenting with the effects of policies on service access

Other AWS Services

During this lab, you may receive error messages when performing actions beyond
the steps in this lab guide. These messages will not impact your ability to complete
the lab.
AWS Identity and Access Management
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) can be used to:
• Manage IAM Users and their access: You can create Users and assign them
individual security credentials (access keys, passwords, and multi-factor
authentication devices). You can manage permissions to control which operations a
User can perform.
• Manage IAM Roles and their permissions: An IAM Role is similar to a User, in that
it is an AWS identity with permission policies that determine what the identity can and
cannot do in AWS. However, instead of being uniquely associated with one person, a
Role is intended to be assumable by anyone who needs it.
 • Manage federated users and their permissions: You can enable identity
federation to allow existing users in your enterprise to access the AWS Management
Console, to call AWS APIs and to access resources, without the need to create an
IAM User for each identity.

Duration
This lab takes approximately 40 minutes to complete.

Accessing the AWS Management Console

1. At the top of these instructions, click Start Lab to launch your lab.

A Start Lab panel opens displaying the lab status. In the Start Lab dialog box
that opens, note the AWS Region, as you will need to refer to it later in this
lab.

2. Wait until you see the message "Lab status: ready", then click the X to close
the Start Lab panel.
3. At the top of these instructions, click AWS

This will open the AWS Management Console in a new browser tab. The
system will automatically log you in.

Tip: If a new browser tab does not open, there will typically be a banner or
icon at the top of your browser indicating that your browser is preventing the
site from opening pop-up windows. Click on the banner or icon and choose
"Allow pop ups."

4. Arrange the AWS Management Console tab so that it displays along side
these instructions. Ideally, you will be able to see both browser tabs at the
same time, to make it easier to follow the lab steps.

Task 1: Explore the Users and Groups

In this task, you will explore the Users and Groups that have already been created
for you in IAM.

5. In the AWS Management Console, on the Services menu, click IAM.

6. In the navigation pane on the left, click Users.

The following IAM Users have been created for you:

o user-1
 o user-2
o user-3
7. Click user-1.

This will bring to a summary page for user-1. The Permissions tab will be
displayed.

8. Notice that user-1 does not have any permissions.

9. Click the Groups tab.

user-1 also is not a member of any groups.

10. Click the Security credentials tab.

user-1 is assigned a Console password

11. In the navigation pane on the left, click Groups.

The following groups have already been created for you:

o EC2-Admin
o EC2-Support
o S3-Support
12. Click the EC2-Support group.

This will bring you to the summary page for the EC2-Support group.

13. Click the Permissions tab.

This group has a Managed Policy associated with it,

called AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess. Managed Policies are pre-built policies
(built either by AWS or by your administrators) that can be attached to IAM
Users and Groups. When the policy is updated, the changes to the policy are
immediately apply against all Users and Groups that are attached to the
policy.

14. Under Actions, click the Show Policy link.

A policy defines what actions are allowed or denied for specific AWS
resources. This policy is granting permission to List and Describe information
about EC2, Elastic Load Balancing, CloudWatch and Auto Scaling. This ability
to view resources, but not modify them, is ideal for assigning to a Support
role.

The basic structure of the statements in an IAM Policy is:

o Effect says whether to Allow or Deny the permissions.

o Action specifies the API calls that can be made against an AWS Service
(eg cloudwatch:ListMetrics).
 o Resource defines the scope of entities covered by the policy rule (eg a
specific Amazon S3 bucket or Amazon EC2 instance, or * which means any
resource).
15. Close the Show Policy window.
16. In the navigation pane on the left, click Groups.
17. Click the S3-Support group.

The S3-Support group has the AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess policy attached.

18. Below the Actions menu, click the Show Policy link.

This policy has permissions to Get and List resources in Amazon S3.

19. Close the Show Policy window.

20. In the navigation pane on the left, click Groups.
21. Click the EC2-Admin group.

This Group is slightly different from the other two. Instead of a Managed
Policy, it has an Inline Policy, which is a policy assigned to just one User or
Group. Inline Policies are typically used to apply permissions for one-off
situations.

22. Under Actions, click Show Policy to view the policy.

This policy grants permission to view (Describe) information about Amazon

EC2 and also the ability to Start and Stop instances.

23. At the bottom of the screen, click Cancel to close the policy.

Business Scenario
For the remainder of this lab, you will work with these Users and Groups to enable
permissions supporting the following business scenario:
Your company is growing its use of Amazon Web Services, and is using many
Amazon EC2 instances and a great deal of Amazon S3 storage. You wish to give
access to new staff depending upon their job function:

User In Group Permissions

user-1 S3-Support Read-Only access to Amazon S3

user-2 EC2-Support Read-Only access to Amazon EC2

user-3 EC2-Admin View, Start and Stop Amazon EC2 instances

Task 2: Add Users to Groups
You have recently hired user-1 into a role where they will provide support for
Amazon S3. You will add them to the S3-Support group so that they inherit the
necessary permissions via the attached AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess policy.
You can ignore any "not authorized" errors that appear during this task. They are
caused by your lab account having limited permissions and will not impact your
ability to complete the lab.

Add user-1 to the S3-Support Group

24. In the left navigation pane, click Groups.
25. Click the S3-Support group.
26. Click the Users tab.
27. In the Users tab, click Add Users to Group.
28. In the Add Users to Group window, configure the following:
o Select user-1.
o At the bottom of the screen, click Add Users.

In the Users tab you will see that user-1 has been added to the group.

Add user-2 to the EC2-Support Group

You have hired user-2 into a role where they will provide support for Amazon EC2.

29. Using similar steps to the ones above, add user-2 to the EC2-Support group.

user-2 should now be part of the EC2-Support group.

Add user-3 to the EC2-Admin Group

You have hired user-3 as your Amazon EC2 administrator, who manage your EC2
instances.

30. Using similar steps to the ones above, add user-3 to the EC2-Admin group.

user-3 should now be part of the EC2-Admin group.

31. In the navigation pane on the left, click Groups.

 Each Group should have a 1 in the Users column for the number of Users in
each Group.

If you do not have a 1 beside each group, revisit the above instructions above
to ensure that each user is assigned to a Group, as shown in the table in the
Business Scenario section.

Task 3: Sign-In and Test Users

In this task, you will test the permissions of each IAM User.

32. In the navigation pane on the left, click Dashboard.

An IAM users sign-in link is displayed It will look similar

to: https://123456789012.signin.aws.amazon.com/console

This link can be used to sign-in to the AWS Account you are currently using.

33. Copy the IAM users sign-in link to a text editor.

34. Open a private window.

Mozilla Firefox

o Click the menu bars at the top-right of the screen

o Select New Private Window

Google Chrome

o Click the ellipsis at the top-right of the screen

o Click New incognito window

Microsoft Edge

o Click the ellipsis at the top-right of the screen

o Click New InPrivate window

Microsoft Internet Explorer

o Click the Tools menu option

o Click InPrivate Browsing
35. Paste the IAM users sign-in link into your private window and press Enter.

You will now sign-in as user-1, who has been hired as your Amazon S3
storage support staff.

36. Sign-in with:

o IAM user name: user-1
o Password: Lab-Password1
37. In the Services menu, click S3.
38. Click the name of one of your buckets and browse the contents.

Since your user is part of the S3-Support Group in IAM, they have permission
to view a list of Amazon S3 buckets and their contents.

Now, test whether they have access to Amazon EC2.

39. In the Services menu, click EC2.

40. In the left navigation pane, click Instances.

You cannot see any instances! Instead, it says You do not have any instances
in this region. This is because your user has not been assigned any
permissions to use Amazon EC2.

You will now sign-in as user-2, who has been hired as your Amazon EC2
support person.

41. Sign user-1 out of the AWS Management Console by configuring the
following:
o At the top of the screen, click user-1
o Click Sign Out

42. Paste the IAM users sign-in link into your private window and press Enter.

This links should be in your text editor.

43. Sign-in with:

 o IAM user name: user-2
o Password: Lab-Password2
44. In the Services menu, click EC2.
45. In the navigation pane on the left, click Instances.

You are now able to see an Amazon EC2 instance because you have Read
Only permissions. However, you will not be able to make any changes to
Amazon EC2 resources.

If you cannot see an Amazon EC2 instance, then your Region may be
incorrect. In the top-right of the screen, pull-down the Region menu and select
the region that you noted at the start of the lab (e.g., N. Virginia).

Your EC2 instance should be selected . If it is not selected, select it.

46. In the Actions menu, click Instance State > Stop.

47. In the Stop Instances window, click Yes, Stop.

You will receive an error stating You are not authorized to perform this
operation. This demonstrates that the policy only allows you to view
information, without making changes.

48. At the Stop Instances window, click Cancel.

Next, check if user-2 can access Amazon S3.

49. In the Services, click S3.

You will receive an Error Access Denied because user-2 does not
permission to use Amazon S3.
 You will now sign-in as user-3, who has been hired as your Amazon EC2
administrator.

50. Sign user-2 out of the AWS Management Console by configuring the
following:
o At the top of the screen, click user-2
o Click Sign Out

51. Paste the IAM users sign-in link into your private window and press Enter.
52. Paste the sign-in link into your web browser address bar again. If it is not in
your clipboard, retrieve it from the text editor where you stored it earlier.
53. Sign-in with:
o IAM user name: user-3
o Password: Lab-Password3
54. In the Services menu, click EC2.
55. In the navigation pane on the left, click Instances.

As an EC2 Administrator, you should now have permissions to Stop the

Amazon EC2 instance.

Your EC2 instance should be selected . If it is not, please select it.

If you cannot see an Amazon EC2 instance, then your Region may be
incorrect. In the top-right of the screen, pull-down the Region menu and select
the region that you noted at the start of the lab (eg Oregon).

56. In the Actions menu, click Instance State > Stop.

57. In the Stop Instances window, click Yes, Stop.
 The instance will enter the stopping state and will shutdown.

58. Close your private window.

Lab Complete
Congratulations! You have completed the lab.

59. Click End Lab at the top of this page and then click Yes to confirm that you
want to end the lab.

A panel will appear, indicating that "DELETE has been initiated... You may
close this message box now."

60. Click the X in the top right corner to close the panel.

Conclusion
Congratulations! You now have successfully:
• Explored pre-created IAM users and groups
• Inspected IAM policies as applied to the pre-created groups
• Followed a real-world scenario, adding users to groups with specific capabilities
enabled
• Located and used the IAM sign-in URL
• Experimented with the effects of policies on service access