Lab 1: Introduction to AWS IAM

Version 3.1.2 (spl66)

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.
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:
Ο EC2-Admin
Ο EC2-Support
Ο 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:
Ο Effect says whether to Allow or Deny the permissions.
Ο Action specifies the API calls that can be made against an AWS Service
(eg cloudwatch:ListMetrics).
Ο 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:

  

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:
 Select  user-1.
 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:
 IAM user name: user-1
 Password: lab-password

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 An error occurred fetching
instance data: You are not authorized to perform this operation.. 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:
 At the top of the screen, click user-1
 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:
 IAM user name: user-2
 Password: lab-password
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 (eg Oregon).

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
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:
 At the top of the screen, click user-2
 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:

 IAM user name: user-3

 Password: lab-password

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