AWS Documentation » AWS Identity and Access Management » User Guide » What Is IAM? » Quick Links to Common Tasks

Quick Links to Common Tasks

Use the following links to get help with common tasks associated with IAM.

Sign in as an IAM user

See How IAM Users Sign In to AWS.

Manage passwords for IAM users

You need a password in order to access the AWS Management Console, including access to billing information.

For your AWS account root user, see Changing the AWS Account Root User Password.

For an IAM user, see Managing Passwords for IAM Users.

Manage permissions for IAM users

You use policies to grant permissions to the IAM users in your AWS account. IAM users have no permissions when they are created, so you must add permissions to allow them to use AWS resources.

For more information, see Managing IAM Policies.

List the users in your AWS account and get information about their credentials

See Getting Credential Reports for Your AWS Account.

Add multi-factor authentication (MFA)

To add a virtual MFA device, see one of the following:

• Enable a Virtual MFA Device for Your AWS Account Root User (Console)

• Enable a Virtual MFA Device for an IAM User (Console)

To add a U2F security key, see one of the following:

• Enable a U2F Security Key for the AWS Account Root User (Console)

• Enable a U2F Security Key for an IAM User (Console)

To add a hardware MFA device, see one of the following:

• Enable a Hardware MFA Device for the AWS Account Root User (Console).

• Enable a Hardware MFA Device for an IAM User (Console)

Get an access key

You need an access key if you want to make AWS requests using the AWS SDKs, the AWS Command Line Tools, Tools for Windows PowerShell, or the API operations.

Important

You can view and download your secret access key only when you create the access key. You cannot view or recover a secret access key later. However, if you lose your secret access key, you can create a new access key.

For your AWS account, see Managing Access Keys for your AWS Account.

For an IAM user, see Managing Access Keys for IAM Users.

Get started with all of AWS

This set of documentation deals primarily with the IAM service. To learn about getting started with AWS and using multiple services to solve a problem such as building and launching your first project, see the Getting Started Resource Center.