How do I install SSM Agent on an Amazon EC2 Linux instance at launch?

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For a list of Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) with SSM Agent preinstalled, see Find AMIs with the SSM Agent preinstalled. You must manually install SSM Agent on EC2 instances that you create from other versions of Linux AMIs.

Prerequisites: Before you install SSM Agent, you must use a supported operating system (OS) and complete the SSM Agent prerequisites.

To install SSM Agent, add user data to an Amazon EC2 Linux instance before you launch the instance.

Complete the following steps:

1. Create an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) instance profile to use with SSM Agent.
2. Launch a new instance, and then configure your instance parameters, such as application and OS images, instance type, key pair, network settings, and storage.
3. Expand the Advanced details section, and then select your IAM instance profile from the IAM instance profile dropdown list.
4. For User data, enter the following information for your OS.
   Amazon Linux 2023, Amazon Linux 2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, and CentOS 7 (64 bit):
   x86_64 instances:

   #!/bin/bash
   cd /tmp
   sudo dnf install -y https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
   sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent
   sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

   ARM64 instances:

   #!/bin/bash
   cd /tmp
   sudo dnf install -y https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/linux_arm64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
   sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent
   sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

   Note: You must install Python 2 or Python 3 on your RHEL 9, RHEL 8 or CentOS 8 instance for SSM Agent to work correctly. To install Python, add the following command after #!/bin/bash to the preceding x86_64 and ARM64 command examples:

   sudo dnf install python3

   Amazon Linux and CentOS 6 (64 bit):

   #!/bin/bash
   cd /tmp
   sudo yum install -y https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
   sudo start amazon-ssm-agent

   Ubuntu 22 and Ubuntu 16 (Deb installer), Debian 8, and Debian 9:

   #!/bin/bash
   mkdir /tmp/ssm
   cd /tmp/ssm
   wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/debian_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.deb
   sudo dpkg -i amazon-ssm-agent.deb
   sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

   Ubuntu 14 (Deb installer):

   #!/bin/bash
   mkdir /tmp/ssm
   cd /tmp/ssm
   wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/debian_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.deb
   sudo dpkg -i amazon-ssm-agent.deb
   sudo start amazon-ssm-agent

   Suse 15 and Suse 12:

   #!/bin/bash
   mkdir /tmp/ssm
   cd /tmp/ssm
   wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads-windows/SSMAgent/latest/linux_amd64/amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
   sudo rpm --install amazon-ssm-agent.rpm
   sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent
   sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

   For more information about user data, see User data in the AWS Management Console.
5. Under Summary, enter the number of instances that you want to launch.
6. Choose Launch instance.
7. (Optional) To automatically update SSM Agent, choose Auto update SSM Agent.

For Windows, see How do I install AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) on an Amazon EC2 Windows instance at launch?

Related information

Automating updates to SSM Agent

Working with SSM Agent on EC2 instances for Linux

Working with SSM Agent on EC2 instances for Windows Server

Why isn't Systems Manager showing my Amazon EC2 instance as a managed instance?