AWS Cloud Operations Blog

Category: AWS Systems Manager

Managing AWS resources across multiple accounts and Regions using AWS Systems Manager Automation

AWS Systems Manager Automation simplifies common administrative and maintenance tasks of AWS resources. Using Systems Manager Automation, you can execute predefined tasks/workflows in the form of AWS Systems Manager documents (SSM documents) that you can write yourself or use community published documents. A SSM document defines the actions that Systems Manager performs on your AWS […]

How to patch Windows EC2 instances in private subnets Using AWS Systems Manager

Patching Windows instances in private subnets could be challenging since those Amazon EC2 instances have no internet connectivity. In this blog post we explain how to use AWS Systems Manager and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to keep those instances updated. We’ll create a new VPC with the proper endpoints, security groups, and network access […]

AWS-ApplyDSCMofs Document Diagram

Run compliance enforcement and view compliant and non-compliant instances using AWS Systems Manager and PowerShell DSC

Point-and-click management randomizes servers with every single change made. It’s great to configure your servers with code. In addition, having automation to manage server configuration and compliance helps companies save time, improve availability, and lower the risks associated with up-time and security. However, the learning experience and administrative effort required to maintain such an environment […]

Centralized multi-account and multi-Region patching with AWS Systems Manager Automation

Update 01/2023: AWS Systems Manager announces Patch Policies, enabling cross account and cross Region patching. Patch Policies provide a user experience in a single console to easily define and enforce patch compliance across accounts and Regions with a few clicks. For more information, see Centrally deploy patching operations across your AWS Organization using Systems Manager […]

Using AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store Secure String parameters in AWS CloudFormation templates

When using AWS CloudFormation templates to code your infrastructure, you should consider applying best practices to improve the maintainability of your code. Further, these best practices should be augmented by guidelines like those outlined for twelve-factor apps, which are targeted at optimizing applications for continuous deployment. Of these factors, you should note that you should […]

TCS hybrid cloud patch management at scale using AWS Systems Manager

By Giridharan Varatharajan, Cloud Delivery Platform Architecture lead at TCS and Madhavan Ananthachari, Cloud Delivery Platform Engineering lead at TCS Introduction Now that multitenancy in the cloud is driving IT operation costs down, large enterprises are seeking seamless service delivery methods that address day-to-day activities in your cloud environment. AWS partner Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) […]

Use new resource types in AWS Resource Groups to support day-to-day operations

AWS Resource Groups recently announced its support for additional resource types, including Amazon DynamoDB tables, AWS CloudTrail trails, Amazon SageMaker models, and many more. This blog post will walk you through some examples of how you could use AWS Resource Groups, and its new resource type support to drive some of your day-to-day operations. AWS […]

Smart RDP and SSH remediation with AWS Systems Manager Automation API actions

Here in AWS Support, I often help customers regain RDP or SSH access to their instances. It’s a common problem, but the identification of a correct solution could take some time, even hours or days if the right information isn’t available. Even with the most up-to-date playbook, it is easy to miss simple checks that […]

Onica demonstrates uses for new AWS Systems Manager Automation actions

AWS Partner Guest Post By Eric Miller, VP of Solutions Development for Onica, a Premier Tier APN Consulting Partner As an AWS DevOps Competency Partner, Onica helps our customers across a wide variety of challenging automation problems. One very important suite of tools in our AWS toolbox is AWS Systems Manager. AWS Systems Manager simplifies […]

How Datacom solved hybrid risk management with AWS Systems Manager

The content and opinions in this post are those of the third-party author and AWS is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this post. This post is from Chris Coombs at Datacom, and Samual Brown, Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS. Datacom is an AWS Premier Partner providing migration, transformation and managed services […]