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Amazon Web Services

xAssets Configuration Guide
Integration to Specific Applications

Amazon Web Services

xAssets includes a built-in integration to import virtual machine instances from an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. This page explains what the integration provides and how to configure it.

What the Integration Provides

The AWS integration pulls basic information on each EC2 instance in your AWS account into xAssets as asset records. This gives you visibility of your cloud infrastructure alongside on-premises assets.

For full hardware and software details on each instance, combine this integration with xAssets Network Discovery, which can scan the instances once they are registered in xAssets.

Prerequisites

  • An AWS account with API access enabled
  • An IAM user or role with permissions to describe EC2 instances (at minimum, the ec2:DescribeInstances permission)
  • Access to xAssets with permission to create credential packs
  • The xAssets Batch Service must be running

Setup

Step 1: Create API Credentials in AWS

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console
  2. Navigate to IAM > Users (or create a dedicated service account)
  3. Generate an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key for the user
  4. Copy both values -- the Secret Access Key is only shown once

Step 2: Create a Credential Pack in xAssets

  1. Navigate to Discover > Prepare > Credentials
  2. Click Create Credentials
  3. Configure the credential pack as follows:
Field Value
Credential Type Named Credentials
Collection Server Application Server
Pack Name AWS
Domain The domain name of your AWS instance
Username The Access Key ID from Step 1
Password The Secret Access Key from Step 1
  1. Save the credential pack

Step 3: Run the Integration

  1. Navigate to Discover > Integrations > Get data from Amazon Web Services
  2. Select the AWS credential pack
  3. The integration runs and creates one asset record per EC2 instance

Region Configuration

The integration defaults to the us-east-2 region and the ec2 service. To target a different AWS region, edit the transformation behind the menu item (accessible via Admin > Transformations) and modify the region parameter in the AMSX script.

Tip: If you have instances across multiple AWS regions, you can clone the transformation for each region, each with its own region setting, and schedule them all to run on the same schedule.