Lesson 052 · AWS Learning Path

AWS 052: Identity foundation before resource creation

Anil Jalela · Published Aug 16, 2025 · 6 min read

The problem

The learner must prove independent competence in Identity foundation before resource creation. Memorized definitions do not prove safe operation, diagnosis, or architecture judgment.

Final outcome

The learner will inspect, explain, test, and document Identity foundation before resource creation. The submission must connect the Console and CLI view to the same AWS control, state what the evidence proves, diagnose one likely failure, and make a requirement-based architecture decision.

Learning outcomes

You will be able to:

1. explain checkpoint scope;
2. explain critical gates;
3. explain practical evidence;
4. explain policy reasoning;
5. explain operational evidence;

1. distinguish successful configuration from successful workload behavior;
2. preserve redacted evidence and complete the stated cleanup or retention decision.

Mental model

requirement
   -> identity and permission
   -> account, Region, and resource scope
   -> configuration or request
   -> observable state
   -> workload result
   -> failure evidence
   -> cleanup or controlled retention

Never begin with a create button or a copied command. Start with the result that must be proven and the boundary that must remain protected.

Core facts

How to reason about it

Score is 85 out of 100 with at least 70 percent in authentication, policy evaluation, role design, conditions, and troubleshooting. Critical safety gates cannot be averaged away.

The oral defense selects one allowed request, one denied request, one trust relationship, and one condition. The learner must explain why it behaves that way and which changed requirement changes the answer.

Use the following decision table as a starting point, then change the answer when the scenario changes.

Prerequisites, permissions, Region, and cost

Run this lesson as the approved non-root course identity. Begin with aws sts get-caller-identity, confirm the private account record, and set the fixed project Region before any regional query. IAM resources are global within an account, while STS endpoints and the services reached by an identity can be regional.

Use only the read or change actions required for this lesson. An AccessDenied result is evidence to analyse, not permission to switch to root or attach AdministratorAccess. Record the action, resource, principal type, request context, and smallest justified correction.

The listed cost tier is T0 - no resource creation. Free Tier eligibility and credits are account-specific. Before a mutating lab, identify every resource that can charge, estimate its duration, start a timer, and write the reverse cleanup order. A budget reports cost after billing data arrives and is not a real-time stop control.

AWS Management Console method

1. Inspect the IAM dashboard, current non-root identity, MFA state, and account password policy scope.
2. Inspect one user/group path, one role trust/permission path, and one policy validation result.
3. Confirm the AWS 050 lab role and temporary policy were removed.

For every step record the service page, selected account and Region, exact object, visible state, and why that state matters. A Console label or green status is not enough unless it is tied to the final workload outcome.

AWS CLI or API evidence

Run the final identity preflight and list retained IAM evidence without secrets.

aws sts get-caller-identity --output json --no-cli-pager
aws iam get-account-summary --output json --no-cli-pager

The results establish caller context and account IAM counts. They do not prove that every identity follows least privilege.

Before running the command, replace every placeholder, explain each option, and decide whether the operation is read-only or mutating. Capture the exit code immediately. Redact account IDs, ARNs, public addresses, request identifiers, and personal data before sharing.

The CLI and Console are clients of AWS APIs. Matching state across them increases confidence, but neither substitutes for data-plane or application verification.

Practical work

Submit p03-identity-checkpoint.md containing a principal map, one annotated identity policy, one trust policy, one condition analysis, the AWS 050 allowed and denied evidence, an AWS 051 denial diagnosis, cleanup proof, and a 100-point self-score. The instructor changes one action, resource, or condition for the oral retest.

The evidence package must include:

• non-root principal type, account verified privately, and Region;
• exact intended and observed state;
• one Console observation and the matching CLI or API result;
• one successful result and one denied, failed, or counterexample result;
• what each result does not prove;
• cost state and elapsed lab time;
• cleanup evidence or a named retained-state owner and next lesson.

Verification standard

Use three levels of proof:

1. Control plane: the object or policy exists with the intended configuration.
2. Data plane or behavior: the request, packet, session, storage path, or application does what the requirement states.
3. Operations: monitoring, failure diagnosis, cost, ownership, and cleanup are known.

A control-plane response can precede final readiness. Use waiters or state polling where supported, then test the actual behavior. If a request times out, do not assume it failed. Inspect state and use documented idempotency before retrying a mutation.

Troubleshooting method

Keep the original symptom and timestamp. State one hypothesis, make one reversible change, repeat the original test, and record rollback. Never open a management port to the world, expose credentials, disable TLS verification, format an unknown disk, or add broad permissions as a generic fix.

Architecture and certification decisions

Professional-level questions provide competing valid features. Identify the requirement that decides between them: human or workload identity, same-account or cross-account access, regional or zonal scope, stateful or stateless filtering, durable or ephemeral data, latency, RTO/RPO, cost, or operational ownership.

Explain why the selected option fits and why each plausible alternative fails one stated requirement. Do not rely on feature memorization or reproduce protected certification questions.

Knowledge check

1. What wins over an Allow?

Expected direction: An applicable explicit Deny.

1. What does a role trust policy decide?

Expected direction: Who can establish a role session and under which conditions.

1. What is the preferred workload credential?

Expected direction: Temporary role credentials.

1. May a failed checkpoint proceed to resource creation?

Expected direction: No. Remediate and retest first.

Cost, cleanup, and retained state

No workload resource should remain unless this lesson explicitly creates and retains one for the next numbered lab.

Cleanup evidence includes the final state query, not only a successful delete response. Search related resources, other Regions used by the lab, retained storage, public IPv4 addresses, logging destinations, and service-managed dependencies. Schedule a later billing review because cost data can lag.

Completion gate

Pass when the practical artifact explains the real problem, matches Console and CLI evidence, answers every knowledge check, diagnoses one failure without broadening access, records cost, and proves cleanup or approved retention. The learner must defend one decision orally and name the requirement that would change it.

Official sources

• IAM best practices
• IAM policy evaluation
• IAM Access Analyzer