Installing and configuring SSM Agent on EC2 instances for Linux - AWS Systems Manager

Installing and configuring SSM Agent on EC2 instances for Linux

AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) processes Systems Manager requests and configures your machine as specified in the request. Use the following procedures to install, configure, or uninstall SSM Agent.

Important

SSM Agent is preinstalled, by default, on the following Amazon Machine Images (AMIs):

  • Amazon Linux

  • Amazon Linux 2

  • Amazon Linux 2 ECS-Optimized Base AMIs

  • Ubuntu Server 16.04, 18.04, and 20.04

Note

SSM Agent isn't installed on all AMIs based on Amazon Linux or Amazon Linux 2. For example, SSM Agent isn't preinstalled on EKS-Optimized AMIs based on Amazon Linux 2.

You must manually install SSM Agent on EC2 instances created from other Linux AMIs.

The source code for SSM Agent is available on GitHub so that you can adapt the agent to meet your needs. We encourage you to submit pull requests for changes that you would like to have included. However, AWS doesn't provide support for running modified copies of this software.

Note

To view details about the different versions of SSM Agent, see the release notes.

Topics