How do I link my EC2 instance to access files from my S3 bucket?

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Sarthak Varshney · Answer

Step 1: Create an IAM Role with S3 Access Go to the IAM Console : https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/ Create a new role : Choose "AWS service" as the trusted entity. Use case: EC2 . Click Next . Attach a policy : Choose AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess (or create a custom policy if you need more permissions like upload/delete). Click Next , then Create role . Give your role a name, e.g., EC2S3AccessRole . Step 2: Attach the IAM Role to Your EC2 Instance Go to the EC2 Dashboard : https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/ Select your instance. Choose Actions > Security > Modify IAM Role . Select the role you just created ( EC2S3AccessRole ) and click Update IAM Role . Step 3: Verify IAM Role is Attached SSH into your EC2 instance and run: curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ It should return the IAM role name. This confirms it's properly attached. Step 4: Install AWS CLI on EC2 (if not installed) For Amazon Linux 2: sudo yum update -y sudo yum install aws-cli -y For Ubuntu: sudo apt update sudo apt install awscli -y Step 5: Use AWS CLI to Access S3 Bucket Run commands like: aws s3 ls s3://your-bucket-name/ aws s3 cp s3://your-bucket-name/filename.txt . aws s3 sync s3://your-bucket-name/ /home/ec2-user/s3-files/ No need to configure aws configure if the IAM role is attached. The instance will automatically use the role credentials. Optional: Create a Custom IAM Policy If you want more control than AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess , here’s a sample policy to allow full access to a specific bucket : { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": "s3:*", "Resource": [ "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name", "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*" ] } ] } Your EC2 instance can now read from (or write to) your S3 bucket securely using the IAM role — no access keys required .

How do I link my EC2 instance to access files from my S3 bucket?

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