Install SSM Agent on RHEL 6.x - AWS Systems Manager

Install SSM Agent on RHEL 6.x

The Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for RHEL 6 that are provided by AWS do not come with AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) preinstalled by default. Use the information on this page to help you install or reinstall the agent on RHEL 6 instances.

Quick installation commands for SSM Agent on RHEL 6

Use the following steps to manually install SSM Agent on a single instance. This procedure uses globally available installation files.

To install SSM Agent on RHEL 6.x
  1. Connect to your RHEL 6 instance using your preferred method, such as SSH.

  2. Copy the command for your instance’s architecture and run it on the instance.

    Note

    Even though URLs in the following commands include an ec2-downloads-windows directory, these are the correct global installation files for RHEL 6.

    The following commands specify the version directory 3.0.1479.0 instead of a latest directory. This is because SSM Agent version 3.1 and later are not supported for RHEL 6.

    x86_64 instances
    sudo yum install -y https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/3.0.1479.0/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
    x86 instances
    sudo yum install -y https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/3.0.1479.0/linux_386/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
  3. (Recommended) Run the following command to verify that the agent is running.

    sudo status amazon-ssm-agent

    In most cases, the command reports that the agent is running, as shown in the following example.

    amazon-ssm-agent start/running, process 1788

    In rare cases, the command reports that the agent is installed but not running, as shown in the following example.

    amazon-ssm-agent stop/waiting

    To activate the agent in these cases, run the following command.

    sudo start amazon-ssm-agent

Create custom agent installation commands for RHEL 6 in your Region

When you install SSM Agent on multiple instances using a script or template, we recommended using installation files that are stored in the AWS Region you're working in.

For the following commands, we provide examples that use a publicly accessible S3 bucket in the US East (Ohio) Region (us-east-2).

Tip

You can also replace a global URL in the procedure Quick installation commands for SSM Agent on RHEL 6 earlier in this topic with a custom Regional URL you construct.

In the following command, replace region with your own information. For a list of supported region values, see the Region column in Systems Manager service endpoints in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.

Note

The following commands specify the version directory 3.0.1390.0 instead of a latest directory. This is because SSM Agent version 3.1 and later are not supported for RHEL 6.

x86_64
sudo yum install -y https://s3.region.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-region/3.0.1479.0/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm

See the following example.

sudo yum install -y https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-us-east-2/3.0.1479.0/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
x86
sudo yum install -y https://s3.region.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-region/3.0.1479.0/linux_386/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm

See the following example.

sudo yum install -y https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-us-east-2/3.0.1479.0/linux_386/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm