Setting Up AWS CodeStar

Before you can start using AWS CodeStar, you must complete the following steps.

Step 1: Create an account

Sign up for an AWS account

If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.

To sign up for an AWS account

1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

2. Follow the online instructions.

   Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

   When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.

AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to https://aws.amazon.com/ and choosing My Account.

Create a user with administrative access

After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.

Secure your AWS account root user

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password.

   For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

2. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.

   For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Create a user with administrative access

1. Enable IAM Identity Center.

   For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.

   For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Sign in as the user with administrative access

• To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.

  For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

Assign access to additional users

1. In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.

   For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.

   For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Step 2: Create the AWS CodeStar Service Role

Create a service role that is used to give AWS CodeStar permission to administer AWS resources and IAM permissions on your behalf. You only need to create the service role once.

Important

You must be signed in as an administrative user (or root account) to create a service role. For more information, see Creating Your First IAM user and Group.

1. Open the AWS CodeStar console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/codestar/.

2. Choose Start project.

   If you do not see Start project and are directed to the projects list page instead, the service role has been created.

3. In Create service role, choose Yes, create role.

4. Exit the wizard. You come back to this later.

Step 3: Configure the User's IAM Permissions

In addition to the administrative user, you can use AWS CodeStar as an IAM user, a federated user, the root user, or an assumed role. For information about what AWS CodeStar can do for IAM users versus federated users, see AWS CodeStar IAM Roles.

If you have not set up any IAM users, see IAM user.

To provide access, add permissions to your users, groups, or roles:

• Users and groups in AWS IAM Identity Center:

  Create a permission set. Follow the instructions in Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

• Users managed in IAM through an identity provider:

  Create a role for identity federation. Follow the instructions in Creating a role for a third-party identity provider (federation) in the IAM User Guide.

• IAM users:

  • Create a role that your user can assume. Follow the instructions in Creating a role for an IAM user in the IAM User Guide.

  • (Not recommended) Attach a policy directly to a user or add a user to a user group. Follow the instructions in Adding permissions to a user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Step 4: Create an Amazon EC2 Key Pair for AWS CodeStar Projects

Many AWS CodeStar projects use AWS CodeDeploy or AWS Elastic Beanstalk to deploy code to Amazon EC2 instances. To access Amazon EC2 instances associated with your project, create an Amazon EC2 key pair for your IAM user. Your IAM user must have permissions to create and manage Amazon EC2 keys (for example, permission to take the ec2:CreateKeyPair and ec2:ImportKeyPair actions). For more information, see Amazon EC2 Key Pairs.

Step 5: Open the AWS CodeStar Console

Sign in to the AWS Management Console, and then open the AWS CodeStar console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/codestar/.

Next Steps

Congratulations, you have completed the setup! To start working with AWS CodeStar, see Getting Started with AWS CodeStar.