Using roles to collect inventory and view OpsData
Systems Manager uses the service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
. AWS Systems Manager uses this IAM service role to manage AWS resources on your behalf.
Service-linked role permissions for inventory, OpsData, and OpsItems
The AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role trusts only
ssm.amazonaws.com
to assume this role.
You can use the Systems Manager service-linked role AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
for the
following:
-
The Systems Manager Inventory tool uses the service-linked role
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
to collect inventory metadata from tags and resource groups. -
The Explorer tool uses the service-linked role
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
to enable viewing OpsData and OpsItems from multiple accounts. This service-linked role also allows Explorer to create a managed rule when you enable Security Hub as a data source from Explorer or OpsCenter.
Important
Previously, the Systems Manager console provided you with the ability to choose
the AWS managed IAM service-linked role
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
to use as the maintenance
role for your tasks. Using this role and its associated policy,
AmazonSSMServiceRolePolicy
, for maintenance window tasks is no
longer recommended. If you're using this role for maintenance window
tasks now, we encourage you to stop using it. Instead, create your own
IAM role that enables communication between Systems Manager and other AWS services
when your maintenance window tasks run.
For more information, see Setting up Maintenance Windows.
The managed policy that is used to provide permissions for the
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
role is AmazonSSMServiceRolePolicy
.
For details about the permissions it grants, see AWS managed
policy: AmazonSSMServiceRolePolicy.
Creating the
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role for
Systems Manager
You can use the IAM console to create a service-linked role with the
EC2 use case. Using commands for IAM in the AWS Command Line Interface
(AWS CLI) or using the IAM API, create a service-linked role with the
ssm.amazonaws.com
service name. For more information,
see Creating a service-linked role in the
IAM User Guide.
If you delete this service-linked role, and then need to create it again, you can use the same process to recreate the role in your account.
Editing the
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role for
Systems Manager
Systems Manager doesn't allow you to edit the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you can't change
the name of the role because various entities might reference the role. However,
you can edit the description of the role using IAM. For more information, see
Editing a service-linked role in the
IAM User Guide.
Deleting the
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role for
Systems Manager
If you no longer need to use any feature or service that requires a service-linked role, then we recommend that you delete that role. That way you don’t have an unused entity that isn't actively monitored or maintained. You can use the IAM console, the AWS CLI, or the IAM API to manually delete the service-linked role. To do this, you must first manually clean up the resources for your service-linked role, and then you can manually delete it.
Because the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role can be used by
multiple tools, ensure that none are using the role before attempting to delete
it.
-
Inventory: If you delete the service-linked role used by the Inventory tool, then the Inventory data for tags and resource groups will no longer be synchronized. You must clean up the resources for your service-linked role before you can manually delete it.
-
Explorer: If you delete the service-linked role used by the Explorer tool, then the cross-account and cross-Region OpsData and OpsItems are no longer viewable.
Note
If the Systems Manager service is using the role when you try to delete tags or resource groups, then the deletion might fail. If that happens, wait for a few minutes and try the operation again.
To delete Systems Manager resources used by the
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
-
To delete tags, see Add and delete tags on an individual resource.
-
To delete resource groups, see Delete groups from AWS Resource Groups.
To manually delete the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role using IAM
Use the IAM console, the AWS CLI, or the IAM API to delete the
AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role. For more information, see
Deleting a service-linked role in the
IAM User Guide.
Supported Regions for the
Systems Manager AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked role
Systems Manager supports using the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonSSM
service-linked
role in all of the AWS Regions where the service is available. For more
information, see AWS Systems Manager endpoints and quotas.