SmartDraw's AWS Chart Data Visualizer lets you import your Amazon Web Services information and automatically generate a diagram of your AWS architecture.
To get started, click the + icon to switch the SmartPanel into the Insert Content view. This is also called the Plus menu.
Once on the Insert Content view, select the Add Data Visualizer section and click on AWS Chart.
In the next dialog, you can choose between two ways of connecting to AWS.
You can use an access key (Secret Key) for easy sharing across all your users, or setup an IAM Role with temporary credentials per user for greater security.
IAM Role Method
The IAM Role method for connecting to AWS gives each SmartDraw user a unique external ID. As an admin, you can then create a role that gives SmartDraw and that external ID temporary credentials to log into an AWS account. The external ID provides an extra layer of security to ensure it is a known SmartDraw user logging in. Follow these steps:
1. Navigate to your AWS IAM Dashboard, select Roles under Access management in the left panel, then click the orange Create Role button in the upper right.
2. On the Select trusted entity screen, choose AWS account under Trusted entity type, then make sure to choose the Another AWS Account option below and also select Require external ID.
3. Go back to SmartDraw and launch the AWS import dialog if it's not open already. Under Account ID, enter the Account Number from the AWS Import dialog in SmartDraw. Next, enter the External ID from the dialog.
4. From the Add permissions screen, we recommend you choose the built-in ReadOnlyAccess policy to start, but you may choose any policy that you prefer.
5. On the next screen, you can name and review the role. For example, you may name the role "smartdraw-steve". Click Create Role when you're ready.
6. On the Roles screen, you can now search and find the role you just created. Once you find the role, click on it, so you can view its ARN. Copy the ARN.
7. Paste the ARN into the SmartDraw Import AWS dialog, choose a region you want to visualize, and click Import to run the report.
Secret Key Method
If you select Secret Key, follow these steps.
First, select the region you want to visualize.
To authenticate with AWS, enter your AWS Access Key and Secret Access Key given to you by an AWS admin and click Import.
Once your diagram is generated, you'll see a visual of your VPCs, Virtual Private Clouds, in the region you selected. Under each VPC, you'll see groupings for your Availability Zones and subnets. The symbols within the subnets represent all of your resources.