Checking SSM Agent status and starting the agent - Amazon Systems Manager
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Checking SSM Agent status and starting the agent

This topic lists the commands to check whether Amazon Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) is running on each supported operating system. It also provides the commands to start the agent if it isn't running.

Operating system Command to check SSM Agent status Command to start SSM Agent
Amazon Linux 2and Amazon Linux 2023

sudo systemctl status amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

Debian Server11 and 12

sudo systemctl status amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

macOS Check the agent log file at /var/log/amazon/ssm/amazon-ssm-agent.log

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.amazon.aws.ssm.plist

sudo launchctl start com.amazon.aws.ssm

Oracle Linux

sudo systemctl status amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x

sudo systemctl status amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

Ubuntu Server 16.04 (32-bit)

sudo status amazon-ssm-agent

sudo start amazon-ssm-agent

Ubuntu Server 16.04 64-bit instances (deb package installation)

sudo systemctl status amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent

sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS, 18.04, 20.04, 22.04 LTS, 23.10, 24.04 LTS, 24.0, and 25.04

sudo systemctl status snap.amazon-ssm-agent.amazon-ssm-agent.service

sudo snap start amazon-ssm-agent

Windows Server

Run in PowerShell:

Get-Service AmazonSSMAgent

Run in PowerShell Administrator mode:

Start-Service AmazonSSMAgent

More info