Manage AWS accounts using Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform

AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (AFT) is a Terraform module that makes it easy to create and customize new accounts that comply with your organization's security guidelines. AFT defines a pipeline for automated and consistent creation of AWS Control Tower accounts, giving you the benefits of Terraform's workflow and Control Tower's governance features. AWS maintains this module.

This tutorial guides you through the one-time steps required to deploy AFT to create the pipeline for account creation. Then, you will to use AFT to create and customize your Control Tower accounts. In this tutorial, you will deploy the AFT module, review the support account customization options, and learn about the components of AFT and its workflow.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the standard Terraform workflow. If you are new to Terraform, complete the Get Started tutorials first.

For this tutorial, you will need:

• Terraform v0.15+ installed locally configured with credentials for the non-root user with AdministratorAccess
• an AWS account, with credentials for a non-root user with the AdministratorAccess policy attached. Some steps can take up to 30 minutes, so make sure your credentials have a long enough duration.
• AWS Control Tower enabled, with the default Log and Audit accounts created
• the AWS CLI
• a Github account

Create AWS AFT organizational unit and account

This tutorial will primarily reference two AWS accounts:

1. the Control Tower management account, in which you launched your Control Tower landing zone, and
2. the AFT management account, which you will provision in this section. The AFT module creates most of its resources in this account.

In the AWS dashboard, navigate to Control Tower, then select Organizational Units (OU) in the left sidebar. Click Add an OU to create a new organizational unit for AFT.

Name the OU Learn AFT and select your Root OU as the parent OU, then click Add.

Once your new OU is ready, navigate to Account Factory in the left sidebar, then click Enroll Account.

Enter an email address not associated with existing AWS accounts in the Account email field. This will be the account's root email address. Enter learn-aft for the display name; enter an email address you have access to for the SSO email, and enter Learn and AFT for the AWS SSO user’s first and last name. Then, set Learn AFT as the Parent OU. Finally, click Enroll Account.

It can take 20 to 30 minutes to provision a new account in Control Tower. Continue on to the next section while you wait for AWS to complete provisioning your AFT management account.

Clone and fork example configuration

This tutorial requires working across 5 repositories: one with the AFT module deployment and 4 that the module requires you to define your account specifications in. You will only run Terraform commands within the first repository, and AFT will execute the configuration in the account specification repositories.

AFT supports multiple VCS providers (AWS CodeCommit, Github, Bitbucket, and GitHub Enterprise Server) for the required repositories. By default, it uses AWS CodeCommit and will provision CodeCommit repositories for you to use.

This tutorial uses Github as the VCS provider for AFT.

First, clone the example repository containing the AFT module configuration.

$ git clone https://github.com/hashicorp-education/learn-terraform-aws-control-tower-aft 

Next, fork the four account configuration repositories into your personal Github account.

1. The learn-terraform-aft-account-request repository, which contains example configuration to kick off new account provisioning using AFT.
2. The learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations repository, which contains boilerplate configuration for customizations to apply to all accounts created by AFT.
3. The learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations repository, which contains boilerplate configuration for account-specific customizations.
4. The learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations repository, which contains boilerplate configuration for provisioning-time customizations to apply to accounts.

Then, clone your copies of the repositories.

1. Clone your fork of the learn-terraform-aft-account-request repository, replacing USERNAME with your own Github username.

   $ git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/learn-terraform-aft-account-request
   

   Copy

2. Clone your fork of the learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations repository, replacing USERNAME with your own Github username.

   $ git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations
   

   Copy

3. Clone your fork of the learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations repository, replacing USERNAME with your own Github username.

   $ git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations
   

   Copy

4. Clone your fork of the learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations repository, replacing USERNAME with your own Github username.

   $ git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations
   

   Copy

Deploy AFT module

The AWS team maintains the control_tower_account_factory Terraform module . This module defines a pipeline of AWS services that allow you to provision and customize accounts in Control Tower. In this section, you will deploy the module and review its services and resources.

In your terminal, navigate to the learn-terraform-aws-control-tower-aft repository you cloned earlier.

$ cd learn-terraform-aws-control-tower-aft

Update AFT module configuration

Open the main.tf file in your code editor to review and modify the module configuration. This file is the minimal configuration for deploying AFT.

module "aft" {
   source                      = "github.com/aws-ia/terraform-aws-control_tower_account_factory"

  ct_management_account_id    = var.ct_management_account_id
  log_archive_account_id      = var.log_archive_account_id
  audit_account_id            = var.audit_account_id
  aft_management_account_id   = var.aft_management_account_id
  ct_home_region              = var.ct_home_region
  tf_backend_secondary_region = "us-west-2"

  vcs_provider                                  = "github"
  account_request_repo_name                     = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-request"
  global_customizations_repo_name               = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations"
  account_customizations_repo_name              = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations"
  account_provisioning_customizations_repo_name = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations"
}

This module provisions resources across the Log, Audit, Control Tower Management, and AFT management accounts in your Landing Zone. Navigate to the Control Tower dashboard to access the respective account IDs and update the configuration.

For example, to get the AFT management account ID, go to your Control Tower account details page and select the learn-aft account, the AFT management account you created earlier. AWS displays the account ID on this page.

Update terraform.tfvars with this value, and repeat this step for the other accounts.

ct_management_account_id    = ""
log_archive_account_id      = ""
audit_account_id            = ""
aft_management_account_id   = ""
ct_home_region              = ""
tf_backend_secondary_region = ""
github_username             = ""

For the ct_home_region input variable, use the same region as the one Control Tower is enabled in. Verify the region in the top right hand corner of the AWS console. You must deploy the module in the same region as your Control Tower enablement.

AFT creates a backend to store Terraform state. The primary backend region is the same as the region you enabled Control Tower in. It also replicates the data to a secondary region. Set the tf_backend_secondary_region variable to the replication region of your choice.

While AFT supports multiple VCS providers, this tutorial uses Github and enables it using the vcs_provider input variable in the module. Set the github_username input variable in terraform.tfvars to your own to point the pipeline to your forked repositories for account creation and customization.

You can review additional AFT configuration options in more detail in the AWS documentation. In addition to the input variables defined, you can also define specific branches in your VCS repositories for AFT to track and configure which version and edition of Terraform the pipeline uses to deploy your resources. You can also enable feature flags, such as deleting the default VPC in accounts or enabling organization-level CloudTrail logging.

Apply configuration

Once AWS finishes provisioning the AFT management account you created in the Create AWS AFT organization unit and account section, deploy the AFT module.

In your terminal, confirm that your AWS credentials are configured for a user with AdministratorAccess privileges in your Control Tower management account. Use the AWS CLI to verify which user you are authenticated as. The value for Account should match your ct_management_account_id input variable.

$ aws sts get-caller-identity
 {
    "UserId": "AAAA….",
    "Account": "CONTROL TOWER MANAGEMENT ACCOUNT ID",
    "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:user/USER"
}

Initialize the configuration to install the AWS provider and download the AFT module.

$ terraform init
Initializing modules...

Initializing the backend...

Initializing provider plugins...
- Reusing previous version of hashicorp/local from the dependency lock file
- Reusing previous version of hashicorp/archive from the dependency lock file
- Reusing previous version of hashicorp/random from the dependency lock file
- Reusing previous version of hashicorp/time from the dependency lock file
- Reusing previous version of hashicorp/aws from the dependency lock file
- Using previously-installed hashicorp/random v3.1.0
- Using previously-installed hashicorp/time v0.7.2
- Using previously-installed hashicorp/aws v3.66.0
- Using previously-installed hashicorp/local v2.1.0
- Using previously-installed hashicorp/archive v2.2.0

Terraform has been successfully initialized!

You may now begin working with Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see
any changes that are required for your infrastructure. All Terraform commands
should now work.

If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform,
rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other
commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary.

Now, apply your configuration to provision all of AFT’s services. Respond yes to the prompt to confirm the operation.

$ terraform apply

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:
##...
Plan: 306 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes
##...
Apply complete! Resources: 306 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

While Terraform provisions the AFT module, continue on to the next section to review the components of the pipeline.

Review AFT components and workflow

AFT uses a collection of AWS services to help you manage AWS Control Tower accounts through Terraform configuration. One advantage of AFT over manual account provisioning is the ability to queue multiple account requests with your configuration. AWS Control Tower currently allows you to create only one account at a time, but AFT uses DynamoDB and SQS to queue your account requests, making batched account creation more efficient. As you define your account specifications across the 4 repositories, the CodeBuild job watches for changes to those repositories.

When you use AFT to create a new account, you must first define a new instance of the account request module in your account request repository (for example, learn-terraform-aft-account-request). You must also add any customizations you wish to apply to the account to the account customization repositories.

Once you push your changes to version control, AFT kicks of a workflow to provision and customize your account:

1. CodePipeline kicks off CodeBuild projects to create a DynamoDB table item with your new account details. The new item triggers a Lambda that records your account requests in SQS, allowing you to define multiple new accounts at once.
2. The new SQS messages trigger Lambda functions to process your account request and kick off the account vending process in Control Tower. AFT also creates an account-specific pipeline to manage your new account’s customization and an execution role in your new account that it can use to customize it.
3. Once AFT creates your new account, it triggers additional Lambda functions that then activate your account-specific pipeline to apply global and account-specific customizations. If your customizations include Terraform configuration to create resources in your account, it stores the state for those resources in S3. AFT uses the execution role it created to apply account customizations within your new account.

Along the way, the pipeline forwards its logs to S3 and logs pipeline events to SNS topics that you can subscribe to. Review the documentation to learn more about all of the component services in the pipeline.

There are 3 categories of customizations, each managed in a distinct repository that you passed as an input variable to the module. The pipeline executes them in the following order:

1. The provisioning customizations run during account provisioning and use the state machine you define in your AFT management account.
2. The global customizations apply to all accounts.
3. The account customizations only apply to a subset of accounts. If you declare an input variable named account_customizations_name in your account request file, the pipeline will use the customizations defined in a subdirectory of the same name in the account customizations repository.

You will review the types of account customizations in more detail later in this tutorial once you provision a new account.

Review provider configuration

Navigate to the .terraform/modules/aft directory to review the module configuration.

$ cd .terraform/modules/aft

In your code editor, open providers.tf.

provider "aws" {
  alias  = "ct_management"
  region = var.ct_home_region
  # The default profile or environment variables should authenticate to the Control Tower Management Account as Administrator
  default_tags {
    tags = {
      managed_by = "AFT"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  alias  = "aft_management"
  region = var.ct_home_region
  assume_role {
    role_arn     = "arn:aws:iam::${var.aft_management_account_id}:role/AWSControlTowerExecution"
    session_name = local.aft_session_name
  }
  default_tags {
    tags = {
      managed_by = "AFT"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  alias  = "tf_backend_secondary_region"
  region = var.tf_backend_secondary_region
  assume_role {
    role_arn     = "arn:aws:iam::${var.aft_management_account_id}:role/AWSControlTowerExecution"
    session_name = local.aft_session_name
  }
  default_tags {
    tags = {
      managed_by = "AFT"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  alias  = "audit"
  region = var.ct_home_region
  assume_role {
    role_arn     = "arn:aws:iam::${var.audit_account_id}:role/AWSControlTowerExecution"
    session_name = local.aft_session_name
  }
  default_tags {
    tags = {
      managed_by = "AFT"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  alias  = "log_archive"
  region = var.ct_home_region
  assume_role {
    role_arn     = "arn:aws:iam::${var.log_archive_account_id}:role/AWSControlTowerExecution"
    session_name = local.aft_session_name
  }
  default_tags {
    tags = {
      managed_by = "AFT"
    }
  }
}

This configuration defines multiple instances of the AWS provider, one for each account and region supplied in the root module configuration. The provider definitions reference the account IDs you supplied as input variables in the assume_role blocks, enabling the pipeline to provision resources across multiple accounts without additional credentials or configuration. The AFT module created the AWSControlTowerExecution IAM role in each of the other accounts to enable its functions.

Enable CodeStar Connection

The AFT module sets up a CodeStar connection to watch for changes to your Github account request and customization repositories. In this section, you will approve the CodeStar connection to enable the service.

Once Terraform completes deploying the AFT module, log in to your AFT management account using the email you specified in its configuration earlier.

Then, navigate to your CodeSuite connections in the AWS Console.

Click on the ct-aft-github-connection connection, which is still pending.

On the details page, click Update pending connection.

Follow the workflow to Install a new app, and connect it to your personal Github account. After configuring it, click Connect to enable the AWS Connector for Github.

Grant AFT access to Service Catalog portfolio

Though AFT runs in your AFT management account, it needs access to your Control Tower management account in order to fulfill your account provisioning requests. To enable access, you must add the AWSAFTExecution IAM role created by the pipeline to Control Tower’s Service Catalog portfolio.

Log into the Control Tower management account in the AWS console. This is the account in which you enabled Control Tower and manually created the learn-aft account at the beginning of this tutorial.

Then, navigate to Portfolios in the Service Catalog page.

Click on the AWS Control Tower Account Factory Portfolio.

Select the Groups, roles, and users tab, then click Add groups, roles, users.

Select the Roles tab, then search for AWSAFTExecution. Check the box next to it, and click Add access.

Rerun account provisioning pipeline

When you first deploy AFT, it attempts to run the account provisioning customizations pipeline but fails since you had not yet enabled the CodeStar connection. AWS automatically runs the pipeline on creation. You must now rerun the pipeline to create its downstream resources for when you are ready to provision an account using AFT.

In your AFT management account, navigate to your CodePipeline page. Select the ct-aft-account-provisioning-customizations pipeline, then click Release change. Then, click Release to rerun the pipeline.

This concludes the one-time configuration steps that are necessary to set up AFT.

Deploy an account with AFT

Once you have deployed AFT and granted Github and Service Catalog access, you can use the pipeline to provision a new account in Control Tower.

Navigate to your cloned learn-terraform-aft-account-request repository.

$ cd ../learn-terraform-aft-account-request

You can skip to the next section to provision the account without reviewing its configuration.

Review repository

AFT expects your account request repository to have the following structure:

$ tree
.
├── README.md
└── terraform
    ├── aft-providers.jinja
    ├── backend.jinja
    ├── main.tf
    └── modules
        └── aft-account-request
            ├── ddb.tf
            ├── variables.tf
            └── versions.tf

Your configuration must live in a terraform directory, with any account requests defined in Terraform configuration at its top level. It must also contain the aft-providers.jinja and backend.jinja files and the modules/aft-account-request directory, which defines a module that creates a DynamoDB item. AFT and its CodeBuild jobs require this structure and that you include the module definition in your account request repository.

Open the terraform/modules/aft-account-request/ddb.tf file in your code editor.

resource "aws_dynamodb_table_item" "account-request" {
  table_name = var.account-request-table
  hash_key   = var.account-request-table-hash

  item = jsonencode({
    id = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "AccountEmail") }
    control_tower_parameters = { M = {
      AccountEmail              = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "AccountEmail") }
      AccountName               = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "AccountName") }
      ManagedOrganizationalUnit = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "ManagedOrganizationalUnit") }
      SSOUserEmail              = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "SSOUserEmail") }
      SSOUserFirstName          = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "SSOUserFirstName") }
      SSOUserLastName           = { S = lookup(var.control_tower_parameters, "SSOUserLastName") }
      }
    }
    change_management_parameters = { M = {
      change_reason       = { S = lookup(var.change_management_parameters, "change_reason") }
      change_requested_by = { S = lookup(var.change_management_parameters, "change_requested_by") }
      }
    }
    account_tags                = { S = jsonencode(var.account_tags) }
    account_customizations_name = { S = var.account_customizations_name }
    custom_fields               = { S = jsonencode(var.custom_fields) }
  })
}

The control_tower_parameters attribute contains the required arguments for creating an account in Control Tower. The other attributes are specific to AFT and allow you to customize your account.

Now open the terraform/main.tf file, which contains an instance of the aft-account-request module. You must define a new, uniquely named instance of the account request module for each account you create.

module "sandbox" {
  source = "./modules/aft-account-request"

  control_tower_parameters = {
    AccountEmail              = `<ACCOUNT_EMAIL>`
    AccountName               = "sandbox-aft"
    ManagedOrganizationalUnit = "Learn AFT"
    SSOUserEmail              = `<SSO_EMAIL>`
    SSOUserFirstName          = "Sandbox"
    SSOUserLastName           = "AFT"
  }

  account_tags = {
    "Learn Tutorial" = "AFT"
  }

  change_management_parameters = {
    change_requested_by = "HashiCorp Learn"
    change_reason       = "Learn AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform"
  }

  custom_fields = {
    group = "non-prod"
  }

  account_customizations_name = "sandbox"
}

In addition to control_tower_parameters, which configure your new sandbox-aft account, the module has the following inputs:

• the account_tags attribute lets you apply tags to your account according to your business criteria
• the change_management_parameters attribute lets you document who issues the account request and its purposes
• the custom_fields attribute lets you define additional metadata for your account, which you can use in your account customizations or provisioning configuration
• the account_customizations_name attribute lets you specify the subdirectory in the account customizations repository the pipeline should use to modify this account, if any

Modify account request configuration

In the configuration, replace <ACCOUNT_EMAIL> with the root email address you wish to use for this sandbox account, which must not be associated with any existing AWS accounts. Replace <SSO_EMAIL> with the email address you wish to use for SSO login. For ease, you can use the same email as you did for your AFT management account, and make sure this is an email address you have access to.

In your terminal, add your configuration changes.

$ git add .

Then, commit your changes.

$ git commit -m "Create sandbox-aft Control Tower account"

Finally, push your changes.

$ git push

The AWS CodePipeline AFT created listens for changes to your account requests and customizations repositories. It will apply launch a CodeBuild job to apply this Terraform configuration and create the DynamoDB item with your account specifications. That new item will trigger the rest of the pipeline to create and customize your new account.

As before, creating a new account can take between 20 and 30 minutes. Continue on to the next section to review account customizations in the meanwhile.

Review account customization options

AFT can apply customizations to your accounts after it creates them. The customizations can be Bash or Python scripts, interact with the AWS CLI, or apply Terraform configuration to create predefined resources in your new account. AFT creates a CodePipeline in the AFT management account to customize your AFT-provisioned accounts.

Like the account requests, the customizations live in VCS repositories and must conform to a directory structure required by AWS for the CodeBuild jobs to succeed.

In these sections, you will only review the account customization options defined in your forked Github repositories. You will not modify any of these files.

Account provisioning customizations framework

AFT applies account provisioning customizations as it creates your account. This configuration is more advanced and requres knowledge of AWS Step Functions. AFT uses the repository supplied for the account_provisioning_customizations_repo_name input variable in your AFT module definition for these customizations.

module "aft" {
  source                      = "github.com/aws-ia/terraform-aws-control_tower_account_factory"
  ##...

  vcs_provider                                  = "github"
  account_request_repo_name                     = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-request"
  account_provisioning_customizations_repo_name = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations"
  global_customizations_repo_name               = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations"
  account_customizations_repo_name              = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations"
}

AFT expects the configuration in this repository to define AWS Step Functions. These are the first customizations that AWS will apply to your account, which will run during provisioning. Step Functions can integrate with other AWS services, such as launching a Lambda or Step Function, or writing to SNS topics or SQS queues.

The learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations repository you cloned contains the framework for this state machine with a no-op Step Function. To add this customization to your account, you would define the state machine in Terraform configuration in this repository and commit your changes to version control. To learn more about Step Functions and creating a state machine, review the AFT and Step Functions documentation pages.

Global customizations

Global customizations apply to all accounts deployed by AFT. This allows you to automatically enforce security standards or provision standardized resources and infrastructure in every new account, making compliance with your organization’s standards easier.

You must define your global customizations in the repository you pass to the AFT module as the global_customizations_repo_name input variable.

module "aft" {
  source                      = "github.com/aws-ia/terraform-aws-control_tower_account_factory"
  ##...

  vcs_provider                                  = "github"
  account_request_repo_name                     = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-request"
  account_provisioning_customizations_repo_name = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations"
  global_customizations_repo_name               = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations"
  account_customizations_repo_name              = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations"
}

Navigate to your fork of the global customizations repository.

$ cd ../learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations

This repository contains boilerplate configuration for global customizations to your accounts.

$ tree
├── README.md
├── api_helpers
│   ├── post-api-helpers.sh
│   ├── pre-api-helpers.sh
│   └── python
│       └── requirements.txt
└── terraform
    ├── aft-providers.jinja
    └── backend.jinja

This configuration does not define any global customizations for your account.

Account customizations

AFT applies Account customizations to a specific account or set of accounts. It uses the customizations defined in the repository you pass to the account_customizations_repo_name input variable.

module "aft" {
  source                      = "github.com/aws-ia/terraform-aws-control_tower_account_factory"
  ##...

  vcs_provider                                  = "github"
  account_request_repo_name                     = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-request"
  account_provisioning_customizations_repo_name = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-provisioning-customizations"
  global_customizations_repo_name               = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-global-customizations"
  account_customizations_repo_name              = "${var.github_username}/learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations"
}

The value of that input variable must match a subdirectory of your account customizations repository. You can use account customizations to make specific modifications to groups of accounts, such as applying stricter permissions guardrails to accounts that run production resources.

Navigate to your fork of the account customizations repository.

$ cd ../learn-terraform-aft-account-customizations

The structure of this repository and its usage is similar to that of the global customizations repository, but the customizations are organized within subdirectories. These subdirectory names are the ones you can pass as the account_customizations_name input variable to your account request module.

$ tree
.
├── README.md
└── sandbox
    ├── api_helpers
    │   ├── post-api-helpers.sh
    │   ├── pre-api-helpers.sh
    │   └── python
    │       └── requirements.txt
    └── terraform
        ├── aft-providers.jinja
        ├── backend.jinja
        └── s3.tf

In this case, the account customizations repository defines a group of sandbox customizations. The terraform directory contains configuration for an S3 bucket, which AFT will apply to the new account. This customization can apply to any account that you include the account_customizations = "sandbox" input variable.

This S3 bucket is just one example of an account-specific customization you can create. To create other customization groups, copy this directory structure and rename the top level directory (sandbox).

Inspect new account

Verify that AFT created your new sandbox account by finding the sandbox-aft account in the list of accounts in your Control Tower Accounts dashboard.

Once AFT finishes provisioning the account, you should receive an email to configure SSO login for the user. Follow the steps to create a password and login as your sandbox-aft user.

In the AWS dashboard, navigate to S3 to find your sandbox bucket, which AFT created as part of your account customizations.

You have now used AFT to provision and customize a new account.

Clean up provisioned resources

Now that you have used AFT for your account management, you can destroy the pipeline and its related resources.

Some of the resources created by the pipeline are managed dynamically outside of the Terraform workflow and require manual deletion. You also need to empty some of the S3 buckets created across the various Control Tower accounts.

Delete pipeline in AFT management account

First, log in to your AFT management account in the AWS console, and navigate to the CodePipeline dashboard.

Select the pipeline created for your sandbox account, which contains an account ID in the name. Select the pipeline, then click Delete pipeline and confirm the deletion.

Delete S3 buckets in accounts

Next, navigate to your learn-terraform-aws-control-tower-aft repository, which contains a remove_buckets.sh script to empty and delete buckets created in your log archive and AFT management accounts.

Run the script.

$ ./remove_buckets.sh

Delete sandbox account

Next, decommission your sandbox-aft account from your Control Tower landing zone. This disassociates your account, but does not close it.

Log in to the AWS Console as your Control Tower management user, then navigate to your Provisioned Products in ServiceCatalog. Select the Account Access Filter, then select your sandbox-aft account. Under Actions, click Terminate. Then click Terminate provisioned product to confirm the termination. This will remove the account from Control Tower, and move it under the Root organization for your account.

Delete AFT resources

Then, run terraform destroy to delete the AFT resources from your account. Respond yes to the prompt to confirm the operation.

$ terraform destroy
##...
Plan: 0 to add, 0 to change, 297 to destroy.

Changes to Outputs:
  - aft_management_account_id = "365371481900" -> null
  - audit_account_id          = "187724155000" -> null
  - ct_management_account_id  = "447475458655" -> null
  - log_archive_account_id    = "866255933133" -> null
  - region                    = "us-east-1" -> null

Do you really want to destroy all resources?
  Terraform will destroy all your managed infrastructure, as shown above.
  There is no undo. Only 'yes' will be accepted to confirm.

  Enter a value: yes

After you destroy these resources, you will need to close the sandbox-aft and AFT management accounts you created, which will require logging into each using the root user email address you provided. Follow the AWS documentation for instructions on how to close an AWS account.

Next steps

You have now deployed AFT and used the pipeline to provision and customize a sandbox account. Using AFT allows you to leverage the benefits of both infrastructure as code's safety and scalability and Control Tower's governance features for multi-account architectures.

To learn more about Terraform, AWS, and the concepts covered in this tutorial check out the following resources:

• Learn how to use the AWS Cloud Control provider, which supports even more AWS resources.
• Learn how to configure AssumeRole access in the Terraform AWS provider to provision resources across accounts.
• Review the AFT documentation to learn more about AFT and Control Tower.