Help Center> Config> Service Overview> What Is Config?
Updated on 2024-03-18 GMT+08:00

What Is Config?

Description

With Config, you can search for, record, and continuously evaluate your resource configuration to make sure that your expectations are met.

Architecture

Config provides you with resource information, such as resource inventory, details, relationships, and change records. It stores your resources every 24 hours and your resource changes every 6 hours. It will also notify you when a change is made to your resources. In addition, it enables you to use Config rules to evaluate your resources.

  • Viewing resource details: You can set multiple search options to query your resources on Config console.
  • Viewing resource relationships: You can view relationships between resources on Config console.
  • Displaying resource change records: You can enable and configure the resource recorder to monitor resource changes continuously.
  • Sending notifications: Config will notify you when a change is made to your resources after you have enabled the resource recorder and configured a Simple Message Notification (SMN) topic.
  • Storing resource change information: Config will store your resource change information every 6 hours after you have enabled the resource recorder and configured an SMN topic and an Object Storage Bucket (OBS) bucket.
  • Storing resource snapshots: Config will store your resource snapshots into the specified OBS bucket every 24 hours after you have enabled the resource recorder and configured an OBS bucket.
  • Evaluating resource compliance: Config evaluates your resources against the rules to check whether they are compliant or not.
  • Advanced query: You can create a custom query using ResourceQL syntax to query your resources.
  • Resource aggregator: A resource aggregator enables you to aggregate resource configurations and compliance data from multiple accounts or an organization, so that you can centrally view or search for these resource data.
  • Conformance package: A conformance package is a collection of rules. You can use conformance packages to centrally create and manage rules, and query compliance data.
Figure 1 Config architecture

Access Methods

You can use either of the following methods to access Config.

  • Management console

    The console is a web-based UI, where you can perform operations easily. Sign in to the management console, click in the upper left corner, and choose Management & Governance > Config.

  • Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

    To integrate Config into a third-party system for secondary development, you need to access the service by calling APIs. For details, see API Reference.