Using service-linked roles for AWS HealthOmics

AWS HealthOmics uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service-linked roles. A service-linked role is a unique type of IAM role that is linked directly to AWS HealthOmics. Service-linked roles are predefined by AWS HealthOmics and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other AWS services on your behalf.

A service-linked role makes setting up AWS HealthOmics easier because you don’t have to manually add the necessary permissions. AWS HealthOmics defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only AWS HealthOmics 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 AWS HealthOmics resources because you can't inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see AWS services that work with IAM and look for the services that have Yes in the Service-linked roles column. Choose a Yes with a link to view the service-linked role documentation for that service.

Service-linked role permissions for AWS HealthOmics

AWS HealthOmics uses a service-linked role named AwsServiceRoleForHealthOmics – a managed IAM policy with scoped permissions that provides permissions for AWS HealthOmics to manage VPC network resources, including creating, configuring, and deleting Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) on your behalf.

The AwsServiceRoleForHealthOmics service-linked role trusts the omics.amazonaws.com service principal to assume the role.

The role permissions policy is the AWSHealthOmicsServiceLinkedRolePolicy AWS managed policy. For the full list of permissions that this policy grants including the JSON policy document, see AWSHealthOmicsServiceLinkedRolePolicy in the AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide.

You must configure permissions to allow your users, groups, or roles to create, edit, or delete a service-linked role. For more information, see Service-linked role permissions in the IAM User Guide.

Creating a service-linked role for AWS HealthOmics

You don't need to manually create a service-linked role. AWS HealthOmics create the service-linked role for you the first time when you create a run-specific configuration with VPC configuration.

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. For more information, see Creating a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Editing a service-linked role for AWS HealthOmics

AWS HealthOmics does not allow you to edit the AwsServiceRoleForHealthOmics service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you cannot 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 AWS HealthOmics

If you no longer need to use the feature that requires a service-linked role, we recommend that you delete that role. That way you don’t have an unused entity that is not actively monitored or maintained.

You can delete this service-linked role only when there is no active run using any of the run-specific configurations that have VPC configuration. This ensures that you can't inadvertently remove permissions for AWS HealthOmics to manage VPC network resources on your behalf.

To manually delete the service-linked role using IAM

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

Supported Regions for AWS HealthOmics service-linked roles

AWS HealthOmics supports using service-linked roles in all of the Regions where the service is available. For more information, see AWS Regions and endpoints.