Tutorial / Cram Notes
Operating with multiple AWS accounts provides several benefits such as improved security through account-level isolation, easier cost management, and tailored environments for different workloads. However, it requires a strong governance model to manage access, compliance, resource deployment, and monitoring consistently across all accounts.
Define Account Structure and Organization
AWS Organizations is a service that allows you to manage multiple AWS accounts. It enables you to establish a hierarchy of accounts by organizing them into organizational units (OUs).
- Root: At the top-level, you have the root account, which should be used sparingly and guarded with enhanced security controls.
- Organizational Units (OUs): Under the root, you group accounts into OUs typically based on their function such as “production,” “development,” “testing,” “security,” “logging,” and “shared services.”
Example:
Root
|– Production
|– Development
|– Testing
|– Security
|– Logging
|– Shared Services
Implement Service Control Policies (SCPs)
Service Control Policies applied at the OU or account level govern what actions users and roles are permitted to carry out within member accounts. SCPs are one of the primary tools in governing multiple accounts.
Define Account Baselines with AWS Control Tower
AWS Control Tower provides the easiest way to set up and govern a secure, multi-account AWS environment, called a landing zone. Control Tower automates the setup of baseline resources, such as:
- A multi-account structure with a pre-defined OU setup
- Centralized logging and monitoring
- Identity and access management using AWS Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Governance rules through guardrails
Enable Centralized Identity Management
Leveraging AWS Single Sign-On (SSO) simplifies user management and access governance throughout your accounts. Through AWS SSO, users log in once and can access multiple accounts and applications based on their assigned permissions.
Establish Networking and Connectivity Best Practices
An important aspect of a governance model is controlling how networks are structured and interconnected. AWS Transit Gateway can simplify network topology by allowing you to connect VPCs and on-premises networks through a central hub, reducing complexity and operational overhead.
Implement Monitoring and Compliance
Setting up monitoring and compliance is critical. AWS Config helps you assess, audit, and evaluate configurations of your AWS resources. AWS CloudTrail offers a governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing of your AWS account, enabling you to log and monitor account activity across your AWS infrastructure.
Cost Management and Accountability
AWS provides comprehensive tools to understand and manage your spending.
- AWS Cost Explorer: To visualize and understand your AWS spend.
- AWS Budgets: To set custom budgets that alert you when your costs exceed defined thresholds.
- Cost Allocation Tags: For organizing and tracking resources and their associated costs.
Enforce Data Security and Encryption
You may use AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to create and manage cryptographic keys and control their use across AWS services. It’s essential that sensitive data across all your accounts is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Regular Auditing and Continuous Improvement
Periodic auditing of governance and compliance is important. Leveraging tools such as AWS Audit Manager can streamline auditing and help continuously improve your governance model.
Example Governance Scorecard:
| Requirement | Development | Production | Testing | Security | Logging | Shared Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCPs Implemented | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| IAM Roles Defined | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Logging Enabled | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Encrypted Resources | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Continuous Monitoring | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
In summary, developing a multi-account governance model in AWS requires a strategic approach, leveraging a myriad of AWS services and features. Prospective Solutions Architects should have a strong understanding of AWS Organizations, SCPs, AWS Control Tower, AWS SSO, AWS Config, AWS CloudTrail, AWS KMS, and Cost Management tools. Regular revisions of the model to adapt to the evolving cloud landscape and organizational needs are necessary to maintain a robust governance framework.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: AWS Control Tower is the most comprehensive and recommended service to set up and govern a secure, compliant, multi-account AWS environment.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: A
Explanation: AWS Control Tower is a service provided by AWS to help you set up and govern a secure, compliant, multi-account environment through the use of blueprints that apply best practices.
Which AWS service allows you to automate account creation, resource allocation, and apply policies across multiple accounts?
- (A) AWS Organizations
- (B) AWS IAM
- (C) AWS Config
- (D) Amazon CloudTrail
Answer: A
Explanation: AWS Organizations enables you to automate the creation of new accounts, resource allocation, and the application of policies at scale across multiple AWS accounts.
True or False: In a multi-account AWS environment, AWS recommends using a centralized logging account to aggregate logs.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: A
Explanation: AWS recommends using a centralized logging account to aggregate logs for security and compliance auditing in a multi-account environment.
Which of the following are benefits of using AWS Organizations? (Select TWO)
- (A) Decentralized management
- (B) Consolidated billing
- (C) Isolated workloads
- (D) Automated backup compliance
- (E) Simplified resource sharing
Answer: B, E
Explanation: AWS Organizations offers consolidated billing for combined account costs and simplified resource sharing through service control policies.
True or False: An AWS Landing Zone is an out-of-the-box solution provided by AWS, which does not support customization for specific organizational needs.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: B
Explanation: An AWS Landing Zone is a solution that can be customized to fit an organization’s specific needs, providing a baseline environment with multi-account structure, user baseline policies, and more.
What is the purpose of Service Control Policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations?
- (A) To define user permissions within an account
- (B) To enable cross-region replication automatically
- (C) To manage the permissions of AWS services across multiple accounts
- (D) To track user activity across accounts
Answer: C
Explanation: SCPs are used to manage permissions in AWS Organizations, allowing administrators to control the services and actions that users and roles can use in each account.
True or False: Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles with cross-account access capabilities should not be used for a multi-account strategy to ensure tighter security.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: B
Explanation: IAM roles with cross-account access capabilities are an important part of multi-account strategies, as they enable secure access to resources in different accounts while adhering to the principle of least privilege.
What is the primary function of AWS Account Vending Machine (AVM)?
- (A) It is a service that automatically provisions virtual vending machines within your infrastructure.
- (B) It is a component of AWS Control Tower used to quickly provision new AWS accounts with predefined templates.
- (C) It is a machine learning model for predicting AWS service costs.
- (D) It is a hardware device that dispenses AWS resources in a physical data center.
Answer: B
Explanation: The AWS Account Vending Machine (AVM) is a component of AWS Control Tower used to rapidly provision new AWS accounts using a predefined template and best practices.
Which AWS service helps you enforce governance by evaluating your AWS resources for adherence to best practices and compliance standards?
- (A) AWS Trusted Advisor
- (B) AWS Config Rules
- (C) AWS GuardDuty
- (D) AWS Systems Manager
Answer: B
Explanation: AWS Config Rules help you enforce governance by automatically checking AWS resources against compliance standards and best practices.
True or False: AWS recommends a shared services account to centrally manage services such as AWS Directory Service, shared repositories, or continuous integration and deployment tools.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: A
Explanation: AWS suggests using a shared services account to manage centralized services that are common across an organization in a multi-account environment.
Which AWS feature allows you to manage user access and permissions policies across multiple AWS accounts?
- (A) AWS Single Sign-On (SSO)
- (B) AWS IAM
- (C) Amazon Cognito
- (D) AWS Directory Service
Answer: A
Explanation: AWS Single Sign-On (SSO) facilitates centralized user management and permission policies across multiple AWS accounts, streamlining access management.
To ensure cost optimization across multiple accounts in AWS, which of the following strategies should be used?
- (A) Implement a strict “one account per service” policy
- (B) Use on-demand instances exclusively to avoid long-term commitments
- (C) Aggregate usage to take advantage of volume discount pricing
- (D) Avoid using AWS budgeting tools as they can introduce overhead
Answer: C
Explanation: Aggregating usage across accounts can help an organization take advantage of volume discount pricing, such as reserved instances and savings plans, leading to cost optimization.
Interview Questions
What are the benefits of a multi-account strategy in AWS from a governance perspective?
A multi-account strategy allows for greater isolation of resources, which improves security by reducing the blast radius of incidents. It enables better resource management and segregation of environments (e.g., development, staging, production). Additionally, it facilitates compliance by enabling organizations to apply specific policies and controls tailored to the needs of different accounts, and it simplifies cost tracking and billing by separating accounts by team, project, or cost center.
How does AWS Organizations support the management of multiple accounts?
AWS Organizations allows you to centrally manage and govern your environment as you scale your AWS resources. Using Organizations, you can create groups of accounts, automate account creation, apply and manage policies for those groups, and simplify billing by setting up a single payment method for all your accounts.
What is a Service Control Policy (SCP) and how would you use it in a multi-account environment?
A Service Control Policy (SCP) is a type of policy that you can use in AWS Organizations to manage permissions in your organization’s accounts. SCPs enable you to place restrictions on the AWS services, resources, and individual API actions that users and roles in each account can access. It is used in a multi-account environment to ensure that all accounts follow consistent security practices and comply with specific regulations.
Can you explain the concept of a “landing zone” in AWS and its role in multi-account governance?
A landing zone in AWS refers to a well-architected, multi-account environment that is set up through the AWS Control Tower or a similar setup process. This environment includes a pre-configured baseline of secure, scalable, and compliant AWS account configurations. The role of a landing zone in multi-account governance is to provide a starting point with best practices that enable governance, data security, and compliance across multiple AWS accounts.
Describe how AWS Config can be utilized in a multi-account governance model.
AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. In a multi-account governance model, AWS Config can be used to track changes, monitor compliance with desired configurations, and provide a detailed view of resource inventory across multiple accounts. It helps to ensure that all accounts are adhering to the governance rules set by the organization.
How does AWS CloudTrail support governance across multiple accounts?
AWS CloudTrail is a service that provides event history and records API calls made on your account. In a multi-account governance model, CloudTrail can be configured to deliver log files from all accounts to a centralized S3 bucket for audit and review purposes. This centralized trail can help an organization maintain a consistent record of all actions taken, enabling accountability and ease of investigation in case of incidents.
What role does AWS Control Tower play in establishing a multi-account governance framework?
AWS Control Tower automates the set-up of a baseline environment that includes a multi-account setup with governance and best practices embedded. It provides automated enforcement of policies and centralized logging and monitoring, simplifying the governance of multiple accounts by providing a single view of the entire AWS environment.
Discuss the importance of IAM roles for cross-account access within a multi-account governance model.
IAM roles for cross-account access are crucial in a multi-account governance model as they allow you to delegate permissions to access resources in different accounts securely. By using roles instead of sharing credentials, you can define a set of permissions that users from trusted accounts can assume, thereby keeping your accounts more secure and making it easier to manage permissions as your environment scales.
What kind of strategies would you recommend for cost allocation and tracking in a multi-account AWS environment?
To manage cost allocation and tracking in a multi-account AWS environment, you can use AWS Cost Explorer and tag resources with metadata indicating ownership (e.g., by team, project, or cost center). Implement budgets and alerts using AWS Budgets to monitor expenditures across accounts. Utilize consolidated billing feature in AWS Organizations to get a single bill and take advantage of volume discounts.
How can you enforce compliance with governance policies when using a multi-account strategy in AWS?
To enforce compliance with governance policies in a multi-account strategy, you can implement Service Control Policies (SCPs) via AWS Organizations to set permission boundaries for accounts, use AWS Config rules to ensure desired resource configurations are met, and leverage AWS CloudTrail for auditing and change management. Additionally, use AWS CloudFormation or Terraform to standardize infrastructure deployment, which will help ensure compliance with defined governance policies.
What measures should be taken to ensure seamless network connectivity and security in a multi-account AWS environment?
You can ensure seamless network connectivity by setting up AWS Transit Gateway, which allows you to connect multiple VPCs and on-premises networks through a central hub. For security, implement centralized security services such as AWS Shield and AWS WAF with shared VPCs and VPC peering where necessary. Use Network Access Control Lists (NACLs), security groups, and route tables strategically across accounts to maintain a strong security posture.
How can you leverage AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to improve governance in a multi-account setup?
In a multi-account setup, IAM can be used to manage users and their access permissions centrally. You can create IAM roles with specific permissions and use IAM policies to enforce the principle of least privilege across all accounts. IAM federated access can also be employed to permit users to assume roles in different accounts, eliminating the need to create separate user identities for each account, which streamlines account management and enhances security.
This blog post was a great introduction to developing a multi-account governance model in AWS. Thanks!
Great blog post! Helped me a lot in understanding multi-account governance.
I am planning my SAP-C02 exam, and this info is gold. Thanks!
Can someone explain how AWS Organizations can be utilized to enforce governance?
Does anyone have experience with using AWS Control Tower in conjunction with SCPs?
Thanks for the post. This will definitely help me with my solutions architect study preparations.
Is it necessary to use AWS Single Sign-On (SSO) in a multi-account setup?
Fantastic resources. Appreciate it!