---
title: "Presentation of identity interactions within an OVHcloud Account"
description: "Learn about the different types of identities that can be managed from your OVHcloud account."
url: https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/manage-and-operate/iam/presentation-identity-interactions-within-ovhcloud-account
lang: en
---
> For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms.txt, the full documentation bundle is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms-full.txt.

# Presentation of identity interactions within an OVHcloud Account

**Learn about the different types of identities that can be managed from your OVHcloud account.**

 

## Requirements

- An [OVHcloud customer account](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/create-account.md)

 

## Instructions

### Understanding identities

Several types of identities can interact with OVHcloud products:

 

### OVHcloud account

This is the primary identity used to log in to the [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/). The OVHcloud account can also be referred to as a NIC or NIC-handle in the documentation.

This identity acts as a root account and cannot have its rights restricted, regardless of the access policies implemented.

 

### Local users

Local users are identities associated with your OVHcloud account. These accounts are designed for **human interaction** with OVHcloud products, as they are based on login/password authentication, and access rights depend on the [IAM policies](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/use-iam-policies-console.md) implemented.

The configuration of local users is detailed in the [dedicated documentation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/manage-local-users.md).

You can also use them to log in to the OVHcloud APIs by [generating a token associated with the user](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/manage-and-operate/api/first-steps.md). The rights of this token can be limited to a specific scope in addition to IAM policies.

For an application based on a token linked to a local user to use an OVHcloud API, the token must integrate it within its scope **AND** for the user who created the token to have rights on this API.

Local users can also be referred to as _sub-users_ in the documentation.

We recommend using local users as soon as more than one person connects to your OVHcloud account in order to assure traceability of actions.

 

### Service accounts

Service accounts are identities associated with your OVHcloud account. These accounts are designed for **machine interactions** with OVHcloud products, as they are based on client/token authentication, and access rights depend on the [IAM policies](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/use-iam-policies-console.md) implemented.

The creation of service accounts is covered in [dedicated documentation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/manage-and-operate/api/managing-ovhcloud-service-accounts.md).

A service account can then be used for [login on OVHcloud APIs](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/manage-and-operate/api/managing-ovhcloud-service-accounts.md) as well as on third-party APIs such as those exposed by [OpenStack](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/manage-and-operate/iam/using-service-accounts-connect-openstack.md).

 

### Federated users

These are user accounts from an [identity federation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/sso-active-directory-federation-services.md). These users come from a third-party directory and are therefore not managed directly by OVHcloud. Their access rights depend on the [IAM policies](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/use-iam-policies-console.md) implemented.

Federated users are represented by user groups in rights management.

We recommend using identity federation as soon as the number of people connecting to your OVHcloud account becomes large enough, or if you want to centralize your access to a third-oarty directory used for other services than OVHcloud.

 

### User groups

The different identities can be associated in user groups to make them easier to manipulate. Configuring user groups is covered in the [local users management documentation](https://help.ovhcloud.com/csm/en-account-managing-users?id=kb_article_view\&sysparm_article=KB0043055).

 

### Users of OVHcloud products

Some products offered by OVHcloud can also propose their own users, such as OpenStack, VMware vSphere, or Object Storage. Those users are independent from the OVHcloud account and are managed directly through the products concerned.

For products that allow usage of an OVHcloud identity (local user, service account, federated user) or specific user, we recommend using specific users in order to maintain reversibility and limit the dependency on OVHcloud. If you want to have centralized management across all of your products, we suggest using OVHcloud identities.

 

## Go further

Browse all the [IAM guides](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/manage-and-operate/iam/landing-page-iam.md).

Browse the rest of the [OVHcloud US documentation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/index.md) for guides on our other products and services.