• The AWS Systems Manager CloudWatch Dashboard will no longer be available after April 30, 2026. Customers can continue to use Amazon CloudWatch console to view, create, and manage their Amazon CloudWatch dashboards, just as they do today. For more information, see [Amazon CloudWatch Dashboard documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch_Dashboards.html). 

# Setting up Session Manager
<a name="session-manager-getting-started"></a>

Before you use AWS Systems Manager Session Manager to connect to the managed nodes in your account, complete the steps in the following topics.

**Topics**
+ [Step 1: Complete Session Manager prerequisites](session-manager-prerequisites.md)
+ [Step 2: Verify or add instance permissions for Session Manager](session-manager-getting-started-instance-profile.md)
+ [Step 3: Control session access to managed nodes](session-manager-getting-started-restrict-access.md)
+ [Step 4: Configure session preferences](session-manager-getting-started-configure-preferences.md)
+ [Step 5: (Optional) Restrict access to commands in a session](session-manager-restrict-command-access.md)
+ [Step 6: (Optional) Use AWS PrivateLink to set up a VPC endpoint for Session Manager](session-manager-getting-started-privatelink.md)
+ [Step 7: (Optional) Turn on or turn off ssm-user account administrative permissions](session-manager-getting-started-ssm-user-permissions.md)
+ [Step 8: (Optional) Allow and control permissions for SSH connections through Session Manager](session-manager-getting-started-enable-ssh-connections.md)