Overview of AWS Service Catalog
User
AWS Service Catalog supports the following sorts of users:
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Catalog Administrators (administrators) – Manage a product catalog by grouping them into portfolios and providing end users access. Catalog administrators create AWS CloudFormation templates, establish constraints, and manage IAM roles for items to enable advanced resource management.
- End Users – Use the AWS Management Console to launch products to which they have been allowed access after receiving AWS credentials from their IT department or manager. End users, also known as users, maybe given varying rights depending on your operating requirements.
Features of AWS Service Catalog
Products
A product is an IT service that we intend to deploy on Amazon Web Services. One or more AWS resources, such as storage volumes, monitoring setups, EC2 instances, databases, networking components, or packaged AWS Marketplace products, comprise a product. A product might be anything from a single AWS Linux compute instance to a fully configured multi-tier web application running on its own environment.
Portfolios
A portfolio is a grouping of products that includes configuration data. Portfolios make it easier to manage who can use which products and how they can be used. You can develop a customized portfolio for each type of user in your organization and selectively offer access to the relevant portfolio using AWS Service Catalog. When you upload a new version of a product to a portfolio, it becomes available to all current users automatically.
Versioning
AWS Service Catalog allows you to manage different versions of your catalog's products. Based on software updates or configuration changes, this strategy allows you to add new versions of templates and associated resources.
When you develop a new version of a product, it's automatically distributed to all users who have access to it, giving them the option of choosing which version to use. Users can easily upgrade existing instances of the product to the new version.
Permissions
A user with portfolio access can browse the portfolio and launch the products contained inside it. To manage who may read and alter your catalog, you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions. IAM users, groups, and roles can all be given permissions.
Constraints
The ways you can deploy certain AWS resources for a product are limited by constraints. They can be used to set product restrictions for governance or cost management.
There are various types of AWS Service Catalog constraints, namely,
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Launch constraints
You can assign a role to a product in a portfolio using launch constraints. Use this role to provide the resources at launch so that you can limit user access without affecting their ability to order products from the catalog.
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Notification constraints
Using an Amazon SNS topic and notification limitations, you can receive notifications about stack events.
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Template constraints
The configuration parameters available to the user while launching the product are limited by template constraints. You can reuse generic AWS CloudFormation templates for products and apply restrictions to the templates on a per-product or per-portfolio basis with template constraints.
Stack
Every AWS Service Catalog product is launched in the form of an AWS CloudFormation stack. This product is a collection of resources allocated to that product instance. By allowing you to update, provision, tag, and terminate your product instance as a single unit, AWS CloudFormation stacks make it simple to manage the lifespan of your product.
Service actions
You can enable end users to execute operational chores, troubleshoot issues, run approved commands, or request authorization in AWS Service Catalog on your supplied products using service actions instead of giving them full access to AWS services. To define service actions, you utilize AWS Systems Manager documents. Pre-defined actions that we implement using AWS best practices, such as Amazon EC2 stop and reboot, are available in the AWS Systems Manager manuals, and you can also build custom actions.
Initial Administrator Workflow
This diagram depicts an administrator's initial workflow for creating a catalog:

Source: AWS
Initial End User Workflow
This diagram depicts the initial workflow for an end user:

Source: AWS
FAQs
What does AWS Service Catalog provide?
AWS Service Catalog is used in an organization to create and manage IT service catalogs that are approved for usage on AWS. Virtual machine images, servers, software, and databases, as well as whole multi-tier application architectures, are all examples of IT services.
What does AWS Service Catalog do?
Service catalogs act as knowledge management tools for the employees and consultants of an enterprise, allowing them to route their requests for and about services and service-related topics to the subject matter experts who own, are accountable for, and operate them.
Why do we use Service Catalog?
The implementation of a Service Catalog dramatically improves user self-service capabilities, lowers administration costs, and enhances the user experience by providing complete information about their requests and the status of their application.
What should be in an AWS Service Catalog?
The Service Catalogue includes information about deliverables, prices, contact points, ordering, and request processes.
Conclusion
In this article, we have extensively discussed the AWS Service Catalog. We started with a brief overview of the AWS Service Catalog, then discussed its various features.
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