Once we have an AWS account, we’ll need to create an IAM user to programmatically interact with it. We’ll be using this later to configure our AWS CLI (command-line interface).

Amazon IAM (Identity and Access Management) enables you to manage users and user permissions in AWS. You can create one or more IAM users in your AWS account. You might create an IAM user for someone who needs access to your AWS console, or when you have a new application that needs to make API calls to AWS. This is to add an extra layer of security to your AWS account.

In this chapter, we are going to create a new IAM user for a couple of the AWS related tools we are going to be using later.

Create User

First, log in to your AWS Console and search for IAM in the search bar. Hover or focus on the IAM card and then select the Users link.

Select IAM Service Screenshot

Select Add Users.

Add IAM User Screenshot

Enter a User name, then select Next.

This account will be used by our AWS CLI and SST. They will be connecting to the AWS API directly and will not be using the Management Console.

Fill in IAM User Info Screenshot

Select Attach existing policies directly.

Add IAM User Policy Screenshot

Search for AdministratorAccess and select the policy by checking the checkbox, then select Next.

We can provide a more fine-grained policy here. We cover this later in the Customize the Serverless IAM Policy chapter. But for now, let’s continue with this.

Added Admin Policy Screenshot

Select Create user.

Reivew IAM User Screenshot

Select View user.

View IAM User Screenshot

Select Security credentials

IAM User Security Credentials Screenshot

Select Create access key

IAM User Create Access Key Screenshot

In keeping with the current guide instructions, we will choose other to generate an access key and secret. Select Other and select Next

IAM User Access Key Purpose

You could add a descriptive tag here, but we will skip that in this tutorial, select Create access key

IAM User Access Key Purpose

Select Show to reveal Secret access key.

IAM User Access Key Show

Take a note of the Access key and Secret access key. We will be needing this in the next chapter.

IAM Access Credentials Screenshot

Now let’s configure our AWS CLI. By configuring the AWS CLI, we can deploy our applications from our command line.