this role install awslog agent which sends syslog to cloudwatch. the default config sends /var/log/messages to cloudwatch. the default config is shown below.
[/var/log/messages] datetime_format = %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S file = /var/log/messages buffer_duration = 5000 log_stream_name = {hostname} initial_position = start_of_file log_group_name = linux-syslog
instances need the following cloudwatch log permissions. Create a policy with these privileges and attach as instance role