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).

Service-linked roles for Amazon Direct Connect

Amazon Direct Connect uses Amazon 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 Direct Connect. Service-linked roles are predefined by Amazon Direct Connect and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other Amazon services on your behalf.

A service-linked role makes setting up Amazon Direct Connect easier because you don’t have to manually add the necessary permissions. Amazon Direct Connect defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only Amazon Direct Connect can assume its roles. The defined permissions include the trust policy and the permissions policy, and that permissions policy 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 Direct Connect resources because you can't inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see Amazon 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 Direct Connect

Amazon Direct Connect uses a service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForDirectConnect. This allows Amazon Direct Connect to retrieve the MACSec secretes stored in Amazon Secrets Manager on your behalf.

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

The AWSServiceRoleForDirectConnect service-linked role uses the managed policy AWSDirectConnectServiceRolePolicy.

You must configure permissions to allow an IAM entity (such as a user, group, or role) to create, edit, or delete a service-linked role. For the AWSServiceRoleForDirectConnect service-linked role to be created successfully, the IAM identity that you use Amazon Direct Connect with must have the required permissions. To grant the required permissions, attach the following policy to the IAM identity.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
            "Condition": {
                "StringLike": {
                    "iam:AWSServiceName": "directconnect.amazonaws.com"
                }
            },
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Action": "iam:GetRole",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": "*"
       }
    ]
}

For more information, see Service-linked role permissions in the IAM User Guide.

Creating a service-linked role for Amazon Direct Connect

You don't need to manually create a service-linked role. Amazon Direct Connect creates the service-linked role for you. When you run the associate-mac-sec-key command, Amazon creates a service-linked role that allows Amazon Direct Connect to retrieve the MACsec secrets that are stored in Amazon Secrets Manager on your behalf in the Amazon Web Services Management Console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon API.

If you delete this service-linked role, and then need to create it again, you can use the same process to recreate the role in your account. Amazon Direct Connect creates the service-linked role for you again.

You can also use the IAM console to create a service-linked role with the Amazon Direct Connect use case. In the Amazon CLI or the Amazon API, create a service-linked role with the directconnect.amazonaws.com service name. For more information, see Creating a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide. If you delete this service-linked role, you can use this same process to create the role again.

Editing a service-linked role for Amazon Direct Connect

Amazon Direct Connect does not allow you to edit the AWSServiceRoleForDirectConnect service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you can't 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 Direct Connect

You don't need to manually delete the AWSServiceRoleForDirectConnect role. When you delete your service linked role, you must delete all the associated resources that are stored in Amazon Secrets Manager web service. The Amazon Web Services Management Console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon API, Amazon Direct Connect cleans up the resources and deletes the service-linked role for you.

You can also use the IAM console to delete the service-linked role. To do this, you must first manually clean up the resources for your service-linked role and then you can delete it.

To manually delete the service-linked role using IAM

Use the IAM console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon API to delete the AWSServiceRoleForDirectConnect service-linked role. For more information, see Deleting a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Supported regions for Amazon Direct Connect service-linked roles

Amazon Direct Connect supports using service-linked roles in all Amazon Web Services Regions where the MAC Security feature is available. For more information, see Amazon Direct Connect Locations.