Introduction

• To access your AWS account from your own machine (using CLI, SDK or REST API), you need to configure AWS credentials (AWS Access Key Id and AWS Secret Access Key). Stacktape uses these credentials to interact with your AWS account.

• This guide walks you through creating these credentials and configuring your system to use them.

Create AWS credentials

1. Log in to your AWS account

Login to your AWS user account using this link.

2. Navigate to My Security Credentials

In the upper navigation panel, click on your username and navigate to My security credentials page.

Depending on if you are logged in as a Root user or an IAM user, you will see different screens and will need to perform different actions. If you've just created your AWS account, you're logged in as a Root user.

3a (As a root user) Create an IAM user with credentials

If you are logged in as a Root user and on the My security credentials page, you will see the following screen:

Using a root user to interact with your account is not recommended. You should create an IAM user instead.

To do that, navigate to the users page by clicking on the link in the leftmost navigation panel.

Click on the Add Users button in the right corner of your screen.

The following section will navigate you through the setup process of an IAM user.

• In the STEP-1 specify:

1. User name - uniquely identifies the user in your account
2. AWS Credential type - it is necessary to select Access key - Programmatic access. If you also wish to use IAM user for logging into console (which is what AWS recommends), select the Password - AWS Management Console as well.
3. Password - if you've chosen the Password - AWS Management Console credentials type, type in your password.
4. Navigate to the next step.

In the STEP-2 set permissions for you IAM user.

1. Select Attach Existing Policies Directly
2. Check the AdministratorAccess box
3. Navigate to the next step.

In the STEP-3, you don't need to select any tags and can continue to the next step.

In the STEP-4, you can review the user and confirm the creation.

In the STEP-5, copy the credentials manually or download them using the Download .csv button.

Save the credentials. You will need them to configure the AWS profile on your machine.

Additionally, if you've created an IAM user with the password console access enabled, you can logout as a root user, and log back in as a newly created IAM user.

3b (As an IAM user) Create credentials for an existing IAM user

If you are logged in as an IAM user and on the My security credentials page, you will see the following screen:

Click on the Create access key button.

Copy the credentials manually or download them using the Download .csv button.

Save the credentials. You will need them to configure the AWS profile on your machine.

Configure the AWS profile for your system

To create the AWS profile on your system, you can use the following command:

Copy
stacktape aws-profile:create

By default, Stacktape uses the "default" profile.

The credentials are saved at ~/. aws/credentials on Linux and macOS, and at C:\Users\<USERNAME>\.aws\credentials on Windows