All 7 AWS Systems Manager questions
More in AWS Systems Manager
What is AWS Systems Manager and what operational tasks does it help automate across your AWS resources? How does Systems Manager Patch Manager automate the process of keeping instances up to date with the latest security patches? What are Systems Manager Automation documents, or runbooks, and how do they help standardize common operational procedures? How does Systems Manager Inventory help maintain visibility into the software and configuration details installed across a fleet of managed instances? How can Systems Manager State Manager ensure that instances remain in a consistently defined configuration state over time, even after reboots or scaling events? How can Systems Manager be integrated with AWS Config and Security Hub to build a comprehensive automated compliance remediation pipeline?
Advertisement
AWS › AWS Systems Manager

What is Systems Manager Session Manager, and how does it improve the security of accessing EC2 instances compared to traditional SSH?

Beginner

Answer

Session Manager lets you start a secure interactive shell session directly with an EC2 instance through the AWS console or CLI without needing to open any inbound SSH ports, manage SSH keys, or maintain a bastion host, since all connections are established using IAM permissions and logged centrally, significantly reducing the attack surface and administrative overhead compared to traditional SSH based access.
aws ssm start-session --target i-1234567890abcdef0
Real-world example A company eliminates its previous bastion host architecture entirely, switching to Session Manager for all administrative access to its private EC2 instances, closing off inbound SSH access completely while still allowing authorized engineers secure shell access.

Common follow-ups: What IAM permissions are required to use Session Manager?;How are Session Manager sessions logged for audit purposes?

IAM;VPC & Networking
All 7 AWS Systems Manager questions