Resource Access Management (RAM) allows you to manage the permissions of your Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users separately. You can grant different permissions to different RAM users to avoid security risks caused by disclosure of the AccessKey pair of your Alibaba Cloud account.

Background information

Enterprise A has activated ApsaraMQ for Kafka and wants to grant different permissions to its employees with different duties to perform operations on ApsaraMQ for Kafka resources, such as instances, topics, and consumer groups. Employees with different duties require different permissions. Enterprise A has the following requirements:

  • For security purposes, the enterprise does not want to disclose the AccessKey pair of its Alibaba Cloud account to employees. Instead, it prefers to create different RAM users for employees and grant different permissions to these RAM users.
  • Only RAM users who are granted permissions can manage resources. Resource usage and costs are not calculated separately for each RAM user. All expenses are billed to the Alibaba Cloud account of Enterprise A.
  • Enterprise A can revoke the permissions granted to RAM users and delete RAM users at any time.

Step 1: Create RAM users

Enterprise A uses its Alibaba Cloud account to log on to the RAM console and create RAM users.

  1. Log on to the RAM console by using your Alibaba Cloud account.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Identities > Users.
  3. On the Users page, click Create User.
  4. 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.
    • Optional:Tag: You can click the edit icon. In the dialog box that appears, specify the Tag Key and Tag Value parameters. You can add one or more tags to the RAM user. This way, you can manage the RAM user based on the tags.
    Note You can click Add User to create multiple RAM users at a time.
  5. 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:

      • 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.
      • Multi-factor Authentication: specifies whether to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the RAM user. If you select Required to Enable MFA for the RAM user, the RAM user must bind an MFA device when the RAM user logs on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console. For more information, see Bind an MFA device to a RAM user.
    • OpenAPI Access

      If the RAM user represents a program, we recommend that you select OpenAPI Access for the RAM user. This way, the RAM user can use an AccessKey pair to access Alibaba Cloud. If you select OpenAPI Access, the system automatically generates an AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret for the RAM user. For more information, see Create an AccessKey pair.

  6. Click OK.

Step 2: Grant permissions to RAM users

Method 1: Grant permissions to a RAM user on the Users page

  1. Log on to the RAM console with an Alibaba Cloud account.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Identities > Users.
  3. On the Users page, find the RAM user to which you want to attach the custom policy, and click Add Permissions in the Actions column.
  4. In the Add Permissions panel, grant permissions to the RAM user.
    1. Select the authorization scope.
      • Alibaba Cloud Account: The permissions take effect on the current Alibaba Cloud account.
      • Specific Resource Group: The permissions take effect in a specific resource group.
        Note If you select Specific Resource Group for Authorized Scope, you must make sure that the required cloud service supports resource groups. For more information, see Services that work with Resource Group.
    2. Specify the principal.
      The principal is the RAM user to which you want to grant permissions.
    3. Select policies.
      Note You can attach a maximum of five policies to a RAM user at a time. If you need to attach more than five policies to a RAM user, perform the operation multiple times.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Click Complete.

Method 2: Grant permissions to a RAM user on the Grants page

  1. Log on to the RAM console with an Alibaba Cloud account.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Permissions > Grants.
  3. On the Grants page, click Grant Permission.
  4. In the Grant Permission panel, grant permissions to the RAM user.
    1. Select the authorization scope.
      • Alibaba Cloud Account: The permissions take effect on the current Alibaba Cloud account.
      • Specific Resource Group: The permissions take effect in a specific resource group.
        Note If you select Specific Resource Group for Authorized Scope, you must make sure that the required cloud service supports resource groups. For more information, see Services that work with Resource Group.
    2. Specify the principal.
      The principal is the RAM user to which you want to grant permissions.
    3. Select policies.
      Note You can attach a maximum of five policies to a RAM user at a time. If you need to attach more than five policies to a RAM user, perform the operation multiple times.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Click Complete.

What to do next

Employees of Enterprise A can use RAM users to access ApsaraMQ for Kafka by using the following methods:

  • Console
    1. Open the RAM User Logon page in a browser.
    2. On the RAM User Logon page, enter the logon name of the RAM user, click Next, enter the password, and then click Log On.
      Note The logon name of the RAM user is in the format of <$username>@<$AccountAlias> or <$username>@<$AccountAlias>.onaliyun.com. <$AccountAlias> is the alias of the RAM user. If no alias is set, use the ID of the Alibaba Cloud account.
  • API

    Use the AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret of the RAM user in code to make an API request to access ApsaraMQ for Kafka.