Setting up Run Command - Amazon Systems Manager
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Setting up Run Command

Before you can manage nodes by using Run Command, a capability of Amazon Systems Manager, configure an Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy for any user who will run commands.

You must also configure your nodes for Systems Manager. For more information, see Setting up Amazon Systems Manager.

We recommend completing the following optional setup tasks to help minimize the security posture and day-to-day management of your managed nodes.

Monitor command executions using Amazon EventBridge

You can use EventBridge to log command execution status changes. You can create a rule that runs whenever there is a state transition, or when there is a transition to one or more states that are of interest. You can also specify Run Command as a target action when an EventBridge event occurs. For more information, see Configuring EventBridge for Systems Manager events.

Monitor command executions using Amazon CloudWatch Logs

You can configure Run Command to periodically send all command output and error logs to an Amazon CloudWatch log group. You can monitor these output logs in near real-time, search for specific phrases, values, or patterns, and create alarms based on the search. For more information, see Configuring Amazon CloudWatch Logs for Run Command.

Restrict Run Command access to specific managed nodes

You can restrict a user's ability to run commands on managed nodes by using Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM). Specifically, you can create an IAM policy with a condition that the user can only run commands on managed nodes that are tagged with specific tags. For more information, see Restricting Run Command access based on tags.

Restricting Run Command access based on tags

This section describes how to restrict a user's ability to run commands on managed nodes by specifying a tag condition in an IAM policy. Managed nodes include Amazon EC2 instances and non-EC2 nodes in a hybrid and multicloud environment that are configured for Systems Manager. Though the information is not explicitly presented, you can also restrict access to managed Amazon IoT Greengrass core devices. To get started, you must tag your Amazon IoT Greengrass devices. For more information, see Tag your Amazon IoT Greengrass Version 2 resources in the Amazon IoT Greengrass Version 2 Developer Guide.

You can restrict command execution to specific managed nodes by creating an IAM policy that includes a condition that the user can only run commands on nodes with specific tags. In the following example, the user is allowed to use Run Command (Effect: Allow, Action: ssm:SendCommand) by using any SSM document (Resource: arn:aws-cn:ssm:*:*:document/*) on any node (Resource: arn:aws-cn:ec2:*:*:instance/*) with the condition that the node is a Finance WebServer (ssm:resourceTag/Finance: WebServer). If the user sends a command to a node that isn't tagged or that has any tag other than Finance: WebServer, the execution results show AccessDenied.

{ "Version":"2012-10-17", "Statement":[ { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":[ "arn:aws-cn:ssm:*:*:document/*" ] }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":[ "arn:aws-cn:ec2:*:*:instance/*" ], "Condition":{ "StringLike":{ "ssm:resourceTag/Finance":[ "WebServers" ] } } } ] }

You can create IAM policies that allow a user to run commands on managed nodes that are tagged with multiple tags. The following policy allows the user to run commands on managed nodes that have two tags. If a user sends a command to a node that isn't tagged with both of these tags, the execution results show AccessDenied.

{ "Version":"2012-10-17", "Statement":[ { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":"*", "Condition":{ "StringLike":{ "ssm:resourceTag/tag_key1":[ "tag_value1" ], "ssm:resourceTag/tag_key2":[ "tag_value2" ] } } }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":[ "arn:aws:ssm:us-west-1::document/AWS-*", "arn:aws:ssm:us-east-2::document/AWS-*" ] }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:UpdateInstanceInformation", "ssm:ListCommands", "ssm:ListCommandInvocations", "ssm:GetDocument" ], "Resource":"*" } ] }

You can also create IAM policies that allows a user to run commands on multiple groups of tagged managed nodes. The following example policy allows the user to run commands on either group of tagged nodes, or both groups.

{ "Version":"2012-10-17", "Statement":[ { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":"*", "Condition":{ "StringLike":{ "ssm:resourceTag/tag_key1":[ "tag_value1" ] } } }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":"*", "Condition":{ "StringLike":{ "ssm:resourceTag/tag_key2":[ "tag_value2" ] } } }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:SendCommand" ], "Resource":[ "arn:aws:ssm:us-west-1::document/AWS-*", "arn:aws:ssm:us-east-2::document/AWS-*" ] }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ssm:UpdateInstanceInformation", "ssm:ListCommands", "ssm:ListCommandInvocations", "ssm:GetDocument" ], "Resource":"*" } ] }

For more information about creating IAM policies, see Managed policies and inline policies in the IAM User Guide. For more information about tagging managed nodes, see Tag Editor in the Amazon Resource Groups User Guide.