+++
title = "Install AWS IAM Authenticator"
chapter = false
weight = 16

+++

Amazon EKS uses IAM to provide authentication to your Kubernetes cluster through the AWS IAM authenticator for Kubernetes. You can configure the stock kubectl client to work with Amazon EKS by installing the AWS IAM authenticator for Kubernetes and modifying your kubectl configuration file to use it for authentication. 

To install `aws-iam-authenticator` on Cloud9

Download the Amazon EKS-vended `aws-iam-authenticator binary` from Amazon S3: 

```
curl -o aws-iam-authenticator https://amazon-eks.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1.15.10/2020-02-22/bin/linux/amd64/aws-iam-authenticator
```

Make the downloaded binary executable:

```
chmod +x ./aws-iam-authenticator
```

And move it into a common directory:

```
sudo mv ./aws-iam-authenticator /usr/local/bin
```

Test that the aws-iam-authenticator binary works:

```
aws-iam-authenticator help
```