This lab illustrates how to connect to an EC2 instance via Systems Manager, a service that offers a central place to view and manage AWS resources.

 

Overview

Benefits of connecting to an instance using Systems Manager:

• it creates a log of all the sessions and
• you don't have to distribute key pairs.

Step 1 - Create a Role

Create a role named EC2RoleForSystemsManager to be attached to the EC2 instance so it can use the Systems Manager service. Go to IAM - Roles - Create Role. Select AWS Service as the trusted entity (i.e., the entity that can assume the role). Then choose EC2 as the use case. Click Next: Permissions. Next select AmazonSSMFullAccess policy and click Next: Tags and then Next: Review. Conclude by giving a name for your role (EC2RoleForSystemsManager) and a description. Make sure you save the role.

Step 2 - Launch Instance

If you choose Amazon Linux 2 AMI it already comes with the SSM agent pre-installed. In step 3 (Configure Instance), make sure to select the IAM role you created previously. Therefore, your EC2 instance will have the ability to use the EC2RoleForSystemsManager role. Because we will be using Systems Manager to connect to our instance, we don't even have to enable ssh access this time.