Systems Manager

Solution Architect

Developer Associate

Security Specialty

  • A suite of tools designed to let you view, control and automate both your AWS architecture and on-premises resources
  • Features:
    • Runbooks / Automation Documents: Can be used to control your instances or AWS resources
    • Run Command: Executes commands on your hosts using the installed system agent. Can be done individually or at a fleet level
    • Patch Management: Manages application versions
    • Parameter Store: Securely stores system/secret values
    • Hybrid Activations: Control your on-premises architecture
    • Session Manager: Remotely connect and interact with your architecture through your web browser

Systems Manager Parameter Store

  • Free service!
  • Located within EC2
  • Used to store sensitive configuration data, like license keys, database connection strings, etc. for use in other AWS services
  • You can store as a string, a string list, or a secure string (which will be encrypted by KMS)
    • Secure strings are not revealed unless your IAM user has the appropriate level of access in the AWS console.
  • No key rortation is supported
  • Maximum parameters capped at 10,000

Systems Manager Session Manager

  • Enables secure remote login to EC2 instances
  • Allows you to run an interactive Command Line on your instances
  • An alternative to using SSH and RDP, but is more secure
  • Browser Based
  • Single solution for managing Linux and Windows
  • No SSH, No bastion required
  • Is the AWS Recommened approach for running interactive command line sessions on EC2 instances
  • Can also be used for on premisis physical or virtual hosts
  • Secured using TLS encryption and fully auditable
  • Can control who can use Session Manager using IAM
  • No ports to open on your network
  • Session logs logged within CloudTrail, session history with Keystroke Logging sent to CloudWatch