Configure role recommendation generation

By changing your IAM recommender configuration, you can customize how your role recommendations are generated. This page explains how to edit your configuration to change how quickly recommendations are generated for your project.

Though the IAM recommender generates role recommendations for a variety of resources, you can only edit how role recommendations are generated for projects.

Before you begin

• Enable the Recommender API.

  Enable the API

• Understand how the IAM recommender generates role recommendations.
• Install the Google Cloud CLI.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to configure IAM role recommendations, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project whose IAM recommender you want to configure:

• View configuration details: IAM Recommender Viewer (roles/recommender.iamViewer)
• Modify your configuration: IAM Recommender Admin (roles/recommender.iamAdmin)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to configure IAM role recommendations. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to configure IAM role recommendations:

• View configuration details: recommender.iamPolicyRecommenderConfig.get
• Modify your configuration: recommender.iamPolicyRecommenderConfig.update

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

View your current configuration

View your current configuration to see how many days of permission usage data the IAM recommender waits before generating role recommendations.

You can view the configuration using the gcloud CLI or the REST API.

gcloud

To get a project's IAM recommender configuration, use the gcloud beta recommender recommender-config describe command.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

Execute the gcloud beta recommender recommender-config describe command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.

gcloud beta recommender recommender-config describe \
google.iam.policy.Recommender \
--project="PROJECT_ID" \
--location="global"

Windows (PowerShell)

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.

gcloud beta recommender recommender-config describe `
google.iam.policy.Recommender `
--project="PROJECT_ID" `
--location="global"

Windows (cmd.exe)

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.

gcloud beta recommender recommender-config describe ^
google.iam.policy.Recommender ^
--project="PROJECT_ID" ^
--location="global"

The response contains the project's IAM recommender configuration. For example, it might look like the following:

etag: '"d3e779ee3f34f276"'
name: projects/123456789012/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config
recommenderGenerationConfig:
  params:
    minimum_observation_period: P90D
revisionId: DEFAULT
updateTime: '2022-10-02T22:57:33Z'

REST

To get a project's IAM recommender configuration, use the Recommender API's projects.locations.recommenders.getConfig method.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_NUMBER: The numeric ID of your Google Cloud project.
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

HTTP method and URL:

GET https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

curl -X GET \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project: PROJECT_ID" \
     "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method GET `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config" | Select-Object -Expand Content

The response contains the project's IAM recommender configuration. For example, it might look like the following:

{
  "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "minimum_observation_period": "P90D"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"d3e779ee3f34f276\"",
  "updateTime": "2022-10-02T22:57:33Z",
  "revisionId": "DEFAULT"
}

Understand configuration details

The contents of a configuration depend on which recommender the configuration is for. IAM recommender configurations have the following components, not necessarily in this order:

• name: The identifier for the configuration, in the form projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config.

• recommenderGenerationConfig: The parameters that the IAM recommender uses when generating recommendations. This field contains the following parameters:

  • minimum_observation_period: The number of days of permission usage data that the IAM recommender needs to start generating role recommendations.

• etag: An identifier for the current state of a configuration, used to prevent concurrent updates. Each time the configuration changes, a new ETag value is assigned.

• updateTime: The timestamp of the most recent time that the configuration was updated, in UTC format (RFC 3339).

• revisionId: Output only. An identifier for the current revision of the configuration. This value is updated every time the configuration is edited.

Edit your configuration

Edit your configuration to change how quickly recommendations are generated for your project.

Important: If you set the minimum observation period to fewer than 90 days, you'll get recommendations sooner, but the accuracy of the recommendations might be affected.

gcloud

To edit a project's IAM recommender configuration, use the gcloud beta recommender recommender-config update command.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• OBSERVATION_PERIOD: The minimum observation period that you want to set. Use one of the following values: P30D (30 days), P60D (60 days), or P90D (90 days).
• ETAG: The configuration's current etag, which you can find by getting the current configuration and copying the value of the response's etag field.
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

Save the following content in a file called request.json:

{
  "params": {
    "minimum_observation_period": "OBSERVATION_PERIOD"
  }
}

Execute the gcloud beta recommender recommender-config update command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.

gcloud beta recommender recommender-config update \
google.iam.policy.Recommender \
--etag="ETAG" \
--project="PROJECT_ID" \
--location="global" \
--config-file="request.json"

Windows (PowerShell)

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.

gcloud beta recommender recommender-config update `
google.iam.policy.Recommender `
--etag="ETAG" `
--project="PROJECT_ID" `
--location="global" `
--config-file="request.json"

Windows (cmd.exe)

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.

gcloud beta recommender recommender-config update ^
google.iam.policy.Recommender ^
--etag="ETAG" ^
--project="PROJECT_ID" ^
--location="global" ^
--config-file="request.json"

The response contains the updated configuration. For example, it might look like the following:

etag: '"2549af0942332910"'
name: projects/123456789012/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config
recommenderGenerationConfig:
  params:
    minimum_observation_period: P60D
revisionId: 288c60eb
updateTime: '2022-10-05T21:42:21.069170Z'

REST

To edit a project's IAM recommender configuration, use the Recommender API's projects.locations.recommenders.updateConfig method.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_NUMBER: The numeric ID of your Google Cloud project.
• OBSERVATION_PERIOD: The minimum observation period that you want to set. Use one of the following values: P30D (30 days), P60D (60 days), or P90D (90 days).
• ETAG: The configuration's current etag, which you can find by getting the current configuration and copying the value of the response's etag field. Use backslashes to escape quotes, for example, "\"df7308cca9719dcc\"".
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

HTTP method and URL:

PATCH https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config

Request JSON body:

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "minimum_observation_period": "OBSERVATION_PERIOD"
    }
  },
  "etag": "ETAG"
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X PATCH \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project: PROJECT_ID" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method PATCH `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config" | Select-Object -Expand Content

APIs Explorer (browser)

Copy the request body and open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Paste the request body in this tool, complete any other required fields, and click Execute.

The response contains the updated configuration. For example, it might look like the following:

{
  "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/recommenders/google.iam.policy.Recommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "minimum_observation_period": "P60D"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"2549af0942332910\"",
  "updateTime": "2022-10-05T21:26:52.127512Z",
  "revisionId": "b5fc0053"
}

What's next

• Review and apply role recommendations for projects, folders, and organizations.
• Review and apply your role recommendations for Cloud Storage buckets
• Learn more about Recommender.