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Global Accelerator:How Global Accelerator works with RAM

Last Updated:Mar 11, 2024

Resource Access Management (RAM) is an Alibaba Cloud service that helps you manage user identities and permissions on resources in a secure and centralized manner. You can use RAM to enable access control for Global Accelerator (GA).

Overview

RAM uses permission control to regulate access from RAM users, RAM user groups, and RAM roles to a resource. A policy is a set of permissions. You can attach policies to RAM users, user groups, or RAM roles to grant them permissions on a resource.

Permissions

The following section describes the permissions of an Alibaba Cloud account, a RAM user, and a resource owner.

  • An Alibaba Cloud account is the resource owner and controls all permissions.

    • Each Alibaba Cloud resource has only one owner. The owner must be an Alibaba Cloud account and has complete control over the resource.

    • The resource owner is not necessarily the resource creator. For example, if a RAM user has permissions to create Alibaba Cloud resources, the resources created by this RAM user belong to the Alibaba Cloud account of the RAM user. The RAM user is the resource creator, but is not the resource owner.

  • A RAM user has no permissions by default.

    • A RAM user is an identity that is used to manage resources. Before a RAM user can perform operations, the RAM user must be granted the required permissions by the Alibaba Cloud account. The required permissions must be granted by attaching one or more explicit allow policies.

    • A new RAM user can manage resources only after the RAM user is granted the required permissions.

  • As a resource creator, a RAM user is not automatically granted the permissions on the created resources.

    • A RAM user can create resources after the RAM user is granted the required permissions.

    • To grant the RAM user the required permissions, the resource owner must attach one or more explicit allow policies to the RAM user.

Policies

A policy defines a set of permissions that are described based on the policy structure and syntax. You can use policies to describe the authorized resource sets, authorized operation sets, and authorization conditions.

RAM supports the following two types of policy:

  • System policy: System policies are created and updated by Alibaba Cloud. You can use system policies. You cannot modify system policies. For more information about the system policies for Global Accelerator, see GA system policies.

  • Custom policy: If system policies cannot meet your business requirements, you can create custom policies to implement fine-grained permission management. For more information about how to create a custom policy, see GA custom policies.

Attach policies to a principal

After you create a policy, you can attach it to a RAM user, a RAM user group, or a RAM role to grant the permissions defined in the policy to the principal.

  • You can attach one or more policies to a RAM user, a RAM user group, or a RAM role.

  • The attached policies can be system policies or custom policies.

  • If the attached policies are modified, the modifications automatically take effect. You do not need to attach the modified policies to RAM principals again.

Service-linked roles

A service-linked role is a RAM role whose trusted entity is an Alibaba Cloud service. A service-linked role is used to authorize access across Alibaba Cloud services. A service-linked role is a RAM role that only the linked service can assume. In most cases, a service automatically creates or deletes the service-linked role if needed. A service-linked role simplifies the process to authorize a service to access other services and reduces the risks caused by misoperations.

The policy that is attached to a service-linked role is predefined by the linked service. You cannot modify or delete the policy. You cannot attach policies to or detach policies from a service-linked role.

To allow Global Accelerator to access another resource, Global Accelerator must be authorized to create a service-link role. Then, Global Accelerator assumes this role to access the resource. For more information about the service-linked roles for Global Accelerator, see Service-linked roles.