Setting up a landing zone
AWS Control Tower automates the setup of a landing zone by using best-practice templates for
identity, federated access, controls, and account structure. AWS Control Tower offers the easiest way
to set up and govern a secure, multi-account AWS environment. From a feature perspective,
the AWS Control Tower dashboard
If your enterprise is new to AWS, we recommend that you start with AWS Control Tower as the foundation for your landing zone. However, as an alternative, you can opt for a custom-built landing zone.
AWS Control Tower managed resources
When you set up a landing zone, AWS Control Tower creates multiple managed resources in your management account for the accounts in the landing zone. For more information about these resources, see How AWS Control Tower works in the AWS Control Tower documentation.
Important
When you use a landing zone, AWS Control Tower managed resources must not be modified or deleted; otherwise, the landing zone might drift and enter an unknown state. For more information about drift, see Detect and resolve drift in AWS Control Tower in the AWS Control Tower documentation.
Deployment
AWS Control Tower is deployed in a management account that's created for the new landing zone. The management account is where you provision new accounts and centrally manage or configure controls, user access, permissions, and OUs.
When you set up the landing zone, AWS Control Tower automatically creates a Security OU that contains the Log Archive account and Audit account. These accounts enable centralized management and governance of the landing zone through monitoring and logging. For more information about OUs and accounts in the landing zone, see the Account structure and OUs section of this guide.
Launch parameters
The following table shows the required parameters for setting up a landing zone.
Category |
Parameter |
Sample values |
---|---|---|
AWS Regions |
Home Region This is the AWS Region where shared resources will be provisioned. You cannot change the home Region after the landing zone is set up, but you can add more Regions to govern. |
Your current Region (as reflected in the AWS Region selector on the navigation bar). This field is not editable. |
Additional Regions for governance You can optionally choose additional Regions for AWS Control Tower to govern. |
No additional Regions |
|
Region deny setting If you have data residency requirements, you can optionally choose to enable a Region deny service control policy (SCP) to deny access in Regions that aren't selected. |
Not enabled |
|
Configuration for the landing zone shared accounts |
Foundational OU This is the OU that contains the shared accounts. |
Security |
Additional OU This is a secondary OU for storing production or development accounts. |
Sandbox |
|
Log Archive account options Either create a new account or use your existing Log Archive account. |
Create new account |
|
Log Archive account details If you are creating a new account, specify a unique email address that is not yet associated with an AWS account. You can also specify the account name. The default name is Log Archive. If you are using an existing Log Archive account, specify the AWS account ID. Note: These details cannot be edited after the landing zone has been set up. |
aws-logarchive@example.com Log Archive |
|
Audit account options Either create a new account or use your existing Audit account. |
Create new account |
|
Audit account details If you are creating a new account, specify a unique email address that is not yet associated with an AWS account. Also specify the account name. The default name is Audit. If you are using an existing audit account, specify the AWS account ID. Note: These details cannot be edited after the landing zone has been set up. |
audit@example.com Audit |
|
Additional configurations Note: These are optional configurations. You can leave them at their default settings or choose your own configuration. |
AWS account access configuration You can optionally choose to manage account access yourself or accept the default IAM Identity Center setup in AWS Control Tower. |
AWS Control Tower sets up AWS account access with IAM Identity Center. |
AWS CloudTrail configuration You can optionally choose to manage CloudTrail in your organization yourself or accept the default CloudTrail setup from AWS Control Tower. The default setting enables an organization-level trail for management events in your Log Archive account. |
Enabled |
|
Log configuration for Amazon S3 You can optionally configure log retention for the Log Archive S3 bucket or accept the default retention periods. |
Standard account logging: 1 year Access logging: 10 years |
|
KMS encryption You can optionally enable encryption for AWS Control Tower resources by using an AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer managed key. If you enable encryption, you are asked to specify the key name or Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the customer managed key to be used. Note: If you don't enable this option, AWS Control Tower uses SSE-S3 encryption with AWS managed keys as the default configuration. |
Disabled |