Walkthrough: Automatically update PV drivers on EC2 instances for Windows Server (console)

Amazon Windows Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) contain a set of drivers to permit access to virtualized hardware. These drivers are used by Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to map instance store and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes to their devices. We recommend that you install the latest drivers to improve stability and performance of your EC2 instances for Windows Server. For more information about PV drivers, see AWS PV Drivers.

The following walkthrough shows you how to configure a State Manager association to automatically download and install new AWS PV drivers when the drivers become available. State Manager is a capability of AWS Systems Manager.

Before you begin

Before you complete the following procedure, verify that you have at least one Amazon EC2 instance for Windows Server running that is configured for Systems Manager. For more information, see Setting up AWS Systems Manager.

To create a State Manager association that automatically updates PV drivers

1. Open the AWS Systems Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose State Manager.

3. Choose Create association.

4. In the Name field, enter a descriptive name for the association.

5. In the Document list, choose AWS-ConfigureAWSPackage.

6. In the Parameters area, do the following:

   • For Action, choose Install.

   • For Installation type, choose Uninstall and reinstall.

     Note

     In-place upgrades are not supported for this package. It must be uninstalled and reinstalled.

   • For Name, enter AWSPVDriver.

     You don't need to enter anything for Version and Additional Arguments.

7. In the Targets section, choose the managed nodes on which you want to run this operation by specifying tags, selecting instances or edge devices manually, or specifying a resource group.

   Tip

   If a managed node you expect to see isn't listed, see Troubleshooting managed node availability for troubleshooting tips.

   Note

   If you choose to target instances by using tags, and you specify tags that map to Linux instances, the association succeeds on the Windows instance but fails on the Linux instances. The overall status of the association shows Failed.

8. In the Specify schedule area, choose whether to run the association on a schedule that you configure, or just once. Updated PV drivers are released a several times a year, so you can schedule the association to run once a month, if you want.

9. In the Advanced options area, for Compliance severity, choose a severity level for the association. Compliance reporting indicates whether the association state is compliant or noncompliant, along with the severity level you indicate here. For more information, see About State Manager association compliance.

10. For Rate control:

    • For Concurrency, specify either a number or a percentage of managed nodes on which to run the command at the same time.

      Note

      If you selected targets by specifying tags applied to managed nodes or by specifying AWS resource groups, and you aren't certain how many managed nodes are targeted, then restrict the number of targets that can run the document at the same time by specifying a percentage.

    • For Error threshold, specify when to stop running the command on other managed nodes after it fails on either a number or a percentage of nodes. For example, if you specify three errors, then Systems Manager stops sending the command when the fourth error is received. Managed nodes still processing the command might also send errors.

11. (Optional) For Output options, to save the command output to a file, select the Enable writing output to S3 box. Enter the bucket and prefix (folder) names in the boxes.

    Note

    The S3 permissions that grant the ability to write the data to an S3 bucket are those of the instance profile assigned to the managed node, not those of the IAM user performing this task. For more information, see Configure instance permissions required for Systems Manager or Create an IAM service role for a hybrid environment. In addition, if the specified S3 bucket is in a different AWS account, verify that the instance profile or IAM service role associated with the managed node has the necessary permissions to write to that bucket.

12. (Optional) In the CloudWatch alarm section, for Alarm name, choose a CloudWatch alarm to apply to your association for monitoring.

    Note

    Note the following information about this step.

    • The alarms list displays a maximum of 100 alarms. If you don't see your alarm in the list, use the AWS Command Line Interface to create the association. For more information, see Create an association (command line).

    • To attach a CloudWatch alarm to your command, the IAM principal that creates the association must have permission for the iam:createServiceLinkedRole action. For more information about CloudWatch alarms, see Using Amazon CloudWatch alarms.

    • If your alarm activates, any pending command invocations or automations do not run.

13. Choose Create association, and then choose Close. The system attempts to create the association on the instances and immediately apply the state.

    If you created the association on one or more Amazon EC2 instances for Windows Server, the status changes to Success. If your instances aren't configured for Systems Manager, or if you inadvertently targeted Linux instances, the status shows Failed.

    If the status is Failed, choose the association ID, choose the Resources tab, and then verify that the association was successfully created on your EC2 instances for Windows Server. If EC2 instances for Windows Server show a status of Failed, verify that the SSM Agent is running on the instance, and verify that the instance is configured with an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role for Systems Manager. For more information, see Setting up AWS Systems Manager.