Manual setup for AWS Config

With the Get started workflow, you can go through all the manual selections of the setup process to get started with the AWS Config console. For a simplified getting started process, see 1-click setup.

To set up AWS Config with the console using Get started

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Config console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/config/.

2. Choose Get started.

The setup page includes three steps. The following provides a breakdown of that procedure after you choose Get started.

• Settings: To select the manner by which the AWS Config console records resources and roles, and choose where configuration history and configuration snapshot files are sent.

• Rules: For AWS Regions that support AWS Config rules, this step is available for you to configure initial managed rules that you can add to your account. After setting up, AWS Config will evaluate your AWS resources against the rules that you chose. Additional rules can be created and existing ones can be updated and in your account after setup.

• Review: To verify your setup details.

Step 1: Settings

Recording strategy

In the Recording method section, choose a recording strategy. You can specify the AWS resources that you want AWS Config to record.

All resource types with customizable overrides

Set up AWS Config to record configuration changes for all current and future supported resource types in this Region. You can override the recording frequency for specific resource types or exclude specific resource types from recording. For more information, see Supported Resource Types.

• Default settings

  Configure the default recording frequency for all current and future supported resource types. For more information see, Recording Frequency.

  • Continuous recording – AWS Config will record configuration changes continuously whenever a change occurs.

  • Daily recording – You will receive a configuration item (CI) representing the most recent state of your resources over the last 24-hour period, only if it’s different from the previous CI recorded.

  Note

  AWS Firewall Manager depends on continuous recording to monitor your resources. If you are using Firewall Manager, it is recommended that you set the recording frequency to Continuous.

• Override settings

  Override the recording frequency for specific resource types, or exclude specific resource types from recording. If you change the recording frequency for a resource type or stop recording a resource type, the configuration items that were already recorded will remain unchanged.

Specific resource types

Set AWS Config to record configuration changes for only the resource types that you specify.

• Specific resource types

  Choose a resource type to record and its frequency. For more information see, Recording Frequency.

  • Continuous recording – AWS Config will record configuration changes continuously whenever a change occurs.

  • Daily recording – You will receive a configuration item (CI) representing the most recent state of your resources over the last 24-hour period, only if it’s different from the previous CI recorded.

  Note

  AWS Firewall Manager depends on continuous recording to monitor your resources. If you are using Firewall Manager, it is recommended that you set the recording frequency to Continuous.

  If you change the recording frequency for a resource type or stop recording a resource type, the configuration items that were already recorded will remain unchanged.

Considerations When Recording Resources

High Number of AWS Config Evaluations

You might notice increased activity in your account during your initial month recording with AWS Config when compared to subsequent months. During the initial bootstrapping process, AWS Config runs evaluations on all the resources in your account that you have selected for AWS Config to record.

If you are running ephemeral workloads, you may see increased activity from AWS Config as it records configuration changes associated with creating and deleting these temporary resources. An ephemeral workload is a temporary use of computing resources that are loaded and run when needed. Examples include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Spot Instances, Amazon EMR jobs, and AWS Auto Scaling. . If you want to avoid the increased activity from running ephemeral workloads, you can set up the configuration recorder to exclude these resource types from being recorded, or run these types of workloads in a separate account with AWS Config turned off to avoid increased configuration recording and rule evaluations.

Considerations: All resource types with customizable overrides

Globally recorded resource types | Aurora global clusters are initially included in recording

The AWS::RDS::GlobalCluster resource type will be recorded in all supported AWS Config Regions where the configuration recorder is enabled.

If you do not want to record AWS::RDS::GlobalCluster in all enabled Regions, choose "AWS RDS GlobalCluster", and choose the override "Exclude from recording".

Global resource types | IAM resource types are initially excluded from recording

The global IAM resource types are initially excluded from recording to help you reduce costs. This bundle includes IAM users, groups, roles, and customer managed policies. Choose Remove to remove the override and include these resources in your recording.

Additionally, the global IAM resource types (AWS::IAM::User, AWS::IAM::Group, AWS::IAM::Role, and AWS::IAM::Policy) cannot be recorded in Regions supported by AWS Config after February 2022. For a list of those Regions, see Recording AWS Resources | Global Resources.

Limits

You can add up to 100 frequency overrides and 600 exclusion overrides.

Daily recording cannot be specified for the following resource types:

• AWS::Config::ResourceCompliance

• AWS::Config::ConformancePackCompliance

• AWS::Config::ConfigurationRecorder

Considerations: Specific resource types

Region Availability

Before specifying a resource type for AWS Config to track, check Resource Coverage by Region Availability to see if the resource type is supported in the AWS Region where you set up AWS Config. If a resource type is supported by AWS Config in at least one Region, you can enable the recording of that resource type in all Regions supported by AWS Config, even if the specified resource type is not supported in the AWS Region where you set up AWS Config.

Limits

No limits if all resource types have the same frequency. You can add up to 100 resource types with Daily frequency if at least one resource type is set to Continuous.

The Daily frequency is not supported for the following resource types:

• AWS::Config::ResourceCompliance

• AWS::Config::ConformancePackCompliance

• AWS::Config::ConfigurationRecorder

Data governance

• For Data retention period, choose either the default retention period to retain AWS Config data for 7 years (2557) or set a custom rentention period for items recorded by AWS Config.

  AWS Config allows you to delete your data by specifying a retention period for your ConfigurationItems. When you specify a retention period, AWS Config retains your ConfigurationItems for that specified period. You can choose a period between a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 7 years (2557 days). AWS Config deletes data older than your specified retention period.

• For IAM role for AWS Config, choose either an existing AWS Config service-linked role or an IAM a role from your account.

  • Service-linked roles are predefined by AWS Config and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other AWS services.

    Note

    Recommended: Use the Service-linked role

    It is recommended that you use the service-linked role. A service-linked role adds all the necessary permissions for AWS Config to run as expected.

  • Otherwise, choose an IAM role from one of your pre-existing roles and permission policies.

    Note

    Policies and compliance results

    IAM policies and other policies managed in AWS Organizations can impact whether AWS Config has permissions to record configuration changes for your resources. Additionally, rules directly evaluate the configuration of a resource and rules don't take into account these policies when running evaluations. Make sure that the policies in effect align with how you intend to use AWS Config.

    Keep Minimum Permisions When Reusing an IAM role

    If you use an AWS service that uses AWS Config, such as AWS Security Hub or AWS Control Tower, and an IAM role has already been created, make sure that the IAM role that you use when setting up AWS Config keeps the same minimum permissions as the pre-existing IAM role. You must do this to ensure that the other AWS service continues to run as expected.

    For example, if AWS Control Tower has an IAM role that allows AWS Config to read S3 objects, make sure that the same permissions are granted to the IAM role you use when setting up AWS Config. Otherwise, it may interfere with how AWS Control Tower operates.

Delivery method

• For Delivery method, choose the S3 bucket to which AWS Config sends configuration history and configuration snapshot files:

  • Create a bucket – For S3 bucket name, type a name for your S3 bucket.

    The name that you type must be unique across all existing bucket names in Amazon S3. One way to help ensure uniqueness is to include a prefix; for example, the name of your organization. You can't change the bucket name after it is created. For more information, see Bucket Restrictions and Limitations in the Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide.

  • Choose a bucket from your account – For S3 bucket name, choose your preferred bucket.

  • Choose a bucket from another account – For S3 bucket name, type the bucket name.

    Note

    Bucket Permissions

    If you choose a bucket from another account, that bucket must have policies that grant access permissions to AWS Config. For more information, see Permissions for the Amazon S3 Bucket for the AWS Config Delivery Channel.

• For Amazon SNS topic, choose Stream configuration changes and notifications to an Amazon SNS topic to have AWS Config send notifications such as configuration history delivery, configuration snapshot delivery, and compliance.

• If you chose to have AWS Config stream to an Amazon SNS topic, choose the target topic:

  • Create a topic – For Topic Name, type a name for your SNS topic.

  • Choose a topic from your account – For Topic Name, select your preferred topic.

  • Choose a topic from another account – For Topic ARN, type the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the topic. If you choose a topic from another account, the topic must have policies that grant access permissions to AWS Config. For more information, see Permissions for the Amazon SNS Topic.

    Note

    Region for the Amazon SNS Topic

    The Amazon SNS topic must exist in the same Region as the Region in which you set up AWS Config.

Step 2: Rules

If you are setting up AWS Config in a Region that supports rules, choose Next.

Step 3: Review

Review your AWS Config set up details. You can go back to edit changes for each section. Choose Confirm to finish setting up AWS Config.

For more information

For information about looking up the existing resources in your account and understanding the configurations of your resources, see Looking up Resources, Viewing Compliance Informance, and Viewing Compliance History.

You can also use Amazon Simple Queue Service to monitor AWS resources programmatically. For more information, see Monitoring AWS Resource Changes with Amazon SQS.