CreateAlias - Amazon Key Management Service
Request SyntaxRequest ParametersResponse ElementsErrorsExamples
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CreateAlias

Creates a friendly name for a customer master key (CMK).

Note

Adding, deleting, or updating an alias can allow or deny permission to the CMK. For details, see Using ABAC in Amazon KMS in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

You can use an alias to identify a CMK in the Amazon KMS console, in the DescribeKey operation and in cryptographic operations, such as Encrypt and GenerateDataKey. You can also change the CMK that's associated with the alias (UpdateAlias) or delete the alias (DeleteAlias) at any time. These operations don't affect the underlying CMK.

You can associate the alias with any customer managed CMK in the same Amazon Region. Each alias is associated with only one CMK at a time, but a CMK can have multiple aliases. A valid CMK is required. You can't create an alias without a CMK.

The alias must be unique in the account and Region, but you can have aliases with the same name in different Regions. For detailed information about aliases, see Using aliases in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

This operation does not return a response. To get the alias that you created, use the ListAliases operation.

The CMK that you use for this operation must be in a compatible key state. For details, see Key state: Effect on your CMK in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

Cross-account use: No. You cannot perform this operation on an alias in a different Amazon Web Services account.

Required permissions

For details, see Controlling access to aliases in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

Related operations:

Request Syntax

{
   "AliasName": "string",
   "TargetKeyId": "string"
}

Request Parameters

For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

Note

In the following list, the required parameters are described first.

AliasName

Specifies the alias name. This value must begin with alias/ followed by a name, such as alias/ExampleAlias.

The AliasName value must be string of 1-256 characters. It can contain only alphanumeric characters, forward slashes (/), underscores (_), and dashes (-). The alias name cannot begin with alias/aws/. The alias/aws/ prefix is reserved for Amazon managed CMKs.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 256.

Pattern: alias/^[a-zA-Z0-9/_-]+$

Required: Yes

TargetKeyId

Associates the alias with the specified customer managed CMK. The CMK must be in the same Amazon Region.

A valid CMK ID is required. If you supply a null or empty string value, this operation returns an error.

For help finding the key ID and ARN, see Finding the Key ID and ARN in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide .

Specify the key ID or key ARN of the CMK.

For example:

  • Key ID: 1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab

  • Key ARN: arn:aws:kms:us-east-2:111122223333:key/1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab

To get the key ID and key ARN for a CMK, use ListKeys or DescribeKey.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 2048.

Required: Yes

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response with an empty HTTP body.

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

AlreadyExistsException

The request was rejected because it attempted to create a resource that already exists.

HTTP Status Code: 400

DependencyTimeoutException

The system timed out while trying to fulfill the request. The request can be retried.

HTTP Status Code: 500

InvalidAliasNameException

The request was rejected because the specified alias name is not valid.

HTTP Status Code: 400

KMSInternalException

The request was rejected because an internal exception occurred. The request can be retried.

HTTP Status Code: 500

KMSInvalidStateException

The request was rejected because the state of the specified resource is not valid for this request.

For more information about how key state affects the use of a CMK, see How Key State Affects Use of a Customer Master Key in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide .

HTTP Status Code: 400

LimitExceededException

The request was rejected because a quota was exceeded. For more information, see Quotas in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

HTTP Status Code: 400

NotFoundException

The request was rejected because the specified entity or resource could not be found.

HTTP Status Code: 400

Examples

Example Request

The following example is formatted for legibility. 

POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: kms.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
Content-Length: 87
X-Amz-Target: TrentService.CreateAlias
X-Amz-Date: 20160517T204220Z
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256\
 Credential=AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE/20160517/us-west-2/kms/aws4_request,\
 SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-amz-date;x-amz-target,\
 Signature=ca7bcf1e8d5364dc3f0d881c05bdadf36f498c6c6a8b576a060142d9b2199123

{
  "TargetKeyId": "1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab",
  "AliasName": "alias/ExampleAlias"
}

Example Response

This example illustrates one usage of CreateAlias.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Server
Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 20:42:25 GMT
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Content-Length: 0
Connection: keep-alive
x-amzn-RequestId: dcb07ca7-1c6f-11e6-8540-77c363708b91