State Management
Systems Manager State Manager is a secure and scalable service that automates the process of keeping your Amazon EC2 and hybrid infrastructure in a state that you define. You can use State Manager to ensure that your instances are bootstrapped with specific software at startup, configured according to your security policy, joined to a Windows domain, or patched with specific software updates throughout their lifecycle. You can also use State Manager to execute Linux shell scripts or Windows PowerShell scripts at different times during the lifecycle of an instance.
State Manager integrates with AWS CloudTrail to keep an audit trail of all association executions.
Information for Windows Users
See State Management in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Windows Instances.
How It Works
You start by specifying the state you want to apply to your managed instances (for example, applications to bootstrap or network settings to configure) in a Systems Manager command or policy document. These documents are written in JSON and are called simply documents. Next, you bind the document to targets by using the AWS CLI or the Amazon EC2 console. You can target instance IDs or EC2 tags. The binding of the document to a target is called an association. After you associate your instance with a specific policy document, the instance remains in the state that you want because State Manager reapplies the state defined in the associated document according to the schedule that you define.
Getting Started with State Manager
To get started with State Manager, complete the following tasks.
| Task | For More Information |
|---|---|
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Update the SSM Agent on your EC2 instances to the latest version. | |
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Configure your on-premises servers and VMs for Systems Manager. After you configure them, they are described as managed instances. | |
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Verify Systems Manager prerequisites. | |
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Create a policy document that defines the actions to perform on your instances. | |
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Create and apply the association to your instances. |
