CDK Organizations

Manage AWS organizations, organizational units (OU), accounts and service control policies (SCP).

Features:

• Organization
• Organizational Unit (OU)
• Account
• Delegated Administrator
• Trusted Service
• Policies, PolicyTypes, PolicyAttachment
• Tagging

Install

TypeScript

npm install @pepperize/cdk-organizations

or

yarn add @pepperize/cdk-organizations

Python

pip install pepperize.cdk-organizations

C# / .Net

dotnet add package Pepperize.CDK.Organizations

Java

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.pepperize</groupId>
  <artifactId>cdk-organizations</artifactId>
  <version>${cdkOrganizations.version}</version>
</dependency>

Contributing

Contributions of all kinds are welcome 🚀 Check out our contributor's guide.

For a quick start, check out a development environment:

git clone [email protected]:pepperize/cdk-organizations
cd cdk-organizations
# install dependencies
yarn
# build with projen
yarn build

Getting Started

1. Create a new account

   Signup for AWS

2. Prepare an IAM User with AdministratorAccess

   To deploy your new organization, you have to create an Administrator with an AccessKey

   • Creating your first IAM admin user and user group
   • Managing access keys for IAM users

3. Create a new CDK TypeScript App project with projen

   mkdir my-project
   cd my-project
   git init -b main
   npx projen new awscdk-app-ts

4. Add @pepperize/cdk-organizations to your dependencies in .projenrc.js

   const project = new awscdk.AwsCdkTypeScriptApp({
     //...
     deps: ["@pepperize/cdk-organizations"],
   });

5. Install the dependency

   npx projen

6. Create a stack

   import { Account, Organization, OrganizationalUnit } from "@pepperize/cdk-organizations";
   import { Stack } from "aws-cdk-lib";
   
   export class OrganizationStack extends Stack {
     constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props: StackProps = {}) {
       super(scope, id, props);
   
       // Create your organization
       const organization = new Organization(stack, "Organization", {});
   
       // Create an organizational unit (OU)
       const organizationUnit = new OrganizationalUnit(stack, "OrganizationalUnit", {
         organizationalUnitName: "MyFirstOU",
         parent: organization.root,
       });
   
       // Create an account
       const account = new Account(stack, "Account", {
         accountName: "MyFirstAccount",
         email: "<your email for the member account>",
         parent: organizationUnit,
       });
     }
   }

7. Configure your AWS CLI to deploy

   • Configuring the AWS CLI
   • AWSume

   The easiest is to export your access key

   export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<your created access key id>
   export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<your created secret access key>

8. Deploy your first AWS organization

   export CDK_DEFAULT_REGION=<your AWS region>
   export CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT=<your AWS account id>

   yarn deploy

Usage

Organization

To create a new organization or import an existing organization, add the following construct to your stack:

const organization = new Organization(stack, "Organization", {
  featureSet: FeatureSet.ALL, // (default) required later on to enable SCPs, enable AWS services or delegate an administrator account
});
organization.root; // The organization's root is automatically created

• FeatureSet.ALL is required for advanced features like Service Control Policies (SCP) and is the preferred way to work with AWS Organizations
• The account which deploys the stack, will automatically become the management account of the new organization.
• If an organization already exists, it will be imported automatically. You can disable this behaviour by passing importOnDuplicate: false in the props.
• If the construct is removed from the stack, the organization will remain and must be deleted manually. For deletion of an organization you must previously remove all the member accounts, OUs, and policies from the organization. Deleting the organization by removing the management account
• An organization root is automatically created for you when you create the new organization.

See IOrganization

Organization Principal

To retrieve the AWS IAM organization principal in a member account, add the following to any construct:

const organization = Organization.of(scope, "Organization");
organization.principal; // The AWS IAM organization principal

• This helper construct can be used in any member account in the organization.

See AWS Organization API Reference - DescribeOrganization

Organizational Unit (OU)

To create a new organizational unit (OU), add the following construct to your stack:

const organizationUnit = new OrganizationalUnit(stack, "Organization", {
  organizationalUnitName: "Project2",
  parent: organization.root,
});

• The parent of an organizational unit (OU) can be either the organization's root or another OU within the organization.
• An organizational unit (OU) can't be moved. You have to create a new OU first, move all the accounts and then delete the old OU.
• For deletion of an organizational unit (OU) you must first move all accounts out of the OU and any child OUs, and then you can delete the child OUs. Deleting an organizational unit

See IOrganizationalUnit

Organizational Unit (OU) Properties

• importOnDuplicate If an organizational unit (OU) with the name exists in the parent, it will be imported.
• removalPolicy Default RemovalPolicy.Retain If you set removalPolicy to RemovalPolicy.destroy, the organizational unit (OU) will be deleted on Cloudformation delete event.

See OrganizationalUnitProps

Account

To create a new account, add the following construct to your stack:

new Account(stack, "Account", {
  accountName: "MyAccount",
  email: "[email protected]",
  parent: organization.root,
});

• The email address must not already be associated with another AWS account. You may suffix the email address, i.e. [email protected].
• The AWS Organizations supports only a one account creation IN_PROGRESS. Ensure account creation by using account2.node.addDependency(account1) dependency relationship.
• An account will be created and moved to the parent, if the parent is an organizational unit (OU).
• An account can only be created from within the management account.

See IAccount

Account Properties

• importOnDuplicate If an account with the same email address exists in the organization, it will be imported.
• removalPolicy Default RemovalPolicy.Retain If you set removalPolicy to RemovalPolicy.destroy, the account will be closed. Closing an AWS account
• iamUserAccessToBilling Default IamUserAccessToBilling.ALLOW If you set iamUserAccessToBilling to ALLOW, IAM users and roles that have appropriate permissions can view billing information for the account.
• roleName Default OrganizationAccountAccessRole is preconfigures in the newly created account and grants users in the management account administrator permissions in the new member account.

See AccountProps

Delegated Administrator

A compatible AWS service (trusted service) can register an AWS member account in the organization as an administrator in the organization on your behalf. To enable an AWS account as administrator of that trusted in your organization call delegateAdministrator on your account:

const account = new Account(stack, "Account", {
  accountName: "StackSetsDelegatedAdministrator",
  email: "[email protected]",
});
account.delegateAdministrator("stacksets.amazonaws.com");

• AWS services that support Delegated Administrator
• To be able to use Delegated Administrator, your organization must have all features enabled.

See DelegatedAdministrator

Enable an AWS Service (trusted service)

To enable trusted access for a supported AWS service (trusted service), which performs tasks in your organization and its accounts on your behalf, call enableAwsService on your organization:

const organization = new Organization(stack, "Organization", {
  featureSet: FeatureSet.ALL, // (default) the organization must be created with all features enabled
});
organization.enableAwsServiceAccess("ssm.amazonaws.com");

• To enable trusted access, you must have all features enabled.
• It's recommended to use only the trusted service's console How to enable or disable trusted access
• AWS services that you can use with AWS Organizations

See EnableAwsServiceAccess

Enable a Policy Type

To enable a policy type call enablePolicyType on your organization.

const organization = new Organization(stack, "Organization", {
  featureSet: FeatureSet.ALL, // (default) the organization must be created with all features enabled
});
organization.enablePolicyType(PolicyType.SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY);
organization.enablePolicyType(PolicyType.TAG_POLICY);
organization.enablePolicyType(PolicyType.BACKUP_POLICY);
organization.enablePolicyType(PolicyType.AISERVICES_OPT_OUT_POLICY);

• To create or attach policies later on, you have to enable all features and the policy type .

See EnablePolicyType, PolicyType.

Policy

To create a new policy add the following construct to your stack:

new Policy(stack, "Policy", {
  content: '{\n"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":{\n"Effect":"Allow","Action":"s3:*"\n}\n}',
  description: "Enables admins of attached accounts to delegate all S3 permissions",
  policyName: "AllowAllS3Actions",
  policyType: PolicyType.SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY,
});

• To create or attach policies, you must have all features and the policy type enabled.
• The SCP Syntax is quite similar to IAM policies, but way more limited.

See Policy

PolicyAttachment

To attach a policy to a root, an organizational unit (OU), or an individual account call attachPolicy with the policy to attach:

organization.enablePolicyType(PolicyType.TAG_POLICY);

const policy = new Policy(stack, "Policy", {
  content: '{\n"tags":{\n"CostCenter":{\n"tag_key":{\n"@@assign":"CostCenter"\n}\n}\n}\n}',
  description: "Defines the CostCenter tag key",
  policyName: "CostCenterTag",
  policyType: PolicyType.TAG_POLICY,
});

organization.attachPolicy(policy);
organizationalUnit.attachPolicy(policy);
account.attachPolicy(policy);

• To create or attach policies, you must have all features and the policy type enabled.

Tagging resources

To tag a resource you may follow the AWS CDK Developer Guide - Tagging:

You can add one or more tags to the following resources in AWS Organizations.

• Account
• Organization root
• Organizational unit (OU)
• Policy

See Tagging AWS Organizations resources, ITaggableResource

Tagging an organization's root

import { Tags } from "aws-cdk-lib";

const organization = new Organization();
Tags.of(organization.root).add("key", "value");

Tagging an organizational unit (OU)

import { Tags } from "aws-cdk-lib";

const organizationalUnit = new OrganizationalUnit();
Tags.of(organizationalUnit).add("key", "value");

Tagging an account

import { Tags } from "aws-cdk-lib";

const account = new Account();
Tags.of(account).add("key", "value");

Tagging a policy

import { Tags } from "aws-cdk-lib";

const policy = new Policy();
Tags.of(policy).add("key", "value");

Limitations

AWS Organizations has some limitations:

• The stack's account must be the management account of an existing organization.
• The stack's account becomes the management account of the new organization.
• An account belongs to only one organization within a single root.
• Quotas for AWS Organizations

AWS Organizations is a global service with service endpoints in us-east-1, us-gov-west-1 and cn-northwest-1. Read also Endpoint to call When using the AWS CLI or the AWS SDK. Currently all custom resources of this library are hard set to use us-east-1.

Example

See example

import { App, Stack } from "aws-cdk-lib/core";
import {
  Account,
  DelegatedAdministrator,
  EnableAwsServiceAccess,
  EnablePolicyType,
  FeatureSet,
  IamUserAccessToBilling,
  Organization,
  OrganizationalUnit,
  Policy,
  PolicyAttachment,
  PolicyType,
} from "@pepperize/cdk-organizations";

const app = new App();
const stack = new Stack(app);

// Create an organization
const organization = new Organization(stack, "Organization", {
  featureSet: FeatureSet.ALL,
});
// Enable AWS Service Access (requires FeatureSet: ALL)
organization.enableAwsServiceAccess("service-abbreviation.amazonaws.com");

// Create an account
const account1 = new Account(stack, "SharedAccount", {
  accountName: "SharedAccount",
  email: "[email protected]",
  roleName: "OrganizationAccountAccessRole",
  iamUserAccessToBilling: IamUserAccessToBilling.ALLOW,
  parent: organization.root,
});
// Enable a delegated admin account
account1.delegateAdministrator("service-abbreviation.amazonaws.com");

// Create an OU in the current organizations root
const projects = new OrganizationalUnit(stack, "ProjectsOU", {
  organizationalUnitName: "Projects",
  parent: organization.root,
});
const account2 = new Account(stack, "Project1Account", {
  accountName: "SharedAccount",
  email: "[email protected]",
  parent: projects,
});
account2.node.addDependency(account1);

// Create a nested OU and attach two accounts
const project2 = new OrganizationalUnit(stack, "Project2OU", {
  organizationalUnitName: "Project2",
  parent: projects,
});
const account3 = new Account(stack, "Project2DevAccount", {
  accountName: "Project 2 Dev",
  email: "[email protected]",
  parent: project2,
});
account3.node.addDependency(account2);
const account4 = new Account(stack, "Project2ProdAccount", {
  accountName: "Project 2 Prod",
  email: "[email protected]",
  parent: project2,
});
account4.node.addDependency(account3);

// Enable the service control policy (SCP) type within the organization
organization.enablePolicyType(PolicyType.SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY);
// Create and attach and Service Control Policy (SCP)
const policy = new Policy(stack, "Policy", {
  content: '{\n"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":{\n"Effect":"Allow","Action":"s3:*"\n}\n}',
  description: "Enables admins of attached accounts to delegate all S3 permissions",
  policyName: "AllowAllS3Actions",
  policyType: PolicyType.SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY,
});
organization.attachPolicy(policy);

// Tagging AWS organization resources of this stack
Tags.of(stack).add("tagKey", "tagValue");

References

• CDK Organizations API Reference
• AWS Account Management Reference Guide
• AWS Organizations User Guide
• AWS API Reference
• AWS CDK Custom Resources

Alternatives

• AWS Bootstrap Kit
• Terraform AWS Provider
• AWS Deployment Framework (ADF)
• AWS Organization Formation
• AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (ATF)