US Patent 8683560 Techniques for credential generation

Systems and methods for managing credentials distribute the credentials to subsets of a set of collectively managed computing resources. The collectively managed computing resources may include one or more virtual machine instances. The credentials distributed to the computing resources may be used by the computing resources to perform one or more actions. Actions may include performing one or more functions in connection with configuration, management, and/or operation of the one or more resources, and/or access of other computing resources. The ability to use credentials may be changed based at least in part on the occurrence of one or more events.