Create New AWS Ubuntu User

create-aws-user.txt

## Taken from: http://www.brianlinkletter.com/how-to-set-up-a-new-userid-on-your-amazon-aws-server-instance/

Create a new userid, with password

We will create a new account with userid brian. If you run into any trouble, consult the Amazon AWS documentation. To create the new account, first login to your AWS server with a command similar to:

Laptop:$ ssh -i ~/Documents/Ubuntu-2-keypair.pem ubuntu@54.175.34.164
Then create the new user brian (or your choice) using the command:

ubuntu@AWS:$ sudo adduser brian
Follow the prompts to enter the password and other optional user information. I filled in my full user name and left all other user information fields blank.

Add the new user to the sudoers file

Next, add the new user to the sudoers file. Use the visudo command:

ubuntu@AWS:$ sudo visudo
We add the following line after the comment line, “User privilege specification”:

brian   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
Then, save the file.

Execute the following command to ensure that the user brian is in the sudo groups, and so is an administrator:

ubuntu@AWS:$ sudo adduser brian sudo
Install the public key for the new user

We cannot log into the new user account via SSH until the public key from the AWS instance’s key pair is installed for the new user. We must copy the public key installed for the ubuntu user and paste it into the right file in the new user account, brian.

The public key in in the file, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.

ubuntu@AWS:$ cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh-rsa AEEAB3NzaC1yc2EEEAADAQABAAABAQDXXrlN+I5j4g5Am/lBviKhhA2XDUaeU6DlD1qz4C2+cv0eax8lXxS0YdOIA+ioyrhGy/2Y3O+jsb54JE6Z/5u1MiX5RkX/3XayGE2Vrxa+ZstxQFgEolqNn96s6tghxQm9sjhU4r6S98XLR+Hg6xqh4COdHnANu1mlyIAW9YEfdPvFl4FnoyBSFHBvLPQZy4JLIwYeKwiGS/Esh8N5f8WQJUjIhwT3i/MgfhYhRGQdbGKIVWrL0sPwOv9gTT1H9HExyUH3G6KBhfD5Zm3R+TVe0vuUaodLcnPf4EAJZZVky/Fnbg6aLFQWf1iWjY+fa7Jev+Nnpsn9DEXAMPLE Ubuntu-2-keypair
Select the public key (omit the name of the key pair at the end) and then copy it to your clipboard. Optionally, you may also paste it into a text editor running on your laptop (just as a temporary parking spot — in case you accidentally clear your clipboard before you need to past the key to the new user).

NOTE: There are also other ways to get the public key. See the Amazon AWS documentation for more ways to retrieve the public key of the instance.

Now, switch to the new user account, brian:

ubuntu@AWS:$ sudo su brian
brian@AWS:$ 
Ensure you are in the new user’s home directory:

brian@AWS:$ cd
brian@AWS:$ pwd
/home/brian
Create the SSH directory and authorized users file, with the correct permissions:

brian@AWS:$ mkdir .ssh
brian@AWS:$ chmod 700 .ssh
brian@AWS:$ touch .ssh/authorized_keys
brian@AWS:$ chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys
Edit the authorized_keys file with a text editor.

brian@AWS:$ nano .ssh/authorized_keys
Paste in the public key you previously copied to the clipboard. Now the authorized_keys file will have the following contents:

ssh-rsa AEEAB3NzaC1yc2EEEAADAQABAAABAQDXXrlN+I5j4g5Am/lBviKhhA2XDUaeU6DlD1qz4C2+cv0eax8lXxS0YdOIA+ioyrhGy/2Y3O+jsb54JE6Z/5u1MiX5RkX/3XayGE2Vrxa+ZstxQFgEolqNn96s6tghxQm9sjhU4r6S98XLR+Hg6xqh4COdHnANu1mlyIAW9YEfdPvFl4FnoyBSFHBvLPQZy4JLIwYeKwiGS/Esh8N5f8WQJUjIhwT3i/MgfhYhRGQdbGKIVWrL0sPwOv9gTT1H9HExyUH3G6KBhfD5Zm3R+TVe0vuUaodLcnPf4EAJZZVky/Fnbg6aLFQWf1iWjY+fa7Jev+Nnpsn9DEXAMPLE
Save the file.

Exit the system:

brian@AWS:$ exit
ubuntu@AWS:$ exit
Laptop:$
Log in as the new user

You should now be able to log into the new user brian on the remote Amazon AWS server using the same keypair. On your laptop, use the SSH command:

Laptop:$ ssh -i ~/Documents/Ubuntu-2-keypair.pem brian@54.175.34.164
brian@AWS:$ 
We now are logged in as user brian.