Setting Up Auto Remediation - AWS Config

Setting Up Auto Remediation

To apply remediation on noncompliant resources, you can either choose the remediation action you want to associate from a prepopulated list or create your own custom remediation actions using SSM documents. AWS Config provides a recommended list of remediation action in the AWS Management Console.

Setting Up Auto Remediation (Console)

In the AWS Management Console, you can either choose to automatically remediate noncompliant resources by associating remediation actions with AWS Config rules. With all remediation actions, you can either choose manual or automatic remediation.

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Config console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/config/.

  2. Choose Rules on the left and then on the Rules page, choose Add Rule to add new rules to the rule list.

    For existing rules, select the noncompliant rule from the rule list and choose the Actions dropdown list.

  3. From the Actions dropdown list, choose Manage remediation. Select "Automatic remediation" and then choose the appropriate remediation action from the recommended list.

    Note

    You can only manage remediations for non-service linked AWS Config rules. For more information, see Service-Linked AWS Rules.

    Depending on the selected remediation action, you see specific parameters or no parameters.

  4. Choose Auto remediation to automatically remediate noncompliant resources.

    If a resource is still noncompliant after auto remediation, you can set the rule to try auto remediation again. Enter the desired retries and seconds.

    Note

    There are costs associated with running a remediation script multiple times. Retries only occur if remediation fails and work within the specified time period; for example, 5 retries in 300 seconds. For more information, see Systems Manager Automation Pricing .

  5. (Optional): If you want to pass the resource ID of noncompliant resources to the remediation action, choose Resource ID parameter. If selected, at runtime that parameter is substituted with the ID of the resource to be remediated.

    Each parameter has either a static value or a dynamic value. If you do not choose a specific resource ID parameter from the dropdown list, you can enter values for each key. If you choose a resource ID parameter from the dropdown list, you can enter values for all the other keys except the selected resource ID parameter.

  6. Choose Save. The Rules page is displayed.

For troubleshooting failed remediation actions

For troubleshooting failed remediation actions, you can run the AWS Command Line Interface command describe-remediation-execution-status to get detailed view of a Remediation Execution for a set of resources. The details include state, timestamps for remediation execution steps, and any error messages for the failed steps.

Auto remediation can be initiated even for compliant resources

If you enable auto remediation for a specific AWS Config rule using the PutRemediationConfigurations API or the AWS Config console, it initiates the remediation process for all noncompliant resources for that specific rule. The auto remediation process relies on the compliance data snapshot which is captured on a periodic basis. Any noncompliant resource that is updated between the snapshot schedule will continue to be remediated based on the last known compliance data snapshot.

This means that in some cases auto remediation can be initiated even for compliant resources, since the bootstrap processor uses a database that can have stale evaluation results based on the last known compliance data snapshot.

Setting Up Auto Remediation (API)

Use the following AWS Config API operation to set up auto remediation: