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Setup inCloud Managed with AWS

inCloud Managed is one of our setup options, which install our platform's infrastructure in a cloud environment owned by your organization, allowing you to delegate its entire setup, update, and maintenance to groundcover.

Note: inCloud Managed is available exclusively to Enterprise users.

inCloud Managed requires to create an isolated account within your AWS organization, that will be managed by groundcover's control plane and will establish, configure, and maintain the infrastructure and workloads within the account. These include AWS VPC, S3, EKS, LB, etc.

To complete the installation of inCloud Managed (total estimated time: 1 hour) you will need to follow these steps, all of which are detailed in the guide that follows:

Step 1: Allocate an AWS account to groundcover

groundcover inCloud Managed can be deployed using one the following configurations:

In line with AWS’s recommended unit of containerization, the default and preferable option is to deploy in a dedicated AWS account. This acts as an identity, resources, quota and access management isolation boundary.

Option A: Creating a new, dedicated sub-account

We recommend naming the account [groundcover-incloud] and placing the account in OU=Infrastructure/OU=Managed. For additional information please see Establishing your best practice AWS environment (external link to a page on the AWS website).

Option B: Use an existing AWS account

If you prefer using a single account approach, inCloud Managed can also be deployed into an existing account, running alongside existing production workloads in your existing AWS account. To limit access and prevent resource collusion, we implement a “scoping territory” approach using ABAC tags for access control and VPC subnets for network control.

Choose your telemetry delivery method

By default, groundcover inCloud Managed deploys as a SaaS solution using ZTNA public, allowing you to deliver telemetry data securely over the public internet.

Prefer private networking is supported with Private Link.

Step 2: Ask for your External ID

Users on an Enterprise plan (prerequisite for inCloud Managed) have access to a private support channel on Slack for their organization. Use that channel to let us know that you're ready to get started with the inCloud Managed setup and ask for your External ID. The groundcover team will share your External ID with you.

Step 3: Setup a cross-account IAM role

To grant our control-plane access to the account, we use AWS’s built-in access federation feature.

The following guide will walk you through the steps required to setup this access.

Option A: Create groundcover Role via CloudFormation

3.1 - Run groundcover CloudFormation

For quick integration, we recommend using our CloudFormation template to deploy the groundcover role inside the new account. Click here for the CloudFormation template.

Make sure to enter the external ID provided by groundcover.

Option B: Create groundcover Role Manually

3.1 - Create a Role

  1. Log in as a privileged user to the AWS account chosen in Step 1.

  2. Navigate to IAM -> Roles

  3. Click “Create role”

3.2 - Select trusted entity

  1. Trusted entity type: Select “AWS Account”

  2. An AWS account: Check "Another AWS account"; Account ID: 991078109329

  3. Options: Check "Require external ID" and enter your External ID (see Step 1)

  4. Make sure “Require MFA” is unchecked

  5. Click "Next"

  6. In the following screen, do not attach any managed permissions

  7. Click "Next"

Note: AWS can’t verify MFA login in cross-account operational mode. groundcover control-plane is enforcing strict security principals, including MFA.

3.3 - Name, review, and create

Fill in the following details:

  • Role name: Type groundcover-managed

  • Description: Optional field, your can write any free text description that can be helpful for you and others to understand this purpose of this role in the future (e.g. “app.groundcover.com control plane access”)

  • Tags: Type groundcover:access = read. You can also use specify additional workflow-oriented tags

Click "Create role"

3.4 - Trust relationships

Search for the newly created groundcover-managed role (or scroll down the list until you find it) and click on it.

Navigate to the "Trust relationships" screen.

Click "Edit trust policy"

Replace the statement with the following snippet:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::991078109329:role/control-plane"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "sts:ExternalId": "<External ID: Enter your ID (shared with you by groundcover)>"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Click "Update Policy"

3.5 - Inline Policy

Navigate to "Permissions" tab.

Click "Add permissions" -> "Create inline policy"

Click the “JSON” tab and paste the following policy into the text box:

{
	"Version": "2012-10-17",
	"Statement": [
		{
			"Sid": "Access",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"sts:GetCallerIdentity",
				"sts:SetSourceIdentity"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ConsoleAccess",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"elasticloadbalancing:Describe*",
				"eks:List*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "CostController",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"aws-portal:ViewBilling",
				"billing:Get*",
				"billing:List*",
				"ce:Describe*",
				"ce:Get*",
				"ce:List*",
				"cur:Get*",
				"cur:Describe*",
				"cur:PutReportDefinition"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "HealthController",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"cloudwatch:Describe*",
				"cloudwatch:Get*",
				"cloudwatch:List*",
				"health:Describe*",
				"logs:Describe*",
				"logs:Filter*",
				"logs:List*",
				"logs:Start*",
				"logs:Stop*",
				"logs:Test*",
				"servicequotas:Get*",
				"servicequotas:List*",
				"ec2messages:Get*",
				"events:Describe*",
				"events:List*",
				"events:Test*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "HealthControllerLogsGet",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": [
				"arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:*groundcover*"
			],
			"Action": [
				"logs:Get*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "DriftReconciler",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"iam:ListPolicies",
				"iam:ListRolePolicies",
				"iam:ListInstanceProfilesForRole",
				"iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies",
				"ec2:Describe*",
				"eks:Describe*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "DriftReconcilerServiceRoles",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
				"iam:DeleteServiceLinkedRole",
				"iam:GetServiceLinkedRoleDeletionStatus"
			],
			"Resource": [
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/eks-nodegroup.amazonaws.com/*",
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/autoscaling.amazonaws.com/*",
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/spot.amazonaws.com/*",
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com/*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "DriftReconcilerGetRole",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"iam:GetRole"
			],
			"Resource": [
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/*groundcover*",
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/eks-nodegroup.amazonaws.com/*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneEC2TagOnCreate",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"ec2:CreateTags"
			],
			"Resource": "*",
			"Condition": {
				"StringLike": {
					"ec2:CreateAction": [
						"Create*"
					]
				},
				"StringNotEquals": {
					"ec2:CreateAction": [
						"CreateTags"
					]
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneModifyUntagged",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"ec2:ReplaceRouteTableAssociation",
				"ec2:DisassociateAddress",
				"logs:CreateLogDelivery",
				"logs:DeleteLogDelivery",
				"vpce:AllowMultiRegion"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneCreateTagged",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"acm:RequestCertificate",
				"ec2:AllocateAddress",
				"ec2:Create*",
				"ec2:Run*",
				"eks:CreateCluster",
				"eks:Tag*",
				"logs:Create*",
				"logs:Tag*",
				"iam:CreateRole",
				"iam:CreateOpenIDConnectProvider",
				"iam:Tag*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringEquals": {
					"aws:RequestTag/groundcover:access": "owner"
				},
				"ForAnyValue:StringEquals": {
					"aws:TagKeys": [
						"groundcover:access"
					]
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneReadBygroundcoveraccess",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"ec2:Get*",
				"iam:Get*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringEquals": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/groundcover:access": "read"
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneModifyBygroundcoveraccess",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"acm:*",
				"ec2:*",
				"eks:*",
				"logs:*",
				"elasticloadbalancing:*",
				"iam:AddClientIDToOpenIDConnectProvider",
				"iam:Get*",
				"iam:Delete*",
				"iam:DetachRolePolicy",
				"iam:Tag*",
				"iam:Untag*",
				"iam:Update*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringEquals": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/groundcover:access": "owner"
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneModifyTaggedByeksclusername",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"ec2:*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringLike": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/eks:cluster-name": "groundcover*"
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneModifyTaggedByawseksclusername",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"ec2:*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringLike": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/aws:eks:cluster-name": "groundcover*"
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneModifyTaggedByKubernetesCluster",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Resource": "*",
			"Action": [
				"ec2:*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringLike": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/KubernetesCluster": "groundcover*"
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneEKSRoleAttachPolicy",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"iam:AttachRolePolicy"
			],
			"Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/groundcover*",
			"Condition": {
				"ArnEquals": {
					"iam:PolicyARN": [
						"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKSClusterPolicy",
						"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKSServicePolicy",
						"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKS_CNI_Policy",
						"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AmazonEBSCSIDriverPolicy",
						"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKSWorkerNodePolicy",
						"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryReadOnly"
					]
				},
				"StringEquals": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/groundcover:access": "owner"
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneEKSPassRole",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": "iam:PassRole",
			"Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/groundcover*",
			"Condition": {
				"StringEquals": {
					"iam:PassedToService": [
						"eks.amazonaws.com"
					]
				}
			}
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneEKSRoles",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"iam:PutRolePolicy"
			],
			"Resource": [
				"arn:aws:iam::*:role/groundcover*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "ControlPlaneS3",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": "s3:*",
			"Resource": [
				"arn:aws:s3:::groundcover*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "BillingIntegrationSQS",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"sqs:UntagQueue",
				"sqs:GetQueueAttributes",
				"sqs:ListQueueTags",
				"sqs:TagQueue",
				"sqs:DeleteQueue",
				"sqs:CreateQueue",
				"sqs:SetQueueAttributes"
			],
			"Resource": [
				"arn:aws:sqs:*:*:groundcover*"
			]
		},
		{
			"Sid": "BillingIntegration",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"bcm-data-exports:GetExport",
				"bcm-data-exports:ListTagsForResource",
				"bcm-data-exports:CreateExport",
				"bcm-data-exports:TagResource",
				"bcm-data-exports:DeleteExport",
				"bcm-data-exports:UntagResource"
			],
			"Resource": [
				"*"
			],
			"Condition": {
				"StringEquals": {
					"aws:ResourceTag/groundcover:access": "owner"
				}
			}
		}
	]
}

Click "Next"

Click “Review Policy”

Enter the following Policy name: inline-policy-2.4.6

Click “Create policy”

We create the inline policy to adhere to security best practices (external link to Wikipedia) by limiting access on IAM, EC2 and related services to the bare minimum required for control plane operations including: health monitoring, security patches, auto scaling and version updates.

Step 4: Share the ARN & region

Security of groundcover Control-Plane

groundcover Control-Plane is a secure reconciliation controller designed to manage enterprise inCloud infrastructure environments. It is compliant with ISO-27001 and SOC-2 standards.

The control plane can securely access your groundcover-incloud account by using a cross-account IAM role.

Setting up groundcover inCloud does not require access to your production data or workloads, nor does it grant it such access.

Binding Access

To establish the Trust Relationship, please share the following information with groundcover.

  1. Go to IAM > Roles > groundcover-managed > Trust relationships

  2. Verify that the sts:ExternalId is as was provided by the groundcover team

  3. Take note of your ARN number, which you will need to share with the groundcover team using our shared Slack channel.

Example:

Step 5: Get installation values

After you share the ARN & Region with us, we will need to setup the backend. Once we do, we will share with you the configuration details required for you to complete Step 6 (below).

Step 6: Deploy our sensors

The final step is to deploy our sensors into the environment. In order to do so, follow this guide.

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