Managing the Configuration Recorder

AWS Config uses the configuration recorder to detect changes in your resource configurations and capture these changes as configuration items. You must create a configuration recorder before AWS Config can track your resource configurations. When you start the configuration recorder, AWS Config takes an inventory of all AWS resources in your account.

Considerations

One configuration recorder per Region per account

You can have only one configuration recorder channel for per AWS Region per AWS account, and the configuration recorder is required to use AWS Config.

The configuration recorder is automatically created when you set up AWS Config

If you set up AWS Config by using the console or the AWS CLI, AWS Config automatically creates and then starts the configuration recorder for you. For more information, see Getting Started with AWS Config.

All supported resource types are recorded by default

By default, the configuration recorder records all supported resources in the region where AWS Config is running. You can create a customized configuration recorder that records only the resource types that you specify. For more information, see Recording AWS Resources.

You are charged service usage fees for using the configuration recorder

You are charged service usage fees when AWS Config starts recording configurations. For pricing information, see AWS Config Pricing.

Use AWS Systems Manager to create a configuration recorder across an organization

You can use AWS Systems Manager Quick Setup to create a configuration recorder across multiple organizational units (OUs) and AWS Regions using AWS best practices. For more information, see Create an AWS Config configuration recorder using Quick Setup in the Systems Manager User Guide.