Configure AWS Credentials

This article guides you through configuring your AWS credentials for programmatic access. At the end of the tutorial, you will have your API keys and region configured to successfully deploy Webiny to your AWS cloud.

If you prefer the video version, check out our YouTube video below:

Step 1: Create Your AWS Account

To create your AWS account and set up your IAM credentials we should first navigate to the AWS Console page:

aws-sign-in

(click to enlarge)

Next click on Create a new AWS account:

aws-login

(click to enlarge)

Now input your credentials and create your account:

aws-register

(click to enlarge)

Step 2: Create a User for Programmatic Access

Once you’re registered, login and head to the AWS Management Console and select IAM under Security, Identity & Compliance:

aws-iam-selection

(click to enlarge)

Click on IAM and select Users under Access Management:

aws-iam-users

(click to enlarge)

Click on Create user to create the account with the IAM credentials:

aws-create-user

(click to enlarge)

Here you enter a multi-step process, and the first step is to create a User name for the credentials.

aws-user-details

(click to enlarge)

In the next step, you define the access level for the new user. Select Attach existing Policies from the three options available. Then, choose the AdministratorAccess policy by checking the checkbox next to it. When you’re ready, click the Next button.

aws-user-permissions

(click to enlarge)

Once all the steps are complete, you’ll reach the Review and create page, which should look similar to image below. If everything is correct, click the Create user button.

You can also add tags to new users. If you don’t want to add any tags to your new user, you can simply click the Create user button.

aws-user-review

(click to enlarge)

Once the user is created, you will receive a success message: “User created successfully.” Now, we will proceed to create the Access key for this new user.

aws-new-user-created-successfully

(click to enlarge)

Click on the newly created user from the Users home page. This will display the user details page. Next, click on the Create access key link.

access-key-creation

(click to enlarge)

Select the Command Line Interface (CLI) option, and check the I understand the above recommendation and want to proceed to create an access key confirmation box at the end. Then, click the Next button.

access-key-use-case

(click to enlarge)

The next step is optional, where you can set the description tag. Click the Create access key button.

set-description-tag

(click to enlarge)

On successful creation of the Access key, you will see a message: Access key created.
This is the only time that the secret access key can be viewed or downloaded. You cannot recover it later. However, you can create a new access key any time. Copy this Access key and Secret access key.

access-key-created-successfully

(click to enlarge)

"Deploy Webiny Project" AWS CloudFormation Template

In order to deploy your Webiny project in a more controlled and secure manner, you can utilize our Deploy Webiny Project AWS CloudFormation template. Via three IAM user groups, the template deploys necessary (least-privilege) set of permissions into your AWS account, which also automatically get linked with a preexisting Amazon IAM user of your choosing (the user you plan to use upon running deployments).

To get started, simply click here.

Before deploying the AWS CloudFormation template, you might want to inspect it. You can do that by visiting our GitHub repository or downloading the template from our S3 bucket.

Step 3: Configure the Programmatic Access

Now that you have the Access key ID and Secret access key it’s time to store them on your development machine.

Unix Setup

If you’re on UNIX, create a folder named .aws inside your user folder, that’s ~/.aws. Inside that folder place a file called credentials. So the full path is ~/.aws/credentials.

Windows Setup

On Windows machines, navigate to your user folder. That’s C:\Users\USERNAME\ (replace USERNAME with your actual username). Inside create a new folder named .aws, and inside the .aws folder create a file named credentials. The full path should be like this: C:\Users\USERNAME\.aws\credentials.

Now that we have our credentials file, edit the file and populate it like so:

The word default inside the square brackets is your profile name. If you don’t explicitly configure a profile name, the default profile is used by AWS CLI and SDK.

And that’s it! You now have your AWS credentials, your default region, and you’re ready to deploy Webiny.

FAQ

Is There a Way to Check if My Profile Was Set Properly?

If you have the AWS CLI installed on your system, you can run the following command:

This should give an output similar to the following: