AWS Organizations

Owned by Alexander Meledin
Last updated: Sept 20, 2024 by Daria Lebedeva
6 min read

This article explains how to add AWS Organizations to Cloudaware. AWS Organization is policy-based management for multiple AWS accounts.

 

About AWS Organizations

 

AWS Organizations offers policy-based management for multiple AWS accounts. With Organizations, you can create groups of AWS accounts, automate account creation, apply and manage policies for those groups. Organizations enable you to centrally manage policies across multiple accounts, without requiring custom scripts and manual processes.

Using AWS Organizations, you can create Service Control Policies (SCPs) that centrally control AWS service use across multiple AWS accounts. You can also use Organizations to help automate the creation of new accounts through APIs. AWS Organizations helps simplify billing for multiple accounts by enabling you to set up a single payment method for all the accounts in your organization through consolidated billing. AWS Organizations is available to all AWS customers at no additional charge. More information can be found here.

AWS organizations.png

Benefits Of Using AWS Organizations In Cloudaware

 

  1. No need to manually add every AWS account

  2. Automate the onboarding of your AWS Accounts into Cloudaware

  3. Ability to see which AWS Organizational Accounts exist but are not in Cloudaware CMDB as AWS Accounts.

 

Adding AWS Organization To Cloudaware

 

1. Log in to Cloudaware account → Admin → Amazon Organizations & Accounts. Click +Add.

2. Address Cloudaware AWS Start Guide to add AWS Organizations Master Account using IAM Role integration type.

3. Ensure that Cloudaware CloudFormation template you will apply has the following permissions in place:

"organizations:Des*" "organizations:Li*"

4. Click Check → Save. Go back to Admin → Organizations & Amazon Accounts → N configured → the tab ‘Accounts' to ensure AWS Organization Master Account has a green status indicator.

5. Select the tab 'Organizations' → click +Add Amazon Organization. Fill out the form selecting your Organization Master Account in Trusted Account and providing other account-related data. Click Check → Save.

6. In Cloudaware, navigate to AMAZON WEB SERVICES → Security, Identity, Compliance → Organizations. AWS Organization should be visible in Cloudaware.

Collection of AWS Organizational Accounts may take up to 6 hours.

 

Using AWS CloudFormation StackSets With AWS Organizations

 

Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to roll out Cloudaware CloudFormation stack over multiple AWS accounts in your AWS Organization and allow Cloudaware to collect AWS Organization Sub-Accounts.

Requirements

  • Ensure that you are using AWS Organizations. Read more

  • Ensure all features are enabled in your AWS Organization. NOTE: this action is irreversible! Read more

 

Pre-configuration

 

1. Sign in to AWS Console as an administrator.

2. Enable trusted access with AWS Organizations:

2.1. Select CloudFormation under Management & Governance.

2.2. Select StackSets. Click Enable trusted access.

Once it is done, StackSets creates the necessary IAM roles in the AWS Organizations master account and target accounts where stack instances will be deployed.

The IAM service-linked role created in the Organization master account has the suffix CloudFormationStackSetsOrgAdmin. You can modify or delete this role only if trusted access with AWS Organizations is disabled. 

The IAM service-linked role created in each target account has the suffix CloudFormationStackSetsOrgMember. You can modify or delete this role only if trusted access with AWS Organizations is disabled, or if the account is removed from the target organization or organizational unit (OU).

 

StackSet Creation

 

1. Log in to your Cloudaware account → Admin → Amazon Organizations & Accounts. Click +Add.

2. Select 'Using IAM Role'. Download the Cloudaware CloudFormation template ensuring the following permissions are in place:

"organizations:Des*" "organizations:Li*"

3. Gо back to AWS Console. Select Services → CloudFormation under Management & Governance → StackSets.

4. Click Create StackSet.

5. Select 'Template is ready' and 'Upload a template file'. Click Choose file to upload the Cloudaware CloudFormation template you downloaded earlier. Click Next.

6. Give a name to the stack set. Replace 'auto-generate' role with a custom Role Name in CloudAware Role Name. Insert External ID*.

*Get External ID generated by clicking ‘Generate Random’ button in 'Add Amazon Details' form in Cloudaware.

7. Select the policies to be enabled. Click Next.

8. Select 'Service-Managed Permissions'*. Click Next.

9. Optional: set deployment options*. Click Next.

10. Review the stackset details. Click Submit. Wait for the stackset to be created.

11. Contact your dedicated account manager at tam@cloudaware.com to provide the custom Role Name and External ID used during the stackset creation, along with your AWS Organization Master Account ID.

 

Identify AWS Organizational Accounts That Got Onboarded Successfully

 

1. In Cloudaware CMDB Navigator, go to AMAZON WEB SERVICES → Security, Identity, Compliance → Organizations.

2. You should see at least one AWS Organization and N number of AWS Organizational Accounts.

 

Identify AWS Organizational Accounts That Didn't Get Onboarded Successfully

 

1. In Cloudaware CMDB Navigator, go to AMAZON WEB SERVICES → Security, Identity, Compliance → AWS Organizational Accounts.

2. Click Browse Objects:

3. Paste the following query and click Search:

`Deleted From AWS` equals null -> `AWS Organization Account Name` ASC, `Account`.`Account Name` as "Actual Account", `Account ID`, `Email`, `Joined Method`, `Joined Timestamp`, `Parent Root ARN`, `Status`

Any AWS Organizational accounts where 'Actual Account' is blank can't be automatically added since Cloudaware is unable to assume its IAM role.

 

Troubleshooting

 

If you do not see any AWS Organizations, there are two possible reasons:

  1. Insufficient permissions on AWS Organizations Master Account.

  2. AWS Organizations Master Account has not been added to Cloudaware.

If the AWS Organization master account has been added to Cloudaware but auto-collection doesn't take place, check if Role Name and External ID are custom, as they shouldn't be left auto-populated by Cloudaware during the StackSet creation.