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About SSM documents for patching instances - AWS Systems Manager
SSM documents recommended for patching instancesLegacy SSM documents for patching instances

About SSM documents for patching instances

This topic describes the eight Systems Manager documents (SSM documents) available to help you keep your managed instances patched with the latest security-related updates.

We recommend using just five of these documents in your patching operations. Together, these five SSM documents provide you with a full range of patching options using AWS Systems Manager. Four of these documents were released later than the four legacy SSM documents they replace and represent expansions or consolidations of functionality.

The five recommended SSM documents include:

  • AWS-ConfigureWindowsUpdate

  • AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates

  • AWS-RunPatchBaseline

  • AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation

  • AWS-RunPatchBaselineWithHooks

The four legacy SSM documents that are still available for use in some AWS Regions, but might be deprecated in the future, include:

  • AWS-ApplyPatchBaseline

  • AWS-FindWindowsUpdates

  • AWS-InstallMissingWindowsUpdates

  • AWS-InstallSpecificWindowsUpdates

Refer to the following sections for more information about using these SSM documents in your patching operations.

Topics

The following five SSM documents are recommended for use in your managed instance patching operations.

Supports configuring basic Windows Update functions and using them to install updates automatically (or to turn off automatic updates). Available in all AWS Regions.

This SSM document prompts Windows Update to download and install the specified updates and reboot instances as needed. Use this document with State Manager, a capability of AWS Systems Manager, to ensure Windows Update maintains its configuration. You can also run it manually using Run Command, a capability of AWS Systems Manager, to change the Windows Update configuration.

The available parameters in this document support specifying a category of updates to install (or whether to turn off automatic updates), as well as specifying the day of the week and time of day to run patching operations. This SSM document is most useful if you don't need strict control over Windows updates and don't need to collect compliance information.

Replaces legacy SSM documents:

  • None

Installs updates on a Windows Server instance. Available in all AWS Regions.

This SSM document provides basic patching functionality in cases where you either want to install a specific update (using the Include Kbs parameter), or want to install patches with specific classifications or categories but don't need patch compliance information.

Replaces legacy SSM documents:

  • AWS-FindWindowsUpdates

  • AWS-InstallMissingWindowsUpdates

  • AWS-InstallSpecificWindowsUpdates

The three legacy documents perform different functions, but you can achieve the same results by using different parameter settings with the newer SSM document AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates. These parameter settings are described in Legacy SSM documents for patching instances.

Installs patches on your instances or scans instances to determine whether any qualified patches are missing. Available in all AWS Regions.

AWS-RunPatchBaseline allows you to control patch approvals using the patch baseline specified as the "default" for an operating system type. Reports patch compliance information that you can view using the Systems Manager Compliance tools. These tools provide you with insights on the patch compliance state of your instances, such as which instances are missing patches and what those patches are. When you use AWS-RunPatchBaseline, patch compliance information is recorded using the PutInventory API command. For Linux operating systems, compliance information is provided for patches from both the default source repository configured on an instance and from any alternative source repositories you specify in a custom patch baseline. For more information about alternative source repositories, see How to specify an alternative patch source repository (Linux). For more information about the Systems Manager Compliance tools, see AWS Systems Manager Compliance.

Replaces legacy documents:

  • AWS-ApplyPatchBaseline

The legacy document AWS-ApplyPatchBaseline applies only to Windows Server instances, and doesn't provide support for application patching. The newer AWS-RunPatchBaseline provides the same support for both Windows and Linux systems. Version 2.0.834.0 or later of SSM Agent is required in order to use the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document.

For more information about the AWS-RunPatchBaseline SSM document, see About the AWS-RunPatchBaseline SSM document.

Installs patches on your instances or scans instances to determine whether any qualified patches are missing. Available in all commercial AWS Regions.

AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation differs from AWS-RunPatchBaseline in a few important ways:

  • AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation is intended for use primarily with associations created using Quick Setup, a capability of AWS Systems Manager. (When using the Quick Setup Host Management configuration type, if you choose the option Scan instances for missing patches daily, the system uses AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation for the operation.)

    In most cases, however, when setting up your own patching operations, you should choose AWS-RunPatchBaseline or AWS-RunPatchBaselineWithHooks instead of AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation.

    For more information, see the following topics:

  • AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation supports the use of tags to identify which patch baseline to use with a set of targets when it runs.

  • For patching operations that use AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation, patch compliance data is compiled in terms of a specific State Manager association. The patch compliance data collected when AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation runs is recorded using the PutComplianceItems API command instead of the PutInventory command. This prevents compliance data that isn't associated with this particular association from being overwritten.

    For Linux operating systems, compliance information is provided for patches from both the default source repository configured on an instance and from any alternative source repositories you specify in a custom patch baseline. For more information about alternative source repositories, see How to specify an alternative patch source repository (Linux). For more information about the Systems Manager Compliance tools, see AWS Systems Manager Compliance.

Replaces legacy documents:

  • None

For more information about the AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation SSM document, see About the AWS-RunPatchBaselineAssociation SSM document .

Installs patches on your instances or scans instances to determine whether any qualified patches are missing, with optional hooks you can use to run SSM documents at three points during the patching cycle. Available in all commercial AWS Regions.

AWS-RunPatchBaselineWithHooks differs from AWS-RunPatchBaseline in its Install operation.

AWS-RunPatchBaselineWithHooks supports lifecycle hooks that run at designated points during instance patching. Because patch installations sometimes require instances to reboot, the patching operation is divided into two events, for a total of three hooks that support custom functionality. The first hook is before the Install with NoReboot operation. The second hook is after the Install with NoReboot operation. The third hook is available after the reboot of the instance.

Replaces legacy documents:

  • None

For more information about the AWS-RunPatchBaselineWithHooks SSM document, see About the AWS-RunPatchBaselineWithHooks SSM document.

Legacy SSM documents for patching instances

The following four SSM documents are still available for use in your patching operations in some AWS Regions. However, they might be deprecated in the future, so we don't recommend their use. Instead, use the documents described in SSM documents recommended for patching instances.

AWS-ApplyPatchBaseline

Supports only Windows Server instances, but doesn't include support for patching applications that is found in its replacement, AWS-RunPatchBaseline. Not available in AWS Regions launched after August 2017.

Note

The replacement for this SSM document, AWS-RunPatchBaseline, requires version 2.0.834.0 or a later version of SSM Agent. You can use the AWS-UpdateSSMAgent document to update your instances to the latest version of the agent.

AWS-FindWindowsUpdates

Replaced by AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates, which can perform all the same actions. Not available in AWS Regions launched after April 2017.

To achieve the same result that you would from this legacy SSM document, use the following parameter configuration with the recommended replacement document, AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates:

  • Action = Scan

  • Allow Reboot = False

AWS-InstallMissingWindowsUpdates

Replaced by AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates, which can perform all the same actions. Not available in any AWS Regions launched after April 2017.

To achieve the same result that you would from this legacy SSM document, use the following parameter configuration with the recommended replacement document, AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates:

  • Action = Install

  • Allow Reboot = True

AWS-InstallSpecificWindowsUpdates

Replaced by AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates, which can perform all the same actions. Not available in any AWS Regions launched after April 2017.

To achieve the same result that you would from this legacy SSM document, use the following parameter configuration with the recommended replacement document, AWS-InstallWindowsUpdates:

  • Action = Install

  • Allow Reboot = True

  • Include Kbs = comma-separated list of KB articles