Use service-linked roles for Amazon Lightsail

Amazon Lightsail uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service-linked roles. A service-linked role is a unique type of IAM role that is linked directly to Amazon Lightsail. Service-linked roles are predefined by Amazon Lightsail and include all the permissions that Lightsail requires to call other AWS services on your behalf.

A service-linked role makes setting up Amazon Lightsail easier because you don’t have to manually add the necessary permissions. Amazon Lightsail defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only Amazon Lightsail can assume its roles. The defined permissions include the trust policy and the permissions policy, which cannot be attached to any other IAM entity.

You can delete a service-linked role only after first deleting their related resources. This protects your Amazon Lightsail resources because you can't inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see AWS Services That Work with IAM and look for the services that have Yes in the Service-Linked Role column. Choose a Yes with a link to view the service-linked role documentation for that service.

Service-Linked Role Permissions for Amazon Lightsail

Amazon Lightsail uses the service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForLightsail – Role to export Lightsail instance and block storage disk snapshots to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), and to get the current account-level Block Public Access configuration from Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

The AWSServiceRoleForLightsail service-linked role trusts the following services to assume the role:

The role permissions policy allows Amazon Lightsail to complete the following actions on the specified resources:

Service-Linked Role Permissions

You must configure permissions to allow an IAM entity (such as a user, group, or role) to create or edit the description of a service-linked role.

To allow an IAM entity to create a specific service-linked role

Add the following policy to the IAM entity that needs to create the service-linked role.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/lightsail.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForLightsail*",
            "Condition": {"StringLike": {"iam:AWSServiceName": "lightsail.amazonaws.com"}}
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:PutRolePolicy",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/lightsail.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForLightsail*"
        }
    ]
}
    

To allow an IAM entity to create any service-linked role

Add the following statement to the permissions policy for the IAM entity that needs to create a service-linked role, or any service role that includes the needed policies. This policy attaches a policy to the role.

{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/*"
}
    

To allow an IAM entity to edit the description of any service roles

Add the following statement to the permissions policy for the IAM entity that needs to edit the description of a service-linked role, or any service role.

{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": "iam:UpdateRoleDescription",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/*"
}
    

To allow an IAM entity to delete a specific service-linked role

Add the following statement to the permissions policy for the IAM entity that needs to delete the service-linked role.

{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": [
        "iam:DeleteServiceLinkedRole",
        "iam:GetServiceLinkedRoleDeletionStatus"
    ],
    "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/lightsail.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForLightsail*"
}
    

To allow an IAM entity to delete any service role

Add the following statement to the permissions policy for the IAM entity that needs to delete a service-linked role, or any service-role.

{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": [
        "iam:DeleteServiceLinkedRole",
        "iam:GetServiceLinkedRoleDeletionStatus"
    ],
    "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/*"
}
    

Alternatively, you can use an AWS managed policy to provide full access to the service.

Creating a Service-Linked Role for Amazon Lightsail

You don't need to manually create a service-linked role. When you export your Lightsail instance or block storage disk snapshot to Amazon EC2, or create or update a Lightsail bucket in the AWS AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API, Amazon Lightsail creates the service-linked role for you.

If you delete this service-linked role and need to create it again, you can use the same process to recreate the role in your account. When you export your Lightsail instance or block storage disk snapshot to Amazon EC2, or create or update a Lightsail bucket, Amazon Lightsail creates the service-linked role for you again.

Editing a Service-Linked Role for Amazon Lightsail

Amazon Lightsail does not allow you to edit the AWSServiceRoleForLightsail service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you cannot change the name of the role because various entities might reference the role. However, you can edit the description of the role using IAM. For more information, see Editing a Service-Linked Role in the IAM User Guide.

Deleting a Service-Linked Role for Amazon Lightsail

If you no longer need to use a feature or service that requires a service-linked role, we recommend that you delete that role. That way you don’t have an unused entity that is not actively monitored or maintained. However, you must confirm that there are no Amazon Lightsail instance or disk snapshots in a pending copy state before you can delete the AWSServiceRoleForLightsail service-linked role. For more information, see Export snapshots to Amazon EC2.

To manually delete the service-linked role using IAM

Use the IAM console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API to delete the AWSServiceRoleForLightsail service-linked role. For more information, see Deleting a Service-Linked Role in the IAM User Guide.

Supported Regions for Amazon Lightsail Service-Linked Roles

Amazon Lightsail supports using service-linked roles in all of the regions where the service is available. For more information about the regions that Lightsail is available in, see Amazon Lightsail Regions.