What is Configuration Drift?

Configuration drift occurs when your live cloud infrastructure diverges from the state defined in your Infrastructure as Code (IaC) repositories. Cloudgeni’s Configuration Drift feature helps you detect these discrepancies automatically and provides AI-powered remediation suggestions to keep your infrastructure in sync.

What Configuration Drift Provides

Automated drift detection between IaC definitions and live cloud resources
Scheduled monitoring with customizable frequency
Manual scan capabilities for on-demand drift detection
AI-powered remediation suggestions to fix detected drifts
Automated pull request creation for seamless drift resolution
Comprehensive drift analytics and reporting

Initial Setup

Setting up configuration drift monitoring is a three-step process that takes just a few minutes to complete.

Step 1: Select IaC Repositories

First, you’ll need to connect the Infrastructure as Code repositories that define your cloud infrastructure.

Select IaC repositories for drift monitoring

Navigate to Compliance → Configuration Drift in your Cloudgeni dashboard
On the Select Repositories step, select the repositories you want to monitor
Select from supported IaC formats:
- Terraform (.tf files)
- AWS CloudFormation (.yaml, .json templates)
- Azure Resource Manager (ARM templates)
- Pulumi configuration files
Choose which repositories that back your cloud infrastructure
Click Save & Continue

You can monitor multiple repositories and different IaC formats simultaneously. Each repository will be scanned according to your monitoring schedule.

Step 2: Select Cloud Accounts

Next, choose the cloud accounts where your infrastructure is provisioned.

Connect cloud accounts for drift monitoring

On the Select Clouds step, select the cloud accounts you want to monitor
Select your cloud provider:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform (coming soon)
Add multiple accounts if your infrastructure spans across different cloud accounts
Click Save & Continue to complete the connection

Ensure your cloud account credentials have read-only access to all resources you want to monitor. Cloudgeni never requires write permissions for drift detection.

Step 3: Configure Monitoring Settings

Finally, set up your drift monitoring preferences and schedule.

Scan Frequency

Choose how often Cloudgeni should scan for configuration drift:

Hourly - Scan every hour for immediate drift detection
Daily - Daily scans to catch drift early while minimizing noise (default)
Weekly - Weekly scans for less critical environments
Monthly - Monthly scans for stable environments
Manual - Manually trigger scans on demand

Notification Preferences

Configure how you want to be notified about detected drift:

Email - Receive email alerts when configuration drift is detected
Slack - Send notifications to your Slack workspace
Webhook - Send HTTP webhooks to your custom endpoints

Pull Request Automation

Automatically create pull requests to fix detected drifts:

Auto-create Pull Requests - Automatically create PRs with fixes for detected drift
Auto-merge Safe Changes - Automatically merge low-risk fixes after validation

Security & Approvals

Manual approval and security settings:

Always Require Manual Approval - Require human review before applying any fixes
Ask for Repository Selection on Manual Trigger - Prompt user to select specific repositories when manually triggering scans

Click Complete Setup to activate drift monitoring with your configured settings.

You can always change your settings on the Configuration tab of the Configuration Drift page.

Using the Configuration Drift Dashboard

Once setup is complete, access your drift monitoring dashboard to view and manage detected configuration drift.

Accessing the Dashboard

Navigate to Compliance → Configuration Drift in your Cloudgeni dashboard to access:

Configuration Drift Dashboard

Active Drift Count across all monitored repositories and cloud accounts
Monitoring Status for your organization
Connected cloud accounts and repositories
Recent drifts detected in your infrastructure

Running Manual Scans

While scheduled scans run automatically, you can trigger manual scans anytime:

Navigate to the Scans tab
Click Scan

Manual scans typically complete within 2-5 minutes depending on infrastructure size.

You can view your scan history in the Scans tab.

Viewing Drifts

The Drifts tab shows all detected configuration drifts:

Viewing Drift Details

Click on any drift item to see comprehensive details:

Drift Details

Resource identification (ARN, ID, name)
Drift description in plain language
Impact assessment and risk level
Affected IaC files and related resources

Drift Remediation

AI-Powered Remediation Suggestions

For each detected drift, Cloudgeni provides intelligent remediation options:

Suggested Actions

Generate code changes to match actual infrastructure state
Apply IaC to to revert actual infrastructure state to the IaC definition

Remediation Analysis

Impact assessment of proposed changes
Risk evaluation for each remediation option
Dependencies consideration and potential side effects
Rollback procedures in case of issues

Code Generation

For IaC updates, Cloudgeni automatically generates:

Terraform configuration updates
CloudFormation template modifications
ARM template changes
Proper syntax and formatting

Creating Remediation Pull Requests

Create pull request for drift remediation

Streamline your remediation workflow with automated pull request creation:

PR Generation Process

Select drift items to remediate (single or multiple)
Choose remediation approach:
- Update IaC to match live state
- Revert resources to IaC state
- Mixed approach (resource-by-resource)
Review generated changes in the preview
Add custom commit message and PR description
Assign reviewers and set labels
Create pull request directly in your Git repository

PR Content

Each generated pull request includes:

Detailed description of detected drift
Remediation rationale and impact analysis
Before/after configuration comparison
Testing recommendations and validation steps
Rollback instructions if needed

Integration Features

Branch protection rule compliance
Automated testing trigger integration
CI/CD pipeline compatibility
Review requirement enforcement

Best Practices

Monitoring Strategy

Start with daily scans for critical production infrastructure
Use weekly scans for development environments
Monitor high-change resources more frequently
Set up proper alerting for critical drift detection

Remediation Workflow

Review all drift before automated remediation
Test changes in non-production environments first
Document intentional drift to avoid false positives
Maintain drift remediation as part of your regular maintenance

Team Collaboration

Assign drift ownership to specific team members
Establish SLAs for drift remediation
Use PR reviews for all IaC changes
Track remediation metrics and trends

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Scan Failures

Verify cloud account permissions
Check repository access credentials
Ensure IaC files are properly formatted

False Positives

Review resource tags and naming conventions
Check for resources created outside of IaC
Configure drift exclusion rules if needed

Performance Issues

Limit scan scope for large infrastructures
Use incremental scans for frequent monitoring
Contact support for optimization recommendations

For additional help, visit our troubleshooting guide or contact our support team.

Getting Started

Setup & Configuration

Features

Support