AWS SSM Activations: Manage On-Premise servers and EC2 instances of Multiple AWS Accounts.
Sometimes we want on-premise servers/VMs, instances in another cloud environment or EC2 instances a different AWS account to have managed from our AWS web console. This can be achieved using AWS SSM (Systems Manager) which can provides a unified view of the infrastructure and the operations in a hybrid environment. All the SSM configured clients listed in the AWS web console’s EC2 dashboard are referred as managed instances. This hybrid instances has instance ID starts with the prefix “mi-”. Amazon EC2 instance belongs to the same AWS account use the prefix “i-”. This manner, using the single AWS web console administrator can manage his infrastructure, which can save considerable time in switching between the systems and manage operations.
In the AWS EC2 dash board the administrator creates SSM Activation which generates an Activation Code and Activation ID automatically. This information has to be noted since it will be used in the ssm client (managed instance) configuration. Now switch to managed instance systems ( on-premise server, Ec2 instance from another AWS account/ instances in another cloud environment), install AWS CLI and ssm-agent. Then provide Activation Code and Activation ID generated by AWS Console in the previous step.
The Activation Code and Activation ID acts as credentials for authentication between AWS SSM and managed instances. Upon successful completion of this client configuration, machines are registered under managed instances section of EC2 dashboard in AWS web console. Please follow URL below to see an experiment on it.
Conclusion
AWS Administrator can manage on-premise server/VMs, Instances in another cloud environment and EC2 instances belongs to another AWS account, with his AWS web console using AWS SSM Activations.
