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Using Yandex Cloud from within a VM

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Updated at February 12, 2025

This section describes how to use Yandex Cloud from within a VM via the API or CLI.

To automate working with Yandex Cloud from within a VM, we recommend using service accounts. This is more secure since you do not need to keep your OAuth token on the VM and can restrict access permissions for your service account.

Yandex Cloud provides simplified API and CLI authentication from within a VM for service accounts. To authenticate:

  1. If you do not have a service account yet, create one and configure access permissions for it.
  2. Link the service account to your VM.
  3. Get authenticated from within your VM.

Link your service account to an existing or new VM. You can only link a single service account.

To link a service account to a VM, you need a permission to use this account. This permission comes with the iam.serviceAccounts.user and editor roles or higher.

  1. In the management console, select the folder the VM belongs to.
  2. In the list of services, select Compute Cloud.
  3. Click the VM name.
  4. In the top-right corner of the page, click Edit VM.
  5. Under Additional, select an existing service account or create a new one.
  6. Click Save changes.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified in the CLI profile is used by default. You can specify a different folder through the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

Update the VM parameters by specifying the service account using --service-account-name or --service-account-id:

yc compute instance update my-instance --service-account-name test

Use the update REST API method for the Instance resource or the InstanceService/Update gRPC API call. Specify the service account ID in your request.

In the management console, you can link a service account to a virtual machine. This service account must be in the same folder as the VM. If the service account is in a different folder, use the CLI or API.

To link a service account to a VM, select it under Additional in the Service account field when creating the VM. You can select an existing service account or create a new one.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified in the CLI profile is used by default. You can specify a different folder through the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

Create a VM by specifying the service account using --service-account-name or --service-account-id:

yc compute instance create \
  --name my-instance \
  --network-interface subnet-name=default,nat-ip-version=ipv4 \
  --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub \
  --service-account-name my-robot

Use the create REST API method for the Instance resource or the InstanceService/Create gRPC API call. Specify the service account ID in your request.

Authentication from within a VM

To get authenticated from within your VM using the linked service account:

  1. Connect to the VM over SSH.

  2. If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

  3. Create a new profile:

    yc config profile create my-robot-profile

  4. Configure your profile to run commands.

    Some commands require that you specify unique IDs for your cloud and folder. You can specify their details in the profile or use a specific flag for these commands.

    1. Specify the cloud in your profile:

      yc config set cloud-id <cloud_ID>

      You can also use the --cloud-id parameter to run commands.

    2. Specify a folder in the profile:

      yc config set folder-id <folder_ID>

      You can also use the --folder-id parameter to run commands.

    All operations in this profile will be performed on behalf of the linked service account. You can change the profile parameters or switch to another profile.

    You can also get a Yandex Identity and Access Management token, e.g., to get authenticated with the API:

    yc iam create-token

    The lifetime of an Identity and Access Management token in this case will be less than 12 hours. Request an Identity and Access Management token more often, e.g., every hour. To learn the remaining token lifetime, follow the steps for the API.

  1. Connect to the VM over SSH.

  2. Get an Identity and Access Management token from metadata in Google Compute Engine format:

    curl \
  --header Metadata-Flavor:Google http://169.254.169.254/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/token

    Result:

    {"access_token":"CggVAgAAA...","expires_in":39944,"token_type":"Bearer"}

    The response will return an Identity and Access Management token in the access_token field. The remaining lifetime of the Identity and Access Management token is specified in the expires_in field.

  3. Specify the received IAM token when accessing Yandex Cloud resources via the API. Provide the IAM token in the Authorization header in the following format:

    Authorization: Bearer <IAM_token>

Keep track of the Identity and Access Management token lifetime or request a new token more often, e.g., every hour.

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