AWS IAM - Troubleshooting

While configuring your AWS IAM connection, you may encounter several issues. Understanding these common errors can help streamline the setup process and facilitate quick resolutions.

The connection fails with a permission error

AWS answers 403 both when the key itself is wrong and when the policy is too narrow, so check the two in order: first that the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key were copied whole and belong to the same key, then that the user carries iam:GetUser, iam:ListUsers and iam:ListAccessKeys.

The connection worked and then stopped

An access key that has been deactivated or deleted in AWS stops working immediately. Check the key's status on the user's Security credentials tab; if it was rotated, create a new key and update the connection.

You are using temporary credentials

Credentials issued by AWS STS expire — usually within hours. Fill in Session Token for them to work at all, and expect to re-enter all three values each time they are reissued. A long-lived IAM user access key is the better fit for a scheduled extraction.