Enabling and disabling policy types

Note

AWS Organizations is introducing a new version of the Organizations management console. You can switch between the old console and the new console by choosing the link in the notice boxes at the top of the console. We encourage you to try the new version and let us know what you think. We want your feedback and read each submission.

Enabling a policy type

Before you can create and attach a policy to your organization, you must enable that policy type for use. Enabling a policy type is a one-time task on the organization root. You can enable a policy type from only the organization's management account.

Minimum permissions

To enable a policy type, you need permission to run the following actions:

• organizations:EnablePolicyType

• organizations:DescribeOrganization – required only when using the Organizations console

• organizations:ListRoots – required only when using the Organizations console

Old console

To enable a policy type

1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

2. On the Policies tab, choose the name of policy type that you want to enable.

3. On the policy type page, choose Enable policy type.

   The page is replaced by a list of the available policies of the specified type.

You can alternatively use the following steps.

To enable a policy type (alternate method)

1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

2. On the Organize accounts tab, in the navigation pane, choose the Root OU.

3. On the Root page, in the details pane on the right, under ENABLE/DISABLE POLICY TYPES, next to the relevant policy type, choose Enable.

   A light blue box appears around the policy type's name to indicate that shows it is enabled.

New console

To enable a policy type

1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

2. On the Policies page, choose the name of the policy type that you want to enable.

3. On the policy type page, choose Enable policy type.

   The page is replaced by a list of the available policies of the specified type.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs

To enable a policy type

You can use one of the following commands to enable a policy type:

• AWS CLI: aws organizations enable-policy-type

  The following example shows how to enable backup policies for your organization. Note that you must specify the ID of your organization's root.

  $ aws organizations enable-policy-type \
      --root-id r-a1b2 \
      --policy-type BACKUP_POLICY
  {
      "Root": {
          "Id": "r-a1b2",
          "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:root/o-aa111bb222/r-a1b2",
          "Name": "Root",
          "PolicyTypes": [
              {
                  "Type": "BACKUP_POLICY",
                  "Status": "ENABLED"
              }
          ]
      }
  }

  The list of PolicyTypes in the output now includes the specified policy type with the Status of ENABLED.

• AWS SDKs: EnablePolicyType

Disabling a policy type

If you no longer want to use a certain policy type in your organization, you can disable that type to prevent its accidental use. You can disable a policy type from only the organization's management account.

Important

• When you disable a policy type, all policies of the specified type are automatically detached from all entities in the organization root. The policies are not deleted.

• (Service control policy type only) If you re-enable the SCP policy type later, all entities in the organization root are initially attached to only the default FullAWSAccess SCP. Attachments of SCPs to entities are lost when the SCPs are disabled in the organization. If you later want to re-enable SCPs, you must reattach them to the organization's root, OUs, and accounts, as appropriate.

Minimum permissions

To disable SCPs, you need permission to run the following actions:

• organizations:DisablePolicyType

• organizations:DescribeOrganization – required only when using the Organizations console

• organizations:ListRoots – required only when using the Organizations console

Old console

To disable a policy type

1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

2. On the Organize accounts tab, choose Root in the left navigation pane.

3. In the details pane on the right side, under ENABLE/DISABLE POLICY TYPES, and next to the policy type you want to disable, choose Disable.

New console

To disable a policy type

1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

2. On the Policies page, choose the name of the policy type that you want to disable.

3. On the policy type page, choose Disable policy type.

4. On the confirmation dialog box, enter the word disable, and then choose Disable.

   The list of available policies of the specified type disappears.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs

To disable a policy type

You can use one of the following commands to disable a policy type:

• AWS CLI: aws organizations disable-policy-type

  The following example shows how to disable backup policies for your organization. Note that you must specify the ID of your organization's root.

  $ aws organizations disable-policy-type \
      --root-id r-a1b2 \
      --policy-type BACKUP_POLICY
  {
      "Root": {
          "Id": "r-a1b2",
          "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:root/o-aa111bb222/r-a1b2",
          "Name": "Root",
          "PolicyTypes": []
      }
  }

  The list of PolicyTypes in the output no longer includes the specified policy type.

• AWS SDKs: DisablePolicyType