You are viewing the documentation for AWS IoT Greengrass Version 1. AWS IoT Greengrass Version 2 is the latest major version of AWS IoT Greengrass. For more information about using AWS IoT Greengrass Version 2, see the AWS IoT Greengrass V2 Developer Guide.
Greengrass service role
The Greengrass service role is an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service role that authorizes AWS IoT Greengrass to access resources from AWS services on your behalf. This makes it possible for AWS IoT Greengrass to perform essential tasks, such as retrieving your AWS Lambda functions and managing AWS IoT shadows.
To allow AWS IoT Greengrass to access your resources, the Greengrass service role
must be associated
with your AWS account and specify AWS IoT Greengrass as a trusted entity. The role
must include the
AWSGreengrassResourceAccessRolePolicy
You can reuse the same Greengrass service role across AWS Regions, but you must associate it with your account in every AWS Region where you use AWS IoT Greengrass. Group deployment fails if the service role doesn't exist in the current AWS account and Region.
The following sections describe how to create and manage the Greengrass service role in the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.
In addition to the service role that authorizes service-level access, you can assign a group role to an AWS IoT Greengrass group. The group role is a separate IAM role that controls how Greengrass Lambda functions and connectors in the group can access AWS services.
Managing the Greengrass service role (console)
The AWS IoT console makes it easy to manage your Greengrass service role. For example, when you create or deploy a Greengrass group, the console checks whether your AWS account is attached to a Greengrass service role in the AWS Region that's currently selected in the console. If not, the console can create and configure a service role for you. For more information, see Create the Greengrass service role (console).
You can use the AWS IoT console for the following role management tasks:
The user who is signed in to the console must have permissions to view, create, or change the service role.
Find your Greengrass service role (console)
Use the following steps to find the service role that AWS IoT Greengrass is using in the current AWS Region.
-
In the AWS IoT console
, in the navigation pane, choose Settings. -
Scroll to the Greengrass service role section to see your service role and its policies.
If you don't see a service role, you can let the console create or configure one for you. For more information, see Create the Greengrass service role.
Create the Greengrass service role (console)
The console can create and configure a default Greengrass service role for you. This role has the following properties.
Property | Value |
---|---|
Name | Greengrass_ServiceRole |
Trusted entity | AWS service: greengrass |
Policy |
AWSGreengrassResourceAccessRolePolicy |
If Greengrass device setup creates the service role,
the role name is GreengrassServiceRole_
.
random-string
When you create or deploy a Greengrass group from the AWS IoT console, the console checks whether a Greengrass service role is associated with your AWS account in the AWS Region that's currently selected in the console. If not, the console prompts you to allow AWS IoT Greengrass to read and write to AWS services on your behalf.
If you grant permission, the console
checks whether a role named Greengrass_ServiceRole
exists in your AWS account.
-
If the role exists, the console attaches the service role to your AWS account in the current AWS Region.
-
If the role doesn't exist, the console creates a default Greengrass service role and attaches it to your AWS account in the current AWS Region.
If you want to create a service role with custom role policies, use the IAM console
to create or modify the role.
For more information, see Creating a role
to delegate permissions to an AWS service or
Modifying a role in the
IAM User Guide. Make sure that the role grants permissions that are equivalent
to the AWSGreengrassResourceAccessRolePolicy
managed policy for the features and resources that you use.
If you create a service role, return to the AWS IoT console and attach the role to the group. You can do this under Greengrass service role on the group's Settings page.
Change the Greengrass service role (console)
Use the following procedure to choose a different Greengrass service role to attach to your AWS account in the AWS Region currently selected in the console.
-
In the AWS IoT console
, in the navigation pane, choose Settings. -
Under Greengrass service role, choose Choose different role.
The IAM roles in your AWS account that define AWS IoT Greengrass as a trusted entity are displayed in the Choose the Greengrass service role dialog box.
-
Choose your Greengrass service role.
-
Choose Save.
To allow the console to create a default Greengrass service role
for you, choose Create role for me instead of choosing a role from the list.
The Create role for me link does not appear if a role named Greengrass_ServiceRole
is in your AWS account.
Detach the Greengrass service role (console)
Use the following procedure to detach the Greengrass service role from your AWS account in the AWS Region currently selected in the console. This revokes permissions for AWS IoT Greengrass to access AWS services in the current AWS Region.
Detaching the service role might interrupt active operations.
-
In the AWS IoT console
, in the navigation pane, choose Settings. -
Under Greengrass service role, choose Detach.
-
In the confirmation dialog box, choose Detach role.
If you no longer need the role, you can delete it in the IAM console. For more information, see Deleting roles or instance profiles in the IAM User Guide.
Other roles might allow AWS IoT Greengrass to access your resources. To find all roles that allow AWS IoT Greengrass to assume permissions on your behalf, in the IAM console, on the Roles page, look for roles that include AWS service: greengrass in the Trusted entities column.
Managing the Greengrass service role (CLI)
In the following procedures, we assume that the AWS CLI is installed and configured to use your AWS account ID. For more information, see Installing the AWS command line interface and Configuring the AWS CLI in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.
You can use the AWS CLI for the following role management tasks:
Get the Greengrass service role (CLI)
Use the following procedure to find out if a Greengrass service role is associated with your AWS account in an AWS Region.
-
Get the service role. Replace
region
with your AWS Region (for example,us-west-2
).aws greengrass get-service-role-for-account --region
region
If a Greengrass service role is already associated with your account, the following role metadata is returned.
{ "AssociatedAt": "
timestamp
", "RoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::account-id
:role/path/role-name
" }If no role metadata is returned, then you must create the service role (if it doesn't exist) and associate it with your account in the AWS Region.
Create the Greengrass service role (CLI)
Use the following steps to create a role and associate it with your AWS account.
To create the service role using IAM
-
Create the role with a trust policy that allows AWS IoT Greengrass to assume the role. This example creates a role named
Greengrass_ServiceRole
, but you can use a different name. -
Copy the role ARN from the role metadata in the output. You use the ARN to associate the role with your account.
-
Attach the
AWSGreengrassResourceAccessRolePolicy
policy to the role.aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name Greengrass_ServiceRole --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSGreengrassResourceAccessRolePolicy
To associate the service role with your AWS account
-
Associate the role with your account. Replace
role-arn
with the service role ARN andregion
with your AWS Region (for example,us-west-2
).aws greengrass associate-service-role-to-account --role-arn
role-arn
--regionregion
If successful, the following response is returned.
{ "AssociatedAt": "
timestamp
" }
Remove the Greengrass service role (CLI)
Use the following steps to disassociate the Greengrass service role from your AWS account.
-
Disassociate the service role from your account. Replace
region
with your AWS Region (for example,us-west-2
).aws greengrass disassociate-service-role-from-account --region
region
If successful, the following response is returned.
{ "DisassociatedAt": "
timestamp
" }Note You should delete the service role if you're not using it in any AWS Region. First use delete-role-policy to detach the
AWSGreengrassResourceAccessRolePolicy
managed policy from the role, and then use delete-role to delete the role. For more information, see Deleting roles or instance profiles in the IAM User Guide.
See also
-
Creating a role to delegate permissions to an AWS service in the IAM User Guide
-
Modifying a role in the IAM User Guide
-
Deleting roles or instance profiles in the IAM User Guide
-
AWS IoT Greengrass commands in the AWS CLI Command Reference
-
IAM commands in the AWS CLI Command Reference