How Amazon Monitron Works with IAM - Amazon Monitron
Amazon Monitron Identity-Based PoliciesAmazon Monitron Resource-Based PoliciesAuthorization Based on Amazon Monitron TagsAmazon Monitron IAM RolesIdentity-Based Policy ExamplesTroubleshooting

How Amazon Monitron Works with IAM

Before you use IAM to manage access to Amazon Monitron, you should understand what IAM features are available to use with Amazon Monitron. To get a high-level view of how Amazon Monitron and other AWS services work with IAM, see AWS Services That Work with IAM in the IAM User Guide.

Amazon Monitron Identity-Based Policies

To specify allowed or denied actions and resources and the conditions under which actions are allowed or denied, use IAM identity-based policies. Amazon Monitron supports specific actions, resources, and condition keys. To learn about all of the elements that you use in a JSON policy, see IAM JSON Policy Elements Reference in the IAM User Guide.

Actions

Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which principal can perform actions on what resources, and under what conditions.

The Action element of a JSON policy describes the actions that you can use to allow or deny access in a policy. Policy actions usually have the same name as the associated AWS API operation. There are some exceptions, such as permission-only actions that don't have a matching API operation. There are also some operations that require multiple actions in a policy. These additional actions are called dependent actions.

Include actions in a policy to grant permissions to perform the associated operation.

In Amazon Monitron, policy actions use the following prefix before the action: monitron:. For example, to grant someone permission to create a project with the Amazon Monitron CreateProject operation, you include the monitron:CreateProject action in their policy. Policy statements must include either an Action or NotAction element. Amazon Monitron defines its own set of actions that describe tasks that you can perform with this service.

Note

With the deleteProject operation, you must have the AWS IAM Identity Center (SSO) permissions for deletion. Without these permissions, the delete functionality will still remove the project. However, it will not remove the resources from SSO and you may end up with dangling references on SSO.

To specify multiple actions in a single statement, separate them with commas as follows:

"Action": [
      "monitron:action1",
      "monitron:action2"
]

You can specify multiple actions using wildcards (*). For example, to specify all actions that begin with the word List, include the following action:

"Action": "monitron:List*"

Resources

Amazon Monitron does not support specifying resource ARNs in a policy.

Condition Keys

Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which principal can perform actions on what resources, and under what conditions.

The Condition element (or Condition block) lets you specify conditions in which a statement is in effect. The Condition element is optional. You can create conditional expressions that use condition operators, such as equals or less than, to match the condition in the policy with values in the request.

If you specify multiple Condition elements in a statement, or multiple keys in a single Condition element, AWS evaluates them using a logical AND operation. If you specify multiple values for a single condition key, AWS evaluates the condition using a logical OR operation. All of the conditions must be met before the statement's permissions are granted.

You can also use placeholder variables when you specify conditions. For example, you can grant an IAM user permission to access a resource only if it is tagged with their IAM user name. For more information, see IAM policy elements: variables and tags in the IAM User Guide.

AWS supports global condition keys and service-specific condition keys. To see all AWS global condition keys, see AWS global condition context keys in the IAM User Guide.

Amazon Monitron defines its own set of condition keys and also supports using some global condition keys. For a list of all AWS global condition keys, see AWS Global Condition Context Keys in the IAM User Guide.

To see a list of Amazon Monitron condition keys, see Actions defined by Amazon Monitron in the IAM User Guide. To learn with which actions and resources you can use a condition key, see Condition keys for Amazon Monitron.

Examples

To view examples of Amazon Monitron identity-based policies, see Amazon Monitron Identity-Based Policy Examples.

Amazon Monitron Resource-Based Policies

Amazon Monitron does not support resource-based policies.

Authorization Based on Amazon Monitron Tags

You can associate tags with certain types of Amazon Monitron resources for authorization. To control access based on tags, provide tag information in the condition element of a policy using the Amazon Monitron:TagResource/${TagKey}, aws:RequestTag/${TagKey}, or aws:TagKeys condition keys.

Amazon Monitron IAM Roles

An IAM role is an entity within your AWS account that has specific permissions.

Using Temporary Credentials with Amazon Monitron

You can use temporary credentials to sign in with federation, assume an IAM role, or assume a cross-account role. You obtain temporary security credentials by calling AWS STS API operations such as AssumeRole or GetFederationToken.

Amazon Monitron supports using temporary credentials.

Service-Linked Roles

Service-linked roles allow AWS services to access resources in other services to complete an action on your behalf. Service-linked roles appear in your IAM account and are owned by the service. An IAM administrator can view but not edit the permissions for service-linked roles.

Amazon Monitron supports service-linked roles.

Service Roles

This feature allows a service to assume a service role on your behalf. This role allows the service to access resources in other services to complete an action on your behalf. Service roles appear in your IAM account and are owned by the account. This means that an IAM administrator can change the permissions for this role. However, doing so might break the functionality of the service.

Amazon Monitron supports service roles.

Amazon Monitron Identity-Based Policy Examples

By default, IAM users and roles don't have permission to create or modify Amazon Monitron resources. They also can't perform tasks using the AWS Management Console. An IAM administrator must give permissions to the IAM users, groups, or roles that require them. Then these users, groups, or roles can perform the specific operations on the specified resources they need. The administrator must then attach those policies to the IAM users or groups that require those permissions.

To learn how to create an IAM identity-based policy using these example JSON policy documents, see Creating Policies on the JSON Tab in the IAM User Guide.

Policy Best Practices

Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete Amazon Monitron resources in your account. These actions can incur costs for your AWS account. When you create or edit identity-based policies, follow these guidelines and recommendations:

  • Get started with AWS managed policies and move toward least-privilege permissions – To get started granting permissions to your users and workloads, use the AWS managed policies that grant permissions for many common use cases. They are available in your AWS account. We recommend that you reduce permissions further by defining AWS customer managed policies that are specific to your use cases. For more information, see AWS managed policies or AWS managed policies for job functions in the IAM User Guide.

  • Apply least-privilege permissions – When you set permissions with IAM policies, grant only the permissions required to perform a task. You do this by defining the actions that can be taken on specific resources under specific conditions, also known as least-privilege permissions. For more information about using IAM to apply permissions, see Policies and permissions in IAM in the IAM User Guide.

  • Use conditions in IAM policies to further restrict access – You can add a condition to your policies to limit access to actions and resources. For example, you can write a policy condition to specify that all requests must be sent using SSL. You can also use conditions to grant access to service actions if they are used through a specific AWS service, such as AWS CloudFormation. For more information, see IAM JSON policy elements: Condition in the IAM User Guide.

  • Use IAM Access Analyzer to validate your IAM policies to ensure secure and functional permissions – IAM Access Analyzer validates new and existing policies so that the policies adhere to the IAM policy language (JSON) and IAM best practices. IAM Access Analyzer provides more than 100 policy checks and actionable recommendations to help you author secure and functional policies. For more information, see IAM Access Analyzer policy validation in the IAM User Guide.

  • Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) – If you have a scenario that requires IAM users or a root user in your AWS account, turn on MFA for additional security. To require MFA when API operations are called, add MFA conditions to your policies. For more information, see Configuring MFA-protected API access in the IAM User Guide.

For more information about best practices in IAM, see Security best practices in IAM in the IAM User Guide.

Using the Amazon Monitron Console

To set up Amazon Monitron using the console, please complete the initial setup process using a high privilege user (such as one with the AdministratorAccess managed policy attached).

To access the Amazon Monitron console for day-to-day operations after the initial setup, you must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions must allow you to list and view details about the Amazon Monitron resources in your AWS account and include a set of permissions related to IAM Identity Center. If you create an identity-based policy that is more restrictive than these minimum required permissions, the console won't function as intended for entities (IAM users or roles) with that policy. For basic Amazon Monitron Console functionality, you need to attach the AmazonMonitronFullAccess managed policy. Depending on the circumstances, you may also need additional permissions to the Organizations and SSO service. Contact AWS support if you need more information.

Example: List All Amazon Monitron Projects

This example policy grants an IAM user in your AWS account permission to list all projects in your account. 

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "monitron:ListProject"
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Example: List Amazon Monitron Projects Based on Tags

You can use conditions in your identity-based policy to control access to Amazon Monitron resources based on tags. This example shows how you might create a policy that allows listing projects. However, permission is granted only if the project tag location has the value of Seattle. This policy also grants the permissions necessary to complete this action on the console.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ListProjectsInConsole",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "monitron:ListProjects",
            "Resource": "*"
       
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                     "aws:ResourceTag/location": "Seattle"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

For more information, see IAM JSON Policy Elements: Condition in the IAM User Guide.

Troubleshooting Amazon Monitron Identity and Access

Use the following information to help you diagnose and fix common issues that you might encounter when working with Amazon Monitron and IAM.

I Am Not Authorized to Perform an Action in Amazon Monitron

If you receive an error that you're not authorized to perform an action, your policies must be updated to allow you to perform the action.

The following example error occurs when the mateojackson IAM user tries to use the console to view details about a fictional my-example-widget resource but doesn't have the fictional monitron:GetWidget permissions.

User: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/mateojackson is not authorized to perform: monitron:GetWidget on resource: my-example-widget

In this case, the policy for the mateojackson user must be updated to allow access to the my-example-widget resource by using the monitron:GetWidget action.

If you need help, contact your AWS administrator. Your administrator is the person who provided you with your sign-in credentials.

I Want to Allow People Outside of My AWS Account to Access My Amazon Monitron Resources

You can create a role that users in other accounts or people outside of your organization can use to access your resources. You can specify who is trusted to assume the role. For services that support resource-based policies or access control lists (ACLs), you can use those policies to grant people access to your resources.

To learn more, consult the following: