Primary Account vs Linked Account in AWS
The primary AWS account is the one you initially configure in Virtana Platform, that is accessed from the Cloud Providers page. Account linking is used when the primary AWS account is a consolidated billing account. With consolidated billing, linked sub-accounts roll up to the primary for billing purposes.
You should link an account if it contains resources such as EC2 and RDS instances or if it is a member account of your consolidated billing account.
You can link one or more AWS accounts to any AWS primary account. When linked, the primary account you created becomes the "parent" account to the "children".
Linking accounts simplifies your setup process and grants the linked accounts access to the latest cost and right sizing reports.
The primary AWS account assigned to an AWS Integration is intended to provide cost data, as it is usually associated with a consolidated billing account. Linked accounts are intended to provide performance data for any AWS accounts associated with the primary consolidated billing account. If you configured a consolidated billing account as your primary AWS account in Virtana Platform, you can add linked accounts to supply performance data from each of the associated AWS accounts. If you do not have consolidated billing, the first AWS account integration should be sufficient.
Depending on your integration account type, you need to copy authentication values from the AWS IAM role or access key account for each account to be linked. If an IAM role or a user for access keys has not yet been created for the linked account, follow the instructions to create an IAM role or create a read-only user for the account to be linked.
Related Topics