Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Troubleshooting Amazon CloudTrail identity and access

Use the following information to help you diagnose and fix common issues that you might encounter when working with CloudTrail and IAM.

I am not authorized to perform an action in CloudTrail

If you receive an error that you're not authorized to perform an action, your policies must be updated to allow you to perform the action.

The following example error occurs when the mateojackson IAM user tries to use the console to view details about a fictional my-example-widget resource but doesn't have the fictional cloudtrail:GetWidget permissions.

User: arn:aws-cn:iam::123456789012:user/mateojackson is not authorized to perform: cloudtrail:GetWidget on resource: my-example-widget

In this case, the policy for the mateojackson user must be updated to allow access to the my-example-widget resource by using the cloudtrail:GetWidget action.

If you need help, contact your Amazon administrator. Your administrator is the person who provided you with your sign-in credentials.

If the Amazon Web Services Management Console tells you that you're not authorized to perform an action, then you must contact your administrator for assistance. Your administrator is the person that provided you with your sign-in credentials.

The following example error occurs when the mateojackson IAM user tries to use the console to view details about a trail but doesn't have either the appropriate CloudTrail managed policy (AWSCloudTrail_FullAccess or AWSCloudTrail_ReadOnlyAccess) or the equivalent permissions applied to his account.

User: arn:aws-cn:iam::123456789012:user/mateojackson is not authorized to perform: cloudtrail:GetTrailStatus on resource: My-Trail

In this case, Mateo asks his administrator to update his policies to allow him to access trail information and status in the console.

If you sign in with an IAM user or role that has the AWSCloudTrail_FullAccess managed policy or its equivalent permissions, and you can't configure Amazon Config or Amazon CloudWatch Logs integration with a trail, you might be missing the required permissions for integration with those services. For more information, see Granting permission to view Amazon Config information on the CloudTrail console and Granting permission to view and configure Amazon CloudWatch Logs information on the CloudTrail console.

I am not authorized to perform iam:PassRole

If you receive an error that you're not authorized to perform the iam:PassRole action, your policies must be updated to allow you to pass a role to CloudTrail.

Some Amazon Web Services allow you to pass an existing role to that service instead of creating a new service role or service-linked role. To do this, you must have permissions to pass the role to the service.

The following example error occurs when an IAM user named marymajor tries to use the console to perform an action in CloudTrail. However, the action requires the service to have permissions that are granted by a service role. Mary does not have permissions to pass the role to the service.

User: arn:aws-cn:iam::123456789012:user/marymajor is not authorized to perform: iam:PassRole

In this case, Mary's policies must be updated to allow her to perform the iam:PassRole action.

If you need help, contact your Amazon administrator. Your administrator is the person who provided you with your sign-in credentials.

I want to allow people outside of my Amazon Web Services account to access my CloudTrail resources

You can create a role and share CloudTrail information between multiple Amazon Web Services accounts. For more information, see Sharing CloudTrail log files between Amazon accounts.

You can create a role that users in other accounts or people outside of your organization can use to access your resources. You can specify who is trusted to assume the role. For services that support resource-based policies or access control lists (ACLs), you can use those policies to grant people access to your resources.

To learn more, consult the following:

I am not authorized to perform iam:PassRole

If you receive an error that you're not authorized to perform the iam:PassRole action, your policies must be updated to allow you to pass a role to CloudTrail.

Some Amazon Web Services allow you to pass an existing role to that service instead of creating a new service role or service-linked role. To do this, you must have permissions to pass the role to the service.

The following example error occurs when an IAM user named marymajor tries to use the console to perform an action in CloudTrail. However, the action requires the service to have permissions that are granted by a service role. Mary does not have permissions to pass the role to the service.

User: arn:aws-cn:iam::123456789012:user/marymajor is not authorized to perform: iam:PassRole

In this case, Mary's policies must be updated to allow her to perform the iam:PassRole action.

If you need help, contact your Amazon administrator. Your administrator is the person who provided you with your sign-in credentials.

I am getting a NoManagementAccountSLRExistsException exception when I try to create an organization trail or event data store

The NoManagementAccountSLRExistsException exception is thrown when the management account does not have a service-linked role. When you add a delegated administrator using the Amazon Organizations Amazon CLI or API operation, the service-linked role doesn't get created if it does not exist.

When you use your organization's management account to add a delegated administrator or create an organization trail or event data store in the CloudTrail console, or by using the Amazon CLI or CloudTrail API, CloudTrail automatically creates a service-linked role for your management account if one does not already exist.

If you haven't added a delegated administrator, use the CloudTrail console, Amazon CLI or CloudTrail API to add the delegated administrator. For more information about adding a delegated administrator, see Add a CloudTrail delegated administrator and RegisterOrganizationDelegatedAdmin (API).

If you've already added the delegated administrator, use the management account to create the organization trail or event data store in the CloudTrail console, or by using the Amazon CLI or CloudTrail API. For more information about creating an organization trail, see Creating a trail for your organization in the console, Creating a trail for an organization with the Amazon CLI, and CreateTrail (API).