In AWS, what is an IAM user? What is the need for one, and why is it necessary?
Tags: aws, cloud, cloudskills, beginners
Published: 2021-06-04 08:05:45


**AWS** provides a variety of services, resulting in a variety of responsibilities and the necessity to keep the servers accessible only to those with authorisation.

In AWS, Identity Access Management (IAM) allows us to create a digital identity for an account, allowing the account holder (user) to execute certain tasks or utilise particular policies/resources while we, as the root user, can keep track of which services they used or accessed.

**Your questions would be** 

1. What is a root account, specifically? 
2. What is the purpose of creating a user?
3. How do you make one? 

### **What is a root account, specifically?**

The root account is the one you get when you set up your AWS account for the first time.

### What is the purpose of creating a user?

- Rather than utilising our root account to accomplish regular tasks, we as root users must create an user with '**Administrative access'** and perform the regular tasks using that account.
- and the users we create using the root account are known as '**IAM Users**'.
- You should only use the root account for the most vital operations.

### and how do you make one?

To create a **User Account**  search for '**IAM Dashboard'** on your account and click the link.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0b2sm349imk4qahu19s5.png)

You can see the options for **Users, User Groups ...**

-  Click **Users**

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0gb8jva1gomi8mtzmvbx.png)




Give yourself a **username** that you can use to **log in** later.

When creating a user, you must choose between the following access types:

i. **Programmatic access :** Provides an **access key** (for authorization) and **secret key** (for using API, SDK and different AWS tools) **** 

ii. **AWS Management Console access** : Provides a **password** required to log into AWS Management Console

For now we go with the second option i.e., **AWS Management Console access**


-  **Setting Permissions:**


![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/380am0c2o7fjsdcda4mv.png)

Since we haven't created a group nor have an existing user click '**Attach Existing Policies**' and check '**AdministratorAccess**'  and proceed to **Next Page.**



-  **Adding tags:**

    **Tags** come in handy when we need to find a certain person in a huge group.

    It ****is optional, so let's just skip it for now  and proceed to **Next Page.**



-  **Review**:

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/im2dpglaslg5f2d67ku3.png)

 We're sent to a page that lists all of the options we've selected so far.


-  **Success Page:**

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/rkln0geh7ohw3c767k25.png)

- You've arrived at a **success page** indicating that you've created a user account.

If you've previously checked **Programmatic access**, you may have received two keys labelled ***access key*** and ***secret key***, which you must **COPY** to a safe location because it is only available once.

> Keep an eye out for a link like ([https://your_ID.signin.aws.amazon.com/console](https://506839854184.signin.aws.amazon.com/console)), and that's the site you'll need to use to log in as an IAM User.

> Before you login as an **User** open the URL in incognito mode or you may need to Sign Out first in the current browser window.



Now Redirect to the above-mentioned site and log in using the username and password you gave.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/biay7vycuazd5rfcgchl.png)

You'll see that you've logged in as a '**IAM User**' on your profile.

As this user, you can utilise services like **EC2**, **S3**, and others, since you've given '**Administrative Access'**

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/78o1bxtn5ot3bzfk8kqb.png)





This is part of #100DaysOfCode of AWS started by [Sarthaksavvy](https://twitter.com/Sarthaksavvy) .
You can visit his profile on [Github](https://github.com/sarthaksavvy/100DaysOfAWS/)

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