Setting up and configuring Resource Explorer - AWS Resource Explorer
Cross-Region searchEnhanced configuration

AWS Resource Explorer now provides immediate access to resource search and discovery capabilities in a Region. With this launch, you no longer need to activate Resource Explorer to discover your resources. Learn more

Setting up and configuring Resource Explorer

AWS Resource Explorer is available immediately when you have the appropriate permissions. Users with, at minimum, the permissions in the AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess managed policy can start searching for resources right away without any setup. Users with the permissions in the AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess managed policy and iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole permissions (included in the AWSResourceExplorerFullAccess managed policy) get complete search results with automatic infrastructure creation on first search.

Note

After the service-linked role is created in your account when any user with the iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole permission accesses Resource Explorer, subsequent users need only, at minimum, the permissions in the AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess managed policy to create an index and view for full results in a Region on first search.

Your search experience is automatically enabled based on your IAM permissions. For enhanced functionality like cross-Region search, multi-account configurations, or more control over your Resource Explorer configuration, you can use the manual setup options below.

Quick Setup and Advanced Setup options remain available for customers who want cross-Region search or more control over their Resource Explorer configuration.

Note

Multi-account search requires that your account is part of an AWS Organizations organization.

There are two ways to enhance your Resource Explorer configuration:

Important

If you choose to create user-owned indexes using any option that says "all AWS Regions", it creates indexes only in those AWS Regions that exist and that are enabled in the AWS account at the time you perform the procedure. User-owned indexes are not automatically created in any AWS Regions that AWS adds in the future. When AWS introduces a new Region, you can choose to create user-owned indexes in the Region manually when it appears in the Settings page of the Resource Explorer console, or by calling the CreateIndex operation.

Note

Configuring Resource Explorer can enhance the ability to search for resources using the Unified Search bar on the AWS Management Console. Unified Search works with local Region indexes and does not require an aggregator index. For cross-Region search capabilities, you can optionally configure an aggregator index and default view. For more information, see Using Unified Search in the AWS Management Console.

Enabling cross-Region search

To enable cross-Region search capabilities, you can complete setup to create user-owned indexes and configure an aggregator index. This procedure does the following:

  • Creates user-owned indexes in every AWS Region in your AWS account for complete search results.

  • Updates the index in the Region you specify to be the aggregator index for the account.

  • Creates a default view in the aggregator index Region. This view has no filters so it returns all resources found in the index.

Minimum permissions

To perform the steps in the following procedure, you must have the following permissions:

  • Action: resource-explorer-2:* – Resource: no specific resource (*)

  • Action: iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole – Resource: no specific resource (*)

AWS Management Console
To enable cross-Region search

  1. Open the AWS Resource Explorer console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/resource-explorer.

  2. If you see the Complete setup and enable cross-Region search banner, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, navigate to Settings to access setup options. You can also access Complete Setup from the left navigation when available.

  3. In the Complete setup and enable cross-Region search banner, select your preferred aggregator index from the list. Choose the Region that is appropriate for the geographic location of your users.

  4. Choose Enable cross-Region search in all Regions. Alternatively, you can choose Customize Region setup for more granular control over which Regions to include.

  5. Monitor the indexing progress.

  6. Wait for the setup to complete. The indexing process creates user-owned indexes in all or selected Regions and configures the aggregator index in your selected Region.

After setup completes, you and your users can search for resources across all Regions. The cross-Region search capability will be fully available after indexing is complete.

Note

Tagged resources local to the index appear in search results within a few minutes. Untagged resources typically take less than two hours to appear, but can take longer when there is heavy demand. It can also can take up to an hour to complete the initial replication to a new aggregator index from all of the existing local indexes.

Next steps: Before your users can search with the default view you just created, you must grant them permissions to search with it. For more information, see Granting access to Resource Explorer views for search.

AWS CLI

Setting up Resource Explorer in your AWS account by using the AWS CLI is, by definition, equivalent to the Advanced setup option. This is because the Resource Explorer CLI operations don't perform any of the steps for you automatically like the Resource Explorer console does. See the AWS CLI tab on the Using enhanced configuration options to see what commands are the equivalent of using the console.

Using enhanced configuration options

For more granular control over your Resource Explorer configuration, you can use Advanced setup options to:

  • Choose the AWS Regions in which to create user-owned indexes for complete search results.

  • Choose whether to configure one Region with an aggregator index. If you do, you specify the AWS Region to place it in. This index allows you to create views that can include resources from all Regions in the account. For more information, see Enabling cross-Region search by creating an aggregator index.

  • Choose whether to create a default view. That view allows searching automatically for any AWS resource in the Regions where you have user-owned indexes. You must ensure that any principals who need to use the default view to search in Resource Explorer have permissions on the view. For more information, see Granting access to Resource Explorer views for search.

Minimum permissions

To perform the steps in the following procedure, you must have the following permissions:

  • Action: resource-explorer-2:* – Resource: no specific resource (*)

  • Action: iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole – Resource: no specific resource (*)

AWS Management Console
To configure Resource Explorer with enhanced options

  1. Open the AWS Resource Explorer console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/resource-explorer.

  2. Navigate to Settings to access enhanced configuration options, or choose Customize Region setup from the cross-Region setup banner. You can also access Complete Setup from the left navigation when available.

  3. Select the specific Regions where you want to create user-owned indexes, or configure custom view settings as needed.

  4. If enabling cross-Region search, review the "Confirm cross-Region setup" modal that explains: "By enabling cross-Region search, AWS performs the following steps:" followed by details about creating indexes in all AWS Regions, creating the aggregator index, and creating default view with filter.

  5. Choose Cancel to return to the previous screen, or Confirm and enable to proceed with the cross-Region setup.

  6. Monitor the setup progress and wait for indexing to complete. To continue using Resource Explorer with partial results during this process, choose Proceed to Resource Search.

AWS CLI
To set up Resource Explorer using Advanced setup

The Resource Explorer console performs many API operation calls on your behalf based on the choices you make. The following example AWS CLI commands illustrate how to perform the same basic procedures outside of the console using the AWS CLI.

Example Step 1: Create user-owned indexes in the desired AWS Regions

Run the following command in each AWS Region in which you want to activate Resource Explorer. The following example command enables Resource Explorer in the AWS Region that is the default for the AWS CLI.

$ aws resource-explorer-2 create-index
{
    "Arn": "arn:aws:resource-explorer-2:us-east-1:123456789012:index/1a2b3c4d-5d6e-7f8a-9b0c-abcd11111111",
    "CreatedAt": "2022-07-27T16:17:12.130000+00:00",
    "State": "CREATING"
}
Example Step 2: Update the index in one AWS Region to be the aggregator index for the account

Run the following command in the AWS Region in which you want Resource Explorer to update the local index to the aggregator index for the account. The following example command updates the aggregator index in the US East (N. Virginia) (us-east-1).

$ aws resource-explorer-2 update-index-type \
    --arn arn:aws:resource-explorer-2:us-east-1:123456789012:index/1a2b3c4d-5d6e-7f8a-9b0c-abcd11111111 \
    --type AGGREGATOR
{
    "Arn": "arn:aws:resource-explorer-2:us-east-1:123456789012:index/1a2b3c4d-5d6e-7f8a-9b0c-abcd11111111",
    "LastUpdatedAt": "2022-07-27T16:29:49.231000+00:00",
    "State": "UPDATING",
    "Type": "AGGREGATOR"
}
Example Step 3: Create a view in the AWS Region that contains the aggregator index

Run the following command in the AWS Region in which you created the aggregator index. The following example command creates a view identical to the one created by the Resource Explorer console setup process. This new view includes tags attached to the resource as part of the indexed information and supports searching for resources by tag key or value. 

$ aws resource-explorer-2 create-view \
    --view-name My-New-View \
    --included-properties Name=tags
{
    "View": {
        "Filters": {
            "FilterString": ""
        },
        "IncludedProperties": [
            {
                "Name": "tags"
            }
        ],
        "LastUpdatedAt": "2022-07-27T16:34:14.960000+00:00",
        "Owner": "123456789012",
        "Scope": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root",
        "ViewArn": "arn:aws:resource-explorer-2:us-east-1:123456789012:view/My-New-View/1a2b3c4d-5d6e-7f8a-9b0c-abcd22222222"
    }
}
Example Step 4: Set your new view as the default for its AWS Region

The following example sets the view you created in the previous step as the default for the Region. You must run the following command in the same AWS Region in which you created the default view. 

$ aws resource-explorer-2 associate-default-view \
    --view-arn arn:aws:resource-explorer-2:us-east-1:123456789012:view/My-New-View/1a2b3c4d-5d6e-7f8a-9b0c-abcd11111111
{
    "ViewArn": "arn:aws:resource-explorer-2:us-east-1:123456789012:view/My-New-View/1a2b3c4d-5d6e-7f8a-9b0c-abcd11111111"
}

Before your users can search with a view, you must grant them permissions to use that view. For more information, see Granting access to Resource Explorer views for search.

After you run those commands, Resource Explorer is running in the specified Regions in your AWS account. Resource Explorer builds and maintains an index in each Region with details of the resources located there. Resource Explorer replicates each of the individual Region indexes to the aggregator index in the specified Region. That Region also contains a view that allows any IAM role or user in the account to search for resources across all indexed Regions.

Note

Tagged resources local to the index appear in search results within a few minutes. Untagged resources typically take less than two hours to appear, but can take longer when there is heavy demand. It can also can take up to an hour to complete the initial replication to a new aggregator index from all of the existing local indexes.