{ "id": "f8a344ae-936f-4656-8610-4b3b8a0b63bd", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:13:43.898684Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:24:29.945711Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "c7d12fe056d2324d00887b1fbf0cb413b1858f75", "title": "What is AWS Systems Manager?", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 81064, "plain_text": "What is AWS Systems Manager?\r\nArchived: 2026-04-05 15:03:08 UTC\r\nAWS Systems Manager helps you centrally view, manage, and operate nodes at scale in AWS, on-premises, and\r\nmulticloud environments. With the launch of a unified console experience, Systems Manager consolidates various\r\ntools to help you complete common node tasks across AWS accounts and AWS Regions.\r\nTo use Systems Manager, nodes must be managed, which means SSM Agent is installed on the machine and the\r\nagent can communicate with the Systems Manager service. To help you identify why nodes aren't reporting as\r\nmanaged, Systems Manager offers a one-click agent issue diagnosis and remediation runbook that you can\r\nconfigure to run automatically according to a schedule you define. This feature helps identify why nodes can't\r\nconnect to Systems Manager, including networking misconfigurations. This feature also provides recommended\r\nrunbooks for remediating networking issues and other problems preventing nodes from being configured as\r\nmanaged nodes.\r\nThe unified console experience also includes a dashboard that provides a high-level overview of your nodes. You\r\ncan drill down for more specific node insights such as which nodes are running outdated operating system (OS)\r\nsoftware. You can also use filters for granular views based on instance metadata like OSs and OS versions, AWS\r\nRegions, AWS accounts, and SSM Agent versions. These filters help you retrieve relevant information at a\r\nspecific account level or application level across your entire organization.\r\nTopics\r\nHow can Systems Manager benefit my operations?\r\nWho should use Systems Manager?\r\nWhat are the main features of Systems Manager?\r\nSupported AWS Regions\r\nAccessing Systems Manager\r\nSystems Manager service name history\r\nSupported operating systems and machine types\r\nWhat is the unified console?\r\nHow can Systems Manager benefit my operations?\r\nBenefits of Systems Manager include the following:\r\nEnhance visibility across your entire infrastructure\r\nhttps://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html\r\nPage 1 of 5\n\nSystems Manager provides a centralized view of nodes across your organization's accounts and Regions.\r\nQuickly access instance information such as ID, name, OS details, and installed agents. Use Amazon Q\r\nDeveloper to query instance metadata using natural language, helping you identify issues and take action\r\nfaster.\r\nBoost operational efficiency with automation\r\nAutomate common operational tasks and reduce time and effort required to maintain your systems.\r\nSystems Manager provides safe and secure remote management of your nodes at scale without logging into\r\nyour servers. You no longer need to use bastion hosts, SSH, or remote PowerShell. Systems Manager also\r\nprovides a simple way of automating common administrative tasks across groups of nodes such as registry\r\nedits, user management, and software and patch installations.\r\nSimplify node management at scale in any environment\r\nSystems Manager helps you manage nodes across AWS, on-premises, and multicloud environments.\r\nSchedule automated diagnoses to identify SSM Agent issues and remediate them with one-click runbooks.\r\nAfter your nodes are configured as managed nodes, you can execute critical operational tasks such as\r\napplying security patches, initiating logged sessions, and running commands remotely.\r\nWho should use Systems Manager?\r\nSystems Manager is used by IT operations managers and operators, DevOps engineers, security and compliance\r\nmanagers, and IT directors and CIOs. Broadly speaking, Systems Manager is appropriate for the following:\r\nOrganizations that want to improve the management and security of their nodes at scale.\r\nOrganizations that want to increase visibility and operational agility when managing their infrastructure.\r\nOrganizations that want to increase operational efficiency at scale.\r\nWhat are the main features of Systems Manager?\r\nThe primary features of Systems Manager are shared between the unified console and the individual tools Systems\r\nManager provides to help you manage nodes at scale.\r\nUnified console\r\nThe unified console provides a centralized experience to view and manage your nodes. This console leverages\r\nseveral Systems Manager tools and more to provide you with the following:\r\nCentralized views of your nodes\r\nDetailed node insights\r\nAutomated diagnosis and remediation of common node issues\r\nFor more information about the unified console, see What is the unified console?.\r\nhttps://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html\r\nPage 2 of 5\n\nTools\r\nTools consist of the individual capabilities of Systems Manager and their features such as Run Command, Session\r\nManager, Automation, and Parameter Store. With Systems Manager tools you can do the following:\r\nJust-in-time access node access\r\nPatch nodes at scale\r\nSecurely connect to nodes without opening inbound ports\r\nRun commands remotely on nodes\r\nSecurely store data referenced by applications\r\nAutomate common systems administration tasks\r\nFor more information about Systems Manager tools, see Using AWS Systems Manager tools.\r\nSupported AWS Regions\r\nFor a list of AWS Regions that support Systems Manager tools, see Systems Manager service endpoints in the\r\nAmazon Web Services General Reference.\r\nThe unified Systems Manager console, released on November 21, 2024, is available in the following AWS\r\nRegions:\r\nUS East (N. Virginia) Region\r\nUS East (Ohio) Region\r\nUS West (N. California) Region\r\nUS West (Oregon) Region\r\nCanada (Central) Region\r\nSouth America (São Paulo) Region\r\nAsia Pacific (Mumbai) Region\r\nAsia Pacific (Tokyo) Region\r\nAsia Pacific (Seoul) Region\r\nAsia Pacific (Singapore) Region\r\nAsia Pacific (Sydney) Region\r\nEurope (Frankfurt) Region\r\nhttps://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html\r\nPage 3 of 5\n\nEurope (Stockholm) Region\r\nEurope (Ireland) Region\r\nEurope (London) Region\r\nEurope (Paris) Region\r\nAccessing Systems Manager\r\nYou can work with Systems Manager in any of the following ways:\r\nSystems Manager console\r\nThe Systems Manager console is a browser-based interface to access and use Systems Manager.\r\nAWS IoT Greengrass V2 console\r\nYou can view and manage edge devices that are configured for AWS IoT Greengrass in the Greengrass\r\nconsole.\r\nAWS command line tools\r\nBy using the AWS command line tools, you can issue commands at your system's command line to\r\nperform Systems Manager and other AWS tasks. The tools are supported on Linux, macOS, and Windows.\r\nUsing the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) can be faster and more convenient than using the\r\nconsole. The command line tools also are useful if you want to build scripts that perform AWS tasks.\r\nAWS provides two sets of command line tools: the AWS Command Line Interface and the AWS Tools for\r\nWindows PowerShell. For information about installing and using the AWS CLI, see the AWS Command\r\nLine Interface User Guide. For information about installing and using the Tools for Windows PowerShell,\r\nsee the AWS Tools for PowerShell User Guide.\r\nNote\r\nOn your Windows Server instances, Windows PowerShell 3.0 or later is required to run certain SSM\r\ndocuments (for example, the legacy AWS-ApplyPatchBaseline document). Verify that your Windows\r\nServer instances are running Windows Management Framework 3.0 or later. The framework includes\r\nWindows PowerShell.\r\nAWS SDKs\r\nAWS provides software development kits (SDKs) that consist of libraries and sample code for various\r\nprogramming languages and platforms (for example, Java, Python, Ruby, .NET, iOS and Android, and\r\nothers). The SDKs provide a convenient way to grant programmatic access to Systems Manager. For\r\ninformation about the AWS SDKs, including how to download and install them, see Tools for Amazon Web\r\nServices.\r\nhttps://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html\r\nPage 4 of 5\n\nSystems Manager service name history\r\nAWS Systems Manager (Systems Manager) was formerly known as \"Amazon Simple Systems Manager (SSM)\"\r\nand \"Amazon EC2 Systems Manager (SSM)\". The original abbreviated name of the service, \"SSM\", is still\r\nreflected in various AWS resources, including a few other service consoles. Some examples:\r\nSystems Manager Agent: SSM Agent\r\nSystems Manager parameters: SSM parameters\r\nSystems Manager service endpoints: ssm. region .amazonaws.com\r\nAWS CloudFormation resource types: AWS::SSM::Document\r\nAWS Config rule identifier: EC2_INSTANCE_MANAGED_BY_SSM\r\nAWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands: aws ssm describe-patch-baselines\r\nAWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) managed policy names: AmazonSSMReadOnlyAccess\r\nSystems Manager resource ARNs: arn:aws:ssm: region : account-id :patchbaseline/pb-07d8884178EXAMPLE\r\nSource: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html\r\nhttps://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html\r\nPage 5 of 5", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "MITRE" ], "references": [ "https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/what-is-systems-manager.html" ], "report_names": [ "what-is-systems-manager.html" ], "threat_actors": [ { "id": "aa73cd6a-868c-4ae4-a5b2-7cb2c5ad1e9d", "created_at": "2022-10-25T16:07:24.139848Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:04.878798Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "Safe", "aliases": [], "source_name": "ETDA:Safe", "tools": [ "DebugView", "LZ77", "OpenDoc", "SafeDisk", "TypeConfig", "UPXShell", "UsbDoc", "UsbExe" ], "source_id": "ETDA", "reports": null } ], "ts_created_at": 1775434423, "ts_updated_at": 1775791469, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/c7d12fe056d2324d00887b1fbf0cb413b1858f75.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/c7d12fe056d2324d00887b1fbf0cb413b1858f75.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/c7d12fe056d2324d00887b1fbf0cb413b1858f75.jpg" } }