Manually install SSM Agent on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server instances - AWS Systems Manager

Manually install SSM Agent on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server instances

In most cases, the Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) that are provided by AWS come with AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) preinstalled by default. For more information, see Find AMIs with the SSM Agent preinstalled.

In the event that SSM Agent isn’t preinstalled on a new SLES instance, or if you need to manually reinstall the agent, use the information on this page to help you.

Before you begin

Before you install SSM Agent on a SLES instance, note the following:

Quick installation commands for SSM Agent on SLES

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 SLES using quick copy and paste commands
  1. Connect to your SLES instance using your preferred method, such as SSH.

  2. Option 1: Use a zypper command:

    • Run the following command:

      sudo zypper install amazon-ssm-agent
    • Enter y in response to any prompts.

    Option 2: Use an rpm command.

    • Create a temporary directory on the instance.

      mkdir /tmp/ssm
    • Change to the temporary directory.

      cd /tmp/ssm
    • Run the following commands one at a time to download and run the SSM Agent installer.

      Note

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

      x86_64 instances:

      wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm

      ARM64 instances:

      wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/linux_arm64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
    • Run the following command.

      sudo rpm --install amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
    • (Recommended) Run the following command to verify that the agent is running.

      sudo systemctl status amazon-ssm-agent

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

      ● amazon-ssm-agent.service - amazon-ssm-agent
       Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/amazon-ssm-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
       Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-02-21 23:13:28 UTC; 7s ago
       Main PID: 2102 (amazon-ssm-agen)
       Tasks: 15 (limit: 512)
       CGroup: /system.slice/amazon-ssm-agent.service
       ├─2102 /usr/sbin/amazon-ssm-agent
       └─2107 /usr/sbin/ssm-agent-worker
                  --truncated--

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

      ● amazon-ssm-agent.service - amazon-ssm-agent
         Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/amazon-ssm-agent.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
         Active: inactive (dead)
                  --truncated--

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

      sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent
      sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

Create custom agent installation commands for SLES 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 Amazon Linux 1 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.

x86_64
wget https://s3.region.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-region/latest/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
sudo rpm --install amazon-ssm-agent.rpm

See the following example.

wget https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-us-east-2/latest/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
sudo rpm --install amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
ARM64
wget https://s3.region.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-region/latest/linux_arm64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
sudo rpm --install amazon-ssm-agent.rpm

See the following example.

wget https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-ssm-us-east-2/latest/linux_arm64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
sudo rpm --install amazon-ssm-agent.rpm