Onboard Your AWS Account Using the Cost and Usage Report

To help optimize and manage your cloud deployment, CloudCheckr generates a comprehensive assessment your AWS environment including cost, security, best practices, inventory, usage, and availability.

If you are new to CloudCheckr and are using the Cost and Usage Report as your primary billing method, review this topic to learn how to onboard your AWS account.

Choose Your Cross-Account Role Method

Before CloudCheckr can begin to monitor your AWS environment, you must configure CloudCheckr and AWS so that they can exchange data.

A cross-account role is the IAM identity that lets you establish that connection between CloudCheckr and AWS.

There are two ways to create a cross-account role: manually or through the CloudFormation template.

This table shows you the pros and cons for each method:

Method Pros Cons
Create Manually
  • best if you are less technical/new to AWS
  • you can tailor each policy to fit your needs
  • best if you don't have access to all modules
  • you must create a cross-account role and policies separately
  • you must manually update each policy any time CloudCheckr makes changes
Create Using CloudFormation
  • recommended by CloudCheckr
  • the template creates your cross-account role and policies automatically in one step
  • requires some familiarity with CloudFormation and AWS environment
  • your policies are limited to 6,144 characters

Onboard Your AWS Account

Follow the workflow that reflects your method for creating a cross-account role:

Step 1: Create an Account in CloudCheckr

Step 2: Create Least Privilege Policies

Step 3: Create a Cross-Account Role Manually

Step 4: Enable Tags for Cost Reports

Step 5: Configure the Cost and Usage Report in AWS

Step 6: Configure the Cost and Usage Report in CloudCheckr

Step 1: Create an Account in CloudCheckr

Step 2: Create a Cross-Account Role and Select Policies Using CloudFormation

Step 3: Enable Tags for Cost Reports

Step 4: Configure the Cost and Usage Report in AWS

Step 5: Configure the Cost and Usage Report in CloudCheckr

If you are using the Detailed Billing Report as your primary billing method, go to the Onboard Your AWS Account Using the Detailed Billing Report topic.

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