Resource Access Management (RAM) allows you to separate permissions between your Alibaba Cloud account and RAM users. You can grant different permissions to RAM users based on your needs and avoid the security risks of exposing the AccessKey pair of your Alibaba Cloud account.
Background
Enterprise A has activated the ApsaraMQ for Kafka service. The company requires its employees to manage resources for the ApsaraMQ for Kafka service, such as instances, topics, and consumer groups. Because employees have different job responsibilities, they require different permissions. Enterprise A has the following requirements:
For security or trust reasons, the company does not want to share the AccessKey pair of its Alibaba Cloud account directly with employees. Instead, it prefers to create an individual RAM user for each employee.
RAM users can manage resources only after receiving the required permissions. All resource usage and costs are billed to the company's Alibaba Cloud account.
The company can revoke a RAM user's permissions or delete the user at any time.
Step 1: Create RAM users
To create RAM users for your employees, log on to the RAM console with your Alibaba Cloud account.
Procedure
Log on to the RAM console by using an Alibaba Cloud account or a RAM user who has administrative rights.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
On the Users page, click Create User.
In the User Account Information section of the Create User page, configure the following parameters:
Logon Name: The logon name can be up to 64 characters in length, and can contain letters, digits, periods (.), hyphens (-), and underscores (_).
Display Name: The display name can be up to 128 characters in length.
Tag: Click the
icon and enter a tag key and a tag value. You can add one or more tags to the RAM user. This way, you can manage the RAM user based on the tags.
NoteYou can click Add User to create multiple RAM users at a time.
In the Access Mode section, select an access mode and configure the required parameters.
To ensure the security of your Alibaba Cloud account, we recommend that you select only one access mode for the RAM user. This way, the RAM user for an individual is separated from the RAM user for a program.
Console Access
If the RAM user represents an individual, we recommend that you select Console Access for the RAM user. This way, the RAM user can use a username and password to access Alibaba Cloud. If you select Console Access, you must configure the following parameters:
Set Console Password: You can select Automatically Regenerate Default Password or Reset Custom Password. If you select Reset Custom Password, you must specify a password. The password must meet the complexity requirements. For more information, see Configure a password policy for RAM users.
Password Reset: specifies whether the RAM user is required to reset the password upon the next logon.
Enable MFA: Specify whether to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the RAM user. After you enable MFA, you must bind an MFA device. For more information, see Bind an MFA device for a RAM user.
OpenAPI Access
If the RAM user represents an application, you can use a permanent AccessKey pair to access Alibaba Cloud. Selecting this option automatically creates an AccessKey pair (an AccessKey ID and an AccessKey secret) for the RAM user. For more information, see Create an AccessKey.
Important
An AccessKey secret for a RAM user is displayed only when you create an AccessKey pair. You cannot query the AccessKey secret in subsequent operations. Therefore, you must back up your AccessKey secret.
An AccessKey pair is a long-term credential for programmatic access. A leaked AccessKey pair compromises all resources in your account. To reduce this risk, we strongly recommend using temporary credentials, such as an STS token, instead. For more information, see Best practices for accessing Alibaba Cloud OpenAPI.
Click OK.
Step 2: Grant permissions to RAM users
Method 1: Grant permissions on the Users page
Log on to the RAM console as a RAM administrator.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
On the Users page, find the required RAM user, and click Add Permissions in the Actions column.
You can also select multiple RAM users and click Add Permissions in the lower part of the page to grant permissions to the RAM users at a time.
In the Grant Permission panel, grant permissions to the RAM user.
Configure the Resource Scope parameter.
Account: The authorization takes effect on the current Alibaba Cloud account.
Resource Group: The authorization takes effect on a specific resource group.
ImportantIf you select Resource Group for the Resource Scope parameter, make sure that the required cloud service supports resource groups. For more information, see Services that work with Resource Group. For more information about how to grant permissions on a resource group, see Control RAM user access to specific ECS instances.
Configure the Principal parameter.
The principal is the RAM user to which you want to grant permissions. The current RAM user is automatically selected.
Configure the Policy parameter.
A policy contains a set of permissions. Policies can be classified into system policies and custom policies. You can select multiple policies at a time.
System policies: policies that are created by Alibaba Cloud. You can use but cannot modify these policies. Version updates of the policies are maintained by Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see Services that support RAM.
NoteThe system automatically identifies high-risk system policies, such as AdministratorAccess and AliyunRAMFullAccess. We recommend that you do not grant unnecessary permissions by attaching high-risk policies.
Custom policies: You can manage and update custom policies based on your business requirements. You can create, update, and delete custom policies. For more information, see Create a custom policy.
Click OK.
Method 2: Grant permissions on the Grants page
Log on to the RAM console as a RAM administrator.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
On the Permission page, click Grant Permission.
In the Grant Permission panel, grant permissions to the RAM user.
Configure the Resource Scope parameter.
Account: The authorization takes effect on the current Alibaba Cloud account.
Resource Group: The authorization takes effect on a specific resource group.
ImportantConfigure the Principal parameter.
The principal is the RAM user to which you want to grant permissions. You can select multiple RAM users at a time.
Configure the Policy parameter.
A policy contains a set of permissions. Policies can be classified into system policies and custom policies. You can select multiple policies at a time.
System policies: policies that are created by Alibaba Cloud. You can use but cannot modify these policies. Version updates of the policies are maintained by Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see Services that support RAM.
NoteThe system automatically identifies high-risk system policies, such as AdministratorAccess and AliyunRAMFullAccess. We recommend that you do not grant unnecessary permissions by attaching high-risk policies.
Custom policies: You can manage and update custom policies based on your business requirements. You can create, update, and delete custom policies. For more information, see Create a custom policy.
Click OK.
Click Close.
Next steps
The employees of Enterprise A can use their RAM user accounts to access ApsaraMQ for Kafka using the following methods:
Console
Open the RAM User Logon page in a browser.
On the RAM User Logon page, enter the RAM user name, click Next, enter the password, and then click Log On.
NoteThe logon name of a RAM user is in the format of <$username>@<$AccountAlias> or <$username>@<$AccountAlias>.onaliyun.com. <$AccountAlias> is the account alias. If no account alias is set, it defaults to the ID of the Alibaba Cloud account.
API
In your code, use the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret of the RAM user to call the API and access ApsaraMQ for Kafka.