AWS Cloud Operations Blog

Category: AWS Systems Manager

Integrating existing AWS CloudTrail configurations when launching AWS Control Tower

The customers that we work with often use multiple AWS accounts to meet their business needs. These multi-account environments are built based on the guidelines that AWS published. Customers have created custom mechanisms using AWS Organizations, AWS CloudTrail, and other AWS services to implement the guidelines. AWS Created the AWS Control Tower service as a […]

Using AWS AppConfig Feature Flags

AWS has a native feature flagging solution, AWS AppConfig Feature Flags. Feature flags are a powerful tool that allow engineers to safely push out new features to customers, but doing so in a measured and usually gradual way. In this blog post, you will learn about what feature flags are, what are the benefits to […]

Why you should develop a correction of error (COE)

Application reliability is critical. Service interruptions result in a negative customer experience, thereby reducing customer trust and business value. One best practice that we have learned at Amazon, is to have a standard mechanism for post-incident analysis. This lets us analyze a system after an incident in order to avoid reoccurrences in the future. These […]

Cross-account configuration with AWS AppConfig

Customers will often start using various AWS services through a single AWS account. As customers continue their AWS journey, they increase the number and diversity of workloads operating on AWS. Furthermore, as the number of users grows, managing this account becomes difficult and time consuming. Then, customers create more accounts for multiple users. This helps […]

Avoid zero-day vulnerabilities with same-day security patching using AWS Systems Manager

This post was co-authored by Jordan Koch at Veradigm. Applying operating systems patches is one of the easiest ways to secure a system from ever-changing cybersecurity threats. However, for many organizations it is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks. Many organizations deploy operating system patches through their various environments, first applying to Development, […]

Use AWS Systems Manager Automation to automate Snowflake storage integrations with Amazon S3

AWS Systems Manager lets you safely automate common and repetitive IT operations and management tasks. Furthermore, Systems Manager Automation lets you use predefined playbooks, or you can build, run, and share wiki-style automated playbooks to enable AWS resource management across multiple accounts and AWS Regions. Snowflake, the Data Cloud, is an APN Partner that provides […]

How CloudFix uses AWS Systems Manager Change Manager to deliver cost savings

For years, the CloudFix team has managed and maintained 120+ AWS hosted SaaS products across hundreds of AWS accounts. Although this model follows established AWS best practices, the team’s scope introduced operational challenges. Their team needed a way to identify cost-saving opportunities across their applications without making architectural compromises or introducing service disruption. The team […]

Use AWS Systems Manager custom Inventory to locate Log4j files on managed nodes

In this post we will provide guidance to assist customers responding to the recently disclosed Log4j vulnerability by detailing how to use AWS Systems Manager Inventory to locate Log4j JAR files on Linux and Windows Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances and hybrid managed nodes. A hybrid managed node includes on-premises servers, edge devices, and virtual […]

How to search through your AWS Systems Manager Session Manager console logs – Part 1

AWS Systems Manager (SSM) in combination with AWS Key Management Services (KMS), Amazon CloudWatch, and Amazon OpenSearch allow administrators to encrypt and securely store user session logs, as well as search the log data for information. These tools are easy to integrate and provide powerful analytical capabilities without the undifferentiated heavy lifting. In this series, […]

How to search through your AWS Systems Manager Session Manager console logs – Part 2

AWS System Manager in combination with Amazon Key Management Services (KMS), Amazon CloudWatch, and Amazon Open Search can provide administrators with the ability to encrypt and securely store user session logs and search the log data for information. These tools are easy to integrate and provide powerful analytical capabilities without undifferentiated heavy lifting. In the […]