Patch Manager prerequisites

Make sure that you have met the required prerequisites before using Patch Manager, a tool in AWS Systems Manager.

SSM Agent version

Version 2.0.834.0 or later of SSM Agent is running on the managed node you want to manage with Patch Manager.

Note

An updated version of SSM Agent is released whenever new tools are added to Systems Manager or updates are made to existing tools. Failing to use the latest version of the agent can prevent your managed node from using various Systems Manager tools and features. For that reason, we recommend that you automate the process of keeping SSM Agent up to date on your machines. For information, see Automating updates to SSM Agent. Subscribe to the SSM Agent Release Notes page on GitHub to get notifications about SSM Agent updates.

Python version

For macOS and most Linux operating systems (OSs), Patch Manager currently supports Python versions 2.6 - 3.10. The AlmaLinux, Debian Server, Raspberry Pi OS, and Ubuntu Server OSs require a supported version of Python 3 (3.0 - 3.10).

Connectivity to the patch source

If your managed nodes don't have a direct connection to the Internet and you're using an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) with a VPC endpoint, you must ensure that the nodes have access to the source patch repositories (repos). On Linux nodes, patch updates are typically downloaded from the remote repos configured on the node. Therefore, the node must be able to connect to the repos so the patching can be performed. For more information, see How security patches are selected.

CentOS and CentOS Stream: Enable the EnableNonSecurity flag

CentOS 6 and 7 managed nodes use Yum as the package manager. CentOS 8 and CentOS Stream nodes use DNF as the package manager. Both package managers use the concept of an update notice. An update notice is simply a collection of packages that fix specific problems.

However, CentOS and CentOS Stream default repos aren't configured with an update notice. This means that Patch Manager doesn't detect packages on default CentOS and CentOS Stream repos. To allow Patch Manager to process packages that aren't contained in an update notice, you must turn on the EnableNonSecurity flag in the patch baseline rules.

Windows Server: Ensure connectivity to Windows Update Catalog or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

Windows Server managed nodes must be able to connect to the Windows Update Catalog or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). Confirm that your nodes have connectivity to the Microsoft Update Catalog through an internet gateway, NAT gateway, or NAT instance. If you are using WSUS, confirm that the node has connectivity to the WSUS server in your environment. For more information, see Issue: managed node doesn't have access to Windows Update Catalog or WSUS.

S3 endpoint access

Whether your managed nodes operate in a private or public network, without access to the required AWS managed Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) buckets, patching operations fail. For information about the S3 buckets your managed nodes must be able to access, see SSM Agent communications with AWS managed S3 buckets and Improve the security of EC2 instances by using VPC endpoints for Systems Manager.

Permissions to install patches locally

On Windows Server and Linux operating systems, Patch Manager assumes the Administrator and root user accounts, respectively, to install patches.

On macOS, however, for Brew and Brew Cask, Homebrew doesn't support its commands running under the root user account. As a result, Patch Manager queries for and runs Homebrew commands as either the owner of the Homebrew directory, or as a valid user belonging to the Homebrew directory’s owner group. Therefore, in order to install patches, the owner of the homebrew directory also needs recursive owner permissions for the /usr/local directory.

Tip

The following command provides this permission for the specified user:

sudo chown -R $USER:admin /usr/local

Supported operating systems for Patch Manager

The Patch Manager tool doesn't support all the same operating systems versions that are supported by other Systems Manager tools. For example, Patch Manager doesn't support CentOS 6.3 or Raspberry Pi OS 8 (Jessie). (For the full list of Systems Manager-supported operating systems, see Supported operating systems for Systems Manager.) Therefore, ensure that the managed nodes you want to use with Patch Manager are running one of the operating systems listed in the following table.

Note

Patch Manager relies on the patch repositories that are configured on a managed node, such as Windows Update Catalog and Windows Server Update Services for Windows, to retrieve available patches to install. Therefore, for end of life (EOL) operating system versions, if no new updates are available, Patch Manager might not be able to report on the new updates. This can be because no new updates are released by the Linux distribution maintainer, Microsoft, or Apple, or because the managed node does not have the proper license to access the new updates.

Patch Manager reports compliance status against the available patches on the managed node. Therefore, if an instance is running an EOL operating system, and no updates are available, Patch Manager might report the node as Compliant, depending on the patch baselines configured for the patching operation.

Operating system	Details
Linux	AlmaLinux 8.x, 9.x Amazon Linux 2012.03–2018.03 Amazon Linux 2 version 2.0 and all later versions Amazon Linux 2022 Amazon Linux 2023 CentOS 6.5–7.9, 8.x CentOS Stream 8, 9 Debian Server 8.x, 9.x, 10.x, 11.x, and 12.x Oracle Linux 7.5–8.x, 9.x Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) 9 (Stretch) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5–8.x, 9.x Rocky Linux 8.x, 9.x SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12.0 and later 12.x versions; 15.x Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, 20.10 STR, 22.04 LTS, 23.04, 23.10, 24.04, and 24.10
macOS	macOS is supported for Amazon EC2 instances only. 11.3.1; 11.4–11.7 (Big Sur) 12.0–12.7 (Monterey) 13.0–13.7 (Ventura) 14.x (Sonoma) 15.x (Sequoia) macOS OS updates Patch Manager doesn't support operating system (OS) updates or upgrades for macOS, such as from 12.x to 13.x or 13.1 to 13.2. To perform OS version updates on macOS, we recommend using Apple's built-in OS upgrade mechanisms. For more information, see Device Management on the Apple Developer Documentation website. Homebrew support Patch Manager requires Homebrew, the open-source software package management system, to be installed at either of the following default install locations: /usr/local/bin /opt/homebrew/bin Patching operations using Patch Manager fail to function correctly when Homebrew is not installed. Homebrew has discontinued support for macOS 10.14.x (Mojave) and 10.15.x (Catalina). As a result, patching operations using Patch Manager are not supported for these versions. Region support macOS is not supported in all AWS Regions. For more information about Amazon EC2 support for macOS, see Amazon EC2 Mac instances in the Amazon EC2 User Guide. macOS edge devices SSM Agent for AWS IoT Greengrass core devices is not supported on macOS. You can't use Patch Manager to patch macOS edge devices.
Windows	Windows Server 2008 through Windows Server 2025, including R2 versions. Note SSM Agent for AWS IoT Greengrass core devices is not supported on Windows 10. You can't use Patch Manager to patch Windows 10 edge devices. Windows Server 2008 support As of January 14, 2020, Windows Server 2008 is no longer supported for feature or security updates from Microsoft. Legacy Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 still include version 2 of SSM Agent preinstalled, but Systems Manager no longer officially supports 2008 versions and no longer updates the agent for these versions of Windows Server. In addition, SSM Agent version 3 might not be compatible with all operations on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2. The final officially supported version of SSM Agent for Windows Server 2008 versions is 2.3.1644.0. Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 support Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 reached end of support on October 10, 2023. To use Patch Manager with these versions, we recommend also using Extended Security Updates (ESUs) from Microsoft. For more information, see Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 reaching end of support on the Microsoft website.