Create a package in Distributor - Amazon Systems Manager
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Create a package in Distributor

To create a package, prepare your installable software or assets, one file per operating system platform. At least one file is required to create a package.

Different platforms might sometimes use the same file, but all files that you attach to your package must be listed in the Files section of the manifest. If you're creating a package by using the simple workflow in the console, the manifest is generated for you. The maximum number of files that you can attach to a single document is 20. The maximum size of each file is 1 GB. For more information about supported platforms, see Supported package platforms and architectures.

When you create a package, the system creates a new SSM document. This document allows you to deploy the package to managed nodes.

For demonstration purposes only, an example package, ExamplePackage.zip, is available for you to download from our website. The example package includes a completed JSON manifest and three .zip files containing installers for PowerShell v7.0.0. The installation and uninstallation scripts don't contain valid commands. Although you must zip each software installable and scripts into a .zip file to create a package in the Advanced workflow, you don't zip installable assets in the Simple workflow.

Create a package using the Simple workflow

This section describes how to create a package in Distributor by choosing the Simple package creation workflow in the Distributor console. Distributor is a capability of Amazon Systems Manager. To create a package, prepare your installable assets, one file per operating system platform. At least one file is required to create a package. The Simple package creation process generates installation and uninstallation scripts, file hashes, and a JSON-formatted manifest for you. The Simple workflow handles the process of uploading and zipping your installable files, and creating a new package and associated SSM document. For more information about supported platforms, see Supported package platforms and architectures.

When you use the Simple method to create a package, Distributor creates install and uninstall scripts for you. However, when you create a package for an in-place update, you must provide your own update script content on the Update script tab. When you add input commands for an update script, Distributor includes this script in the .zip package it creates for you, along with the install and uninstall scripts.

Note

Use the In-place update option to add new or updated files to an existing package installation without taking the associated application offline.

To create a package using the Simple workflow
  1. Open the Amazon Systems Manager console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/systems-manager/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Distributor.

  3. On the Distributor home page, choose Create package, and then choose Simple.

  4. On the Create package page, enter a name for your package. Package names can contain letters, numbers, periods, dashes, and underscores. The name should be generic enough to apply to all versions of the package attachments, but specific enough to identify the purpose of the package.

  5. (Optional) For Version name, enter a version name. Version names can be a maximum of 512 characters, and can't contain special characters.

  6. For Location, choose a bucket by using the bucket name and prefix or by using the bucket URL.

  7. For Upload software, choose Add software, and then navigate to installable software files with .rpm, .msi, or .deb extensions. If the file name contains spaces, the upload fails. You can upload more than one software file in a single action.

  8. For Target platform, verify that the target operating system platform shown for each installable file is correct. If the operating system shown isn't correct, choose the correct operating system from the dropdown list.

    For the Simple package creation workflow, because you upload each installable file only once, extra steps are required to instruct Distributor to target a single file at multiple operating systems. For example, if you upload an installable software file named Logtool_v1.1.1.rpm, you must change some defaults in the Simple workflow to target the same software at both Amazon Linux and Ubuntu operating systems. When targeting multiple platforms, do one of the following.

    • Use the Advanced workflow instead, zip each installable file into a .zip file before you begin, and manually author the manifest so that one installable file can be targeted at multiple operating system platforms or versions. For more information, see Create a package using the Advanced workflow.

    • Manually edit the manifest file in the Simple workflow so that your .zip file is targeted at multiple operating system platforms or versions. For more information about how to do this, see the end of step 4 in Step 2: Create the JSON package manifest.

  9. For Platform version, verify that the operating system platform version shown is either _any, a major release version followed by a wildcard (7.*), or the exact operating system release version to which you want your software to apply. For more information about specifying an operating system platform version, see step 4 in Step 2: Create the JSON package manifest.

  10. For Architecture, choose the correct processor architecture for each installable file from the dropdown list. For more information about supported processor architectures, see Supported package platforms and architectures.

  11. (Optional) Expand Scripts, and review the scripts that Distributor generates for your installable software.

  12. (Optional) To provide an update script for use with in-place updates, expand Scripts, choose the Update script tab, and enter your update script commands.

    Systems Manager doesn't generate update scripts on your behalf.

  13. To add more installable software files, choose Add software. Otherwise, go to the next step.

  14. (Optional) Expand Manifest, and review the JSON package manifest that Distributor generates for your installable software. If you changed any information about your software since you began this procedure, such as platform version or target platform, choose Generate manifest to show the updated package manifest.

    You can edit the manifest manually if you want to target a software installable at more than one operating system, as described in step 8. For more information about editing the manifest, see Step 2: Create the JSON package manifest.

  15. Choose Create package.

Wait for Distributor to finish uploading your software and creating your package. Distributor shows upload status for each installable file. Depending on the number and size of packages you're adding, this can take a few minutes. Distributor automatically redirects you to the Package details page for the new package, but you can choose to open this page yourself after the software is uploaded. The Package details page doesn't show all information about your package until Distributor finishes the package creation process. To stop the upload and package creation process, choose Cancel.

If Distributor can't upload any of the software installable files, it displays an Upload failed message. To retry the upload, choose Retry upload. For more information about how to troubleshoot package creation failures, see Troubleshooting Amazon Systems Manager Distributor.

Create a package using the Advanced workflow

In this section, learn about how advanced users can create a package in Distributor after uploading installable assets zipped with installation and uninstallation scripts, and a JSON manifest file, to an Amazon S3 bucket.

To create a package, prepare your .zip files of installable assets, one .zip file per operating system platform. At least one .zip file is required to create a package. Next, create a JSON manifest. The manifest includes pointers to your package code files. When you have your required code files added to a folder or directory, and the manifest is populated with correct values, upload your package to an S3 bucket.

An example package, ExamplePackage.zip, is available for you to download from our website. The example package includes a completed JSON manifest and three .zip files.

Step 1: Create the ZIP files

The foundation of your package is at least one .zip file of software or installable assets. A package includes one .zip file per operating system that you want to support, unless one .zip file can be installed on multiple operating systems. For example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon Linux instances can typically run the same .RPM executable files, so you need to attach only one .zip file to your package to support both operating systems.

Required files

The following items are required in each .zip file:

  • An install and an uninstall script. Windows Server-based managed nodes require PowerShell scripts (scripts named install.ps1 and uninstall.ps1). Linux-based managed nodes require shell scripts (scripts named install.sh and uninstall.sh). SSM Agent runs the instructions in the install and uninstall scripts.

    For example, your installation scripts might run an installer (such as .rpm or .msi), they might copy files, or they might set configurations.

  • An executable file, installer packages (.rpm, .deb, .msi, etc.), other scripts, or configuration files.

Optional files

The following item is optional in each .zip file:

  • An update script. Providing an update script makes it possible for you to use the In-place update option to install a package. When you want to add new or updated files to an existing package installation, the In-place update option doesn't take the package application offline while the update is performed. Windows Server-based managed nodes require a PowerShell script (script named update.ps1). Linux-based managed nodes require a shell script (script named update.sh). SSM Agent runs the instructions in the update script.

For more information about installing or updating packages, see Install or update Distributor packages.

For examples of .zip files, including sample install and uninstall scripts, download the example package, ExamplePackage.zip.

Step 2: Create the JSON package manifest

After you prepare and zip your installable files, create a JSON manifest. The following is a template. The parts of the manifest template are described in the procedure in this section. You can use a JSON editor to create this manifest in a separate file. Alternatively, you can author the manifest in the Amazon Systems Manager console when you create a package.

{ "schemaVersion": "2.0", "version": "your-version", "publisher": "optional-publisher-name", "packages": { "platform": { "platform-version": { "architecture": { "file": ".zip-file-name-1.zip" } } }, "another-platform": { "platform-version": { "architecture": { "file": ".zip-file-name-2.zip" } } }, "another-platform": { "platform-version": { "architecture": { "file": ".zip-file-name-3.zip" } } } }, "files": { ".zip-file-name-1.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "checksum" } }, ".zip-file-name-2.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "checksum" } } } }
To create a JSON package manifest
  1. Add the schema version to your manifest. In this release, the schema version is always 2.0.

    { "schemaVersion": "2.0",
  2. Add a user-defined package version to your manifest. This is also the value of Version name that you specify when you add your package to Distributor. It becomes part of the Amazon Systems Manager document that Distributor creates when you add your package. You also provide this value as an input in the AWS-ConfigureAWSPackage document to install a version of the package other than the latest. A version value can contain letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens, and periods, and be a maximum of 128 characters in length. We recommend that you use a human-readable package version to make it easier for you and other administrators to specify exact package versions when you deploy. The following is an example.

    "version": "1.0.1",
  3. (Optional) Add a publisher name. The following is an example.

    "publisher": "MyOrganization",
  4. Add packages. The "packages" section describes the platforms, release versions, and architectures supported by the .zip files in your package. For more information, see Supported package platforms and architectures.

    The platform-version can be the wildcard value, _any. Use it to indicate that a .zip file supports any release of the platform. You can also specify a major release version followed by a wildcard so all minor versions are supported, for example 7.*. If you choose to specify a platform-version value for a specific operating system version, be sure that it matches the exact release version of the operating system AMI that you're targeting. The following are suggested resources for getting the correct value of the operating system.

    • On a Windows Server-based managed nodes, the release version is available as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) data. You can run the following command from a command prompt to get version information, then parse the results for version.

      wmic OS get /format:list
    • On a Linux-based managed node, get the version by first scanning for operating system release (the following command). Look for the value of VERSION_ID.

      cat /etc/os-release

      If that doesn't return the results that you need, run the following command to get LSB release information from the /etc/lsb-release file, and look for the value of DISTRIB_RELEASE.

      lsb_release -a

      If these methods fail, you can usually find the release based on the distribution. For example, on Debian Server, you can scan the /etc/debian_version file, or on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the /etc/redhat-release file.

      hostnamectl
    "packages": { "platform": { "platform-version": { "architecture": { "file": ".zip-file-name-1.zip" } } }, "another-platform": { "platform-version": { "architecture": { "file": ".zip-file-name-2.zip" } } }, "another-platform": { "platform-version": { "architecture": { "file": ".zip-file-name-3.zip" } } } }

    The following is an example. In this example, the operating system platform is amazon, the supported release version is 2016.09, the architecture is x86_64, and the .zip file that supports this platform is test.zip.

    { "amazon": { "2016.09": { "x86_64": { "file": "test.zip" } } } },

    You can add the _any wildcard value to indicate that the package supports all versions of the parent element. For example, to indicate that the package is supported on any release version of Amazon Linux, your package statement should be similar to the following. You can use the _any wildcard at the version or architecture levels to support all versions of a platform, or all architectures in a version, or all versions and all architectures of a platform.

    { "amazon": { "_any": { "x86_64": { "file": "test.zip" } } } },

    The following example adds _any to show that the first package, data1.zip, is supported for all architectures of Amazon Linux 2016.09. The second package, data2.zip, is supported for all releases of Amazon Linux, but only for managed nodes with x86_64 architecture. Both the 2016.09 and _any versions are entries under amazon. There is one platform (Amazon Linux), but different supported versions, architectures, and associated .zip files.

    { "amazon": { "2016.09": { "_any": { "file": "data1.zip" } }, "_any": { "x86_64": { "file": "data2.zip" } } } }

    You can refer to a .zip file more than once in the "packages" section of the manifest, if the .zip file supports more than one platform. For example, if you have a .zip file that supports both Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x versions and Amazon Linux, you have two entries in the "packages" section that point to the same .zip file, as shown in the following example.

    { "amazon": { "2018.03": { "x86_64": { "file": "test.zip" } } }, "redhat": { "7.*": { "x86_64": { "file": "test.zip" } } } },
  5. Add the list of .zip files that are part of this package from step 4. Each file entry requires the file name and sha256 hash value checksum. Checksum values in the manifest must match the sha256 hash value in the zipped assets to prevent the package installation from failing.

    To get the exact checksum from your installables, you can run the following commands. On Linux, run shasum -a 256 file-name.zip or openssl dgst -sha256 file-name.zip. On Windows, run the Get-FileHash -Path path-to-.zip-file cmdlet in PowerShell.

    The "files" section of the manifest includes one reference to each of the .zip files in your package.

    "files": { "test-agent-x86.deb.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE2706223c7616ca9fb28863a233b38e5a23a8c326bb4ae241dcEXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-x86_64.deb.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE572a745844618c491045f25ee6aae8a66307ea9bff0e9d1052EXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-x86_64.nano.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE63ccb86e830b63dfef46995af6b32b3c52ce72241b5e80c995EXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-rhel5-x86.nano.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE13df60aa3219bf117638167e5bae0a55467e947a363fff0a51EXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-x86.msi.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE12a4abb10315aa6b8a7384cc9b5ca8ad8e9ced8ef1bf0e5478EXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-x86_64.msi.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE63ccb86e830b63dfef46995af6b32b3c52ce72241b5e80c995EXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-rhel5-x86.rpm.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE13df60aa3219bf117638167e5bae0a55467e947a363fff0a51EXAMPLE" } }, "test-agent-rhel5-x86_64.rpm.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE7ce8a2c471a23b5c90761a180fd157ec0469e12ed38a7094d1EXAMPLE" } } }
  6. After you add your package information, save and close the manifest file.

The following is an example of a completed manifest. In this example, you have a .zip file, NewPackage_LINUX.zip, that supports more than one platform, but is referenced in the "files" section only once.

{ "schemaVersion": "2.0", "version": "1.7.1", "publisher": "Amazon Web Services", "packages": { "windows": { "_any": { "x86_64": { "file": "NewPackage_WINDOWS.zip" } } }, "amazon": { "_any": { "x86_64": { "file": "NewPackage_LINUX.zip" } } }, "ubuntu": { "_any": { "x86_64": { "file": "NewPackage_LINUX.zip" } } } }, "files": { "NewPackage_WINDOWS.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLEc2c706013cf8c68163459678f7f6daa9489cd3f91d52799331EXAMPLE" } }, "NewPackage_LINUX.zip": { "checksums": { "sha256": "EXAMPLE2b8b9ed71e86f39f5946e837df0d38aacdd38955b4b18ffa6fEXAMPLE" } } } }

Package example

An example package, ExamplePackage.zip, is available for you to download from our website. The example package includes a completed JSON manifest and three .zip files.

Step 3: Upload the package and manifest to an Amazon S3 bucket

Prepare your package by copying or moving all .zip files into a folder or directory. A valid package requires the manifest that you created in Step 2: Create the JSON package manifest and all .zip files identified in the manifest file list.

To upload the package and manifest to Amazon S3
  1. Copy or move all .zip archive files that you specified in the manifest to a folder or directory. Don't zip the folder or directory you move your .zip archive files and manifest file to.

  2. Create a bucket or choose an existing bucket. For more information, see Create a Bucket in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Getting Started Guide. For more information about how to run an Amazon CLI command to create a bucket, see mb in the Amazon CLI Command Reference.

  3. Upload the folder or directory to the bucket. For more information, see Add an Object to a Bucket in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Getting Started Guide. If you plan to paste your JSON manifest into the Amazon Systems Manager console, don't upload the manifest. For more information about how to run an Amazon CLI command to upload files to a bucket, see mv in the Amazon CLI Command Reference.

  4. On the bucket's home page, choose the folder or directory that you uploaded. If you uploaded your files to a subfolder in a bucket, be sure to note the subfolder (also known as a prefix). You need the prefix to add your package to Distributor.

Step 4: Add a package to Distributor

You can use the Amazon Systems Manager console, Amazon command line tools (Amazon CLI and Amazon Tools for PowerShell), or Amazon SDKs to add a new package to Distributor. When you add a package, you're adding a new SSM document. The document allows you to deploy the package to managed nodes.

Add a package using the console

You can use the Amazon Systems Manager console to create a package. Have ready the name of the bucket to which you uploaded your package in Step 3: Upload the package and manifest to an Amazon S3 bucket.

To add a package to Distributor (console)
  1. Open the Amazon Systems Manager console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/systems-manager/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Distributor.

  3. On the Distributor home page, choose Create package, and then choose Advanced.

  4. On the Create package page, enter a name for your package. Package names can contain letters, numbers, periods, dashes, and underscores. The name should be generic enough to apply to all versions of the package attachments, but specific enough to identify the purpose of the package.

  5. For Version name, enter the exact value of the version entry in your manifest file.

  6. For S3 bucket name, choose the name of the bucket to which you uploaded your .zip files and manifest in Step 3: Upload the package and manifest to an Amazon S3 bucket.

  7. For S3 key prefix, enter the subfolder of the bucket where your .zip files and manifest are stored.

  8. For Manifest, choose Extract from package to use a manifest that you have uploaded to the Amazon S3 bucket with your .zip files.

    (Optional) If you didn't upload your JSON manifest to the S3 bucket where you stored your .zip files, choose New manifest. You can author or paste the entire manifest in the JSON editor field. For more information about how to create the JSON manifest, see Step 2: Create the JSON package manifest.

  9. When you're finished with the manifest, choose Create package.

  10. Wait for Distributor to create your package from your .zip files and manifest. Depending on the number and size of packages you are adding, this can take a few minutes. Distributor automatically redirects you to the Package details page for the new package, but you can choose to open this page yourself after the software is uploaded. The Package details page doesn't show all information about your package until Distributor finishes the package creation process. To stop the upload and package creation process, choose Cancel.

Add a package using the Amazon CLI

You can use the Amazon CLI to create a package. Have the URL ready from the bucket to which you uploaded your package in Step 3: Upload the package and manifest to an Amazon S3 bucket.

To add a package to Amazon S3 using the Amazon CLI
  1. To use the Amazon CLI to create a package, run the following command, replacing package-name with the name of your package and path-to-manifest-file with the file path for your JSON manifest file. amzn-s3-demo-bucket is the URL of the Amazon S3 bucket where the entire package is stored. When you run the create-document command in Distributor, you specify the Package value for --document-type.

    If you didn't add your manifest file to the Amazon S3 bucket, the --content parameter value is the file path to the JSON manifest file.

    aws ssm create-document \ --name "package-name" \ --content file://path-to-manifest-file \ --attachments Key="SourceUrl",Values="amzn-s3-demo-bucket" \ --version-name version-value-from-manifest \ --document-type Package

    The following is an example.

    aws ssm create-document \ --name "ExamplePackage" \ --content file://path-to-manifest-file \ --attachments Key="SourceUrl",Values="https://s3.amazonaws.com.cn/amzn-s3-demo-bucket/ExamplePackage" \ --version-name 1.0.1 \ --document-type Package
  2. Verify that your package was added and show the package manifest by running the following command, replacing package-name with the name of your package. To get a specific version of the document (not the same as the version of a package), you can add the --document-version parameter.

    aws ssm get-document \ --name "package-name"

For information about other options you can use with the create-document command, see create-document in the Amazon Systems Manager section of the Amazon CLI Command Reference. For information about other options you can use with the get-document command, see get-document.