Instance identity access token

An instance identity access token provides a security credential for accessing the Metadata and VPC Identity services. It's a signed token with a set of claims based on information about the instance and information that is passed in the token request. The minimum version date to use the instance identity access token feature is 2022-03-01.

Communication between the instance and the metadata service never leaves the host, you acquire the token from within the instance. If secure access to the metadata service is enabled on your instance, use the "https" protocol instead of the "http" protocol.

To obtain the identity token, make a PUT "/instance_identity/v1/token request to the Metadata service API.

curl -X PUT "http://api.metadata.cloud.ibm.com/instance_identity/v1/token?version=2022-03-01" -H "Metadata-Flavor: ibm" -d '{}'

In the request, you can specify an expiration time for the token. The default expiration value is 5 minutes, but you can specify any value between 5 seconds to 1 hour. See the following example for a host that has secure access enabled. In the next example, the expiration time of the token is specified as one hour.

curl -X PUT "https://api.metadata.cloud.ibm.com/instance_identity/v1/token?version=2022-03-01" -H "Metadata-Flavor: ibm" -d '{"expires_in": 3600}'

The API response contains the instance identity access token. Use this token to access the metadata service.

The following JSON response shows an instance identity access token character string, date, and time that it was created, date, and time that it expires, and expiration time you set. This token expires in 5 minutes.

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IlZTSS1DUl91cy1lYXN0X2I5...",
  "created_at": "2025-06-10T11:08:39.363Z",
  "expires_at": "2025-06-10T11:13:39.363Z",
  "expires_in": 300
}

In the following example, the return value of the cURL command is the instance identity access token. The token is extracted by jq and placed in the instance_identity_token environment variable.

instance_identity_token=`curl -X PUT "https://api.metadata.cloud.ibm.com/instance_identity/v1/token?version=2022-03-01"\
  -H "Metadata-Flavor: ibm"\
  -d '{
        "expires_in": 3600
      }' | jq -r '(.access_token)'`

The example uses jq as a parser, a third-party tool licensed under the MIT license. jq might not come preinstalled on all VPC images available when you create an instance. You might need to install jq before use or use another parser of your choice.

You can specify instance_identity_token variable in a GET call to the metadata service to invoke one of the metadata methods. For more information, see Retrieve metadata from your running instances.

You can also generate an IAM token from this identity token and use the RIAS API to call IAM-enabled services. For more information, see Generate an IAM token from an instance identity access token.

Generating an instance identity certificate by using an instance identity access token

Instance identity certificates are required to successfully enable and use encryption in transit between virtual server instances and IBM Cloud® File Storage for VPC shares. To generate an instance identity certificate for the instance, make a POST /instance_identity/v1/certificates call with the instance identity access token and a certificate signing request (CSR).

You can obtain the certificate signing requests (CSRs) from the open-source command-line toolkit, OpenSSL.

1. The following command generates a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and RSA Key Pair by using openssl. When you run the command, replace the country code US with your two-digit country code in '/C=US'.

   openssl req -sha256 -newkey rsa:4096 -subj '/C=US' -out ./sslcert.csr -keyout file.key -nodes
   

   If you're using a different software to create the CSR, you might be prompted to enter information about your location such as country code (C), state (ST), locality (L), your organization name (O), and organization unit (OU). Any one of these naming attributes can be used. Any other naming attributes, such as common name for example are rejected. CSRs with Common Name specified are rejected because when you make the request to the Metadata API, the system applies instance ID values to the subject Common Name for the instance identity certificates. CSRs with extensions are also rejected.

2. Format the csr before you make an API call to metadata service by using the following command.

   awk 'NF {sub(/\r/, ""); printf "%s\\n",$0;}' sslcert.csr
   

Then, you can make the API request to the Metadata service. See the following example. The csr value is required, the expires_in value is optional. The default value for expiration is 3600, which equals 1 hour.

curl -X POST "$vpc_metadata_api_endpoint/instance_identity/v1/certificates?version=2024-11-12" \
 -H "Authorization: Bearer $instance_identity_token" \
 -d '{ "csr": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----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\nTQ==\n-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----\n"}'

A successful response returns the new certificate with information such as its ID, and creation and expiration times.

{
  "certificates": [
    "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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\nzXuEUsCxzTyWRTm8GA==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n",
    "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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\nsLotlbzDpim/gYiJCHgW3POlsLE=\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n"
  ],
  "created_at": "2024-11-12T13:50:14Z",
  "expires_at": "2024-11-12T14:50:14Z",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "id": "9fd84246-7df4-4667-94e4-8ecde51d5ac5"
}

For more information, see Encryption in transit - Securing mount connections between file share and host.

Creating a trusted profile for the instance

Trusted profiles for compute resource identities help you assign an IBM Cloud® IAM identity to an IBM Cloud® resource, such as a virtual server instance. You can call any IAM-enabled service from an instance without having to manage and distribute IAM secrets to the instance. You can create a trusted profile when you generate an IAM token from an instance identity access token and link it to the instance. For more information, see Using a trusted profile to call IAM-enabled services.

Next steps

After you create an instance identity access token and enable the metadata service, you can retrieve metadata for the instance, SSH keys, and placement groups. For more information, see Retrieving metadata from an instance.