Use StartSession with a CLI

Example 1: To start a Session Manager session

This start-session example establishes a connection with an instance for a Session Manager session. Note that this interactive command requires the Session Manager plugin to be installed on the client machine making the call.

aws ssm start-session \
    --target "i-1234567890abcdef0"

Output:

Starting session with SessionId: Jane-Roe-07a16060613c408b5

Example 2: To start a Session Manager session using SSH

This start-session example establishes a connection with an instance for a Session Manager session using SSH. Note that this interactive command requires the Session Manager plugin to be installed on the client machine making the call, and that the command uses the default user on the instance, such as ec2-user for EC2 instances for Linux.

ssh -i /path/my-key-pair.pem ec2-user@i-02573cafcfEXAMPLE

Output:

Starting session with SessionId: ec2-user-07a16060613c408b5

For more information, see Start a Session and Install the Session Manager Plugin for the Amazon CLI in the Amazon Systems Manager User Guide.

Example 1: This example initiates a connection to a target for a Session Manager session, enabling port forwarding.

Start-SSMSession -Target 'i-064578e5e7454488f' -DocumentName 'AWS-StartPortForwardingSession' -Parameter @{ localPortNumber = '8080'; portNumber = '80' }

Output:

SessionId    StreamUrl
----------    ----------
random-id0    wss://ssmmessages.amazonaws.com/v1/data-channel/random-id

Example 1: This example initiates a connection to a target for a Session Manager session, enabling port forwarding. Note: You need to add Region parameter if not already set using AWSCredentials.

Start-SSMSession -Target 'i-064578e5e7454488f' -DocumentName 'AWS-StartPortForwardingSession' -Parameter @{ localPortNumber = '8080'; portNumber = '80' } -Region 'us-west-1'

Output:

Starting session with SessionId: testUser-xi4glew849asyeryde34u4dfsdfy
Port 8080 opened for sessionId testUser-xi4glew849asyeryde34u4dfsdfy.
Waiting for connections...

Example 2: This example creates an interactive session with a specified instance for a Session Manager session.

Start-SSMSession -Target 'i-1234567890abcdef0' -Region 'us-west-1'

Output:

Starting session with SessionId : testUser-xi4glew849asyeryde34u4dfsdfy
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PS C:\Windows\system32> whoami
ec2amaz-fnsdrwv\ec2-test-user
PS C:\Windows\system32>

Example 3: This example creates a session without connecting to it and returns the SessionId, StreamUrl, and TokenValue properties required to connect to the session.

Start-SSMSession -Target 'i-1234567890abcdef0' -Region 'us-west-1' -DisablePluginInvocation

Output:

SessionId        : testUser-xi4glew849asyeryde34u4dfsdfy
StreamUrl        : {StreamUrl value redacted}
TokenValue       : {Token value redacted}
ContentLength    : 1207
HttpStatusCode   : OK