AWS Config is a powerful AWS service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources for compliance purposes. It continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations, allowing you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against de…AWS Config is a powerful AWS service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources for compliance purposes. It continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations, allowing you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations.
Key components of AWS Config compliance include:
**Config Rules**: These are the foundation of compliance checking. AWS provides managed rules (pre-built by AWS) and allows you to create custom rules using AWS Lambda functions. Rules evaluate whether your resources comply with your desired configurations, such as ensuring EBS volumes are encrypted or S3 buckets have versioning enabled.
**Compliance Dashboard**: AWS Config provides a centralized dashboard showing compliance status across all your resources. Resources are marked as compliant, non-compliant, or not applicable based on rule evaluations.
**Conformance Packs**: These are collections of AWS Config rules and remediation actions that can be deployed as a single entity. They help you manage compliance at scale across multiple accounts and regions, often aligned with industry standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or CIS Benchmarks.
**Remediation Actions**: When resources are found non-compliant, AWS Config can trigger automatic remediation using AWS Systems Manager Automation documents. This helps maintain continuous compliance by fixing issues as they occur.
**Configuration Timeline**: AWS Config maintains a historical record of resource configurations, enabling you to review how configurations changed over time and identify when non-compliance occurred.
**Multi-Account Aggregation**: Using an aggregator, you can collect compliance data from multiple AWS accounts and regions into a single view, essential for enterprise-wide compliance management.
For the SysOps Administrator exam, understanding how to set up Config rules, interpret compliance results, configure remediation actions, and use conformance packs for organizational compliance is essential for maintaining security and meeting regulatory requirements.
AWS Config Compliance - Complete Guide
Why AWS Config Compliance is Important
AWS Config compliance is a critical component of maintaining security and governance in your AWS environment. Organizations need to ensure their resources adhere to internal policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and SOC 2. AWS Config provides continuous monitoring and assessment of resource configurations, enabling you to detect non-compliant resources before they become security risks or audit failures.
What is AWS Config Compliance?
AWS Config compliance refers to the ability to evaluate your AWS resource configurations against desired settings using AWS Config Rules. These rules act as your compliance baseline, checking whether resources meet specific configuration requirements. When a resource violates a rule, it is flagged as non-compliant.
There are two types of Config Rules: • AWS Managed Rules - Pre-built rules created and maintained by AWS (e.g., s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited) • Custom Rules - Rules you create using AWS Lambda functions for organization-specific requirements
How AWS Config Compliance Works
1. Configuration Recording - AWS Config continuously records configuration changes to your resources
2. Rule Evaluation - Config Rules evaluate resources either: • Change-triggered - When a relevant resource configuration changes • Periodic - At specified intervals (1, 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours)
3. Compliance Status - Each resource is marked as: • COMPLIANT - Meets all rule requirements • NON_COMPLIANT - Violates one or more rules • NOT_APPLICABLE - Rule does not apply to the resource
5. Conformance Packs - Collections of Config Rules and remediation actions packaged together for specific compliance frameworks
Key Features for Compliance
• Aggregators - Collect compliance data across multiple accounts and regions • Compliance Timeline - View historical compliance status for any resource • Dashboards - Visualize compliance posture across your organization • SNS Notifications - Receive alerts when compliance status changes
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on AWS Config Compliance
Tip 1: Understand the Scope AWS Config tracks resource configurations, not user activities (that's CloudTrail) or performance metrics (that's CloudWatch). Questions asking about tracking configuration changes over time point to Config.
Tip 2: Know Rule Trigger Types If a question mentions checking compliance when resources are created or modified, think change-triggered rules. For regular compliance checks regardless of changes, think periodic rules.
Tip 3: Remediation Keywords When questions mention automatically fixing non-compliant resources, the answer involves Config Rules with SSM Automation remediation actions.
Tip 4: Multi-Account Scenarios Questions about centralized compliance visibility across multiple AWS accounts require AWS Config Aggregators combined with AWS Organizations.
Tip 5: Conformance Packs vs Individual Rules For questions about deploying compliance checks for specific frameworks (PCI-DSS, CIS Benchmarks), Conformance Packs are the efficient answer.
Tip 6: Remember What Config Cannot Do Config evaluates compliance but does not prevent non-compliant resources from being created - that requires Service Control Policies or IAM policies.
Tip 7: Integration Questions Config integrates with: • Security Hub - For centralized security findings • Systems Manager - For remediation • CloudWatch Events/EventBridge - For compliance change notifications
Tip 8: Cost Considerations You are charged per configuration item recorded and per rule evaluation. Questions about cost optimization may involve reducing recording frequency or consolidating rules.