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Individual user setup for AWS Cloud9

This topic describes how to set up and use AWS Cloud9 as the only user in your AWS account when you're not a student. You can set up AWS Cloud9 for any other usage pattern. For more information, see Setting up AWS Cloud9.

To use AWS Cloud9 as the only user in your AWS account, sign up for an AWS account if you don't already have one. Next, sign in to the AWS Cloud9 console.

Prerequisites

Sign up for an AWS account

To get started with AWS, you need an AWS account. For information about creating an AWS account, see Getting started with an AWS account in the AWS Account Management Reference Guide.

Other ways to authenticate

Manage access across AWS accounts

As a security best practice, we recommend using AWS Organizations with IAM Identity Center to manage access across all your AWS accounts. For more information, see Security best practices in IAM in the IAM User Guide.

You can create users in IAM Identity Center, use Microsoft Active Directory, use a SAML 2.0 identity provider (IdP), or individually federate your IdP to AWS accounts. Using one of these approaches, you can provide a single sign-on experience for your users. You can also enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) and use temporary credentials for AWS account access. This differs from an IAM user, which is a long-term credential that can be shared and which might increase the security risk to your AWS resources.

Create IAM users for sandbox environments only

If you're new to AWS, you might create a test IAM user and then use it to run tutorials and explore what AWS has to offer. It's okay to use this type of credential when you're learning, but we recommend that you avoid using it outside of a sandbox environment.

For the following use cases, it might make sense to get started with IAM users in AWS:

If you're using IAM users outside of these use cases, then transition to IAM Identity Center or federate your identity provider to AWS accounts as soon as possible. For more information, see Identity federation in AWS.

Secure IAM user access keys

You should rotate IAM user access keys regularly. Follow the guidance in Rotating access keys in the IAM User Guide. If you believe that you have accidentally shared your IAM user access keys, then rotate your access keys.

IAM user access keys should be stored in the shared AWS credentials file on the local machine. Don't store the IAM user access keys in your code. Don't include configuration files that contain your IAM user access keys inside of any source code management software. External tools, such as the open source project git-secrets, can help you from inadvertently committing sensitive information to a Git repository. For more information, see IAM Identities (users, user groups, and roles) in the IAM User Guide.

Next steps