Get a list of software installed on server

To get a list of all software installed on an AWS EC2 instance, you can indeed use the AWS Systems Manager Inventory, which collects and aggregates data about your instance software. Here's how you can use it effectively:

1. AWS Systems Manager Inventory:

   • Setup: You need to configure your EC2 instance to allow AWS Systems Manager (SSM) to manage it. This requires the SSM Agent to be installed on the instance, which is by default on Amazon Linux AMIs and many others.
   • Inventory Collection: You can configure inventory collection for the instance by creating an inventory collection policy in Systems Manager.
   • Data Collection: The Inventory gathers information about the instance, including installed software applications, which can be filtered by name and version.
   • View and Export: You can view the collected inventory data from the Systems Manager console and export it to an S3 bucket, or you can query it using AWS CLI or SDKs.

2. Command-Line Tools:

   • On Linux-based systems, you can use package managers to list installed software, such as yum list installed for CentOS/RedHat, or dpkg -l for Debian/Ubuntu.
   • On Windows-based systems, you can use PowerShell commands such as Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion to get a list of installed software.

3. AWS CLI and SDKs:

   • You can use the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) or SDKs to interact with the Systems Manager and query the inventory for software details programmatically.

For most use cases, starting with the AWS Systems Manager Inventory should provide you with the necessary information. If you need more detailed information or if the Systems Manager does not meet your needs, you can consider using command-line tools on the instance itself.