---
title: CloudWatch without retention period specified
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > Datadog Security > Code Security > Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  Security > IaC Security Rules > CloudWatch without retention period specified
---

# CloudWatch without retention period specified

{% callout %}
# Important note for users on the following Datadog sites: app.ddog-gov.com

{% alert level="danger" %}
This product is not supported for your selected [Datadog site](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/site.md). ().
{% /alert %}

{% /callout %}

## Metadata{% #metadata %}

**Id:** `e24e18d9-4c2b-4649-b3d0-18c088145e24`

**Cloud Provider:** AWS

**Platform:** Ansible

**Severity:** Low

**Category:** Observability

#### Learn More{% #learn-more %}

- [Provider Reference](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/amazon/aws/cloudwatchlogs_log_group_module.html)

### Description{% #description %}

CloudWatch Log Groups must have a defined retention period to retain logs for incident investigation and regulatory compliance. Without one, indefinite retention increases storage costs and the risk of long-term data exposure.

For Ansible tasks using `amazon.aws.cloudwatchlogs_log_group` or `cloudwatchlogs_log_group`, the `retention` property must be set to one of the AWS-supported retention periods: [1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 365, 400, 545, 731, 1096, 1827, 2192, 2557, 2922, 3288, 3653]. Resources missing `retention` or with a value not in this list are flagged as misconfigured.

Secure configuration example:

```
- name: Create CloudWatch log group with retention
  amazon.aws.cloudwatchlogs_log_group:
    name: my-log-group
    retention: 365
```

## Compliant Code Examples{% #compliant-code-examples %}

```yaml
- name: example3 ec2 group
  amazon.aws.cloudwatchlogs_log_group:
    log_group_name: test-log-group
    retention: 5
```

## Non-Compliant Code Examples{% #non-compliant-code-examples %}

```yaml
- name: example ec2 group
  amazon.aws.cloudwatchlogs_log_group:
    log_group_name: test-log-group
- name: example2 ec2 group
  amazon.aws.cloudwatchlogs_log_group:
    log_group_name: test-log-group
    retention: 111111
```