New – Securely manage your AWS IoT Greengrass edge devices using AWS Systems Manager

In 2020, we launched AWS IoT Greengrass 2.0, an open-source edge runtime and cloud service for building, deploying, and managing device software and applications. Today, we’re very excited to announce the ability to securely manage your AWS IoT Greengrass edge devices using AWS Systems Manager (SSM).

Managing vast fleets of varying systems and applications remotely can be a challenge for administrators of edge devices. AWS IoT Greengrass was built to enable these administrators to manage their edge device application stack. While this addressed the needs of many typical edge device administrators, system software on these devices still needed to be updated and maintained through operational policies consistent with those of their broader IT organizations. To this end, administrators would typically have to build or integrate tools to create a centralized interface for managing their edge and IT device software stacks – from security updates, to remote access, and operating system patches.

Until today, IT administrators have had to build or integrate custom tools to make sure edge devices can be managed alongside EC2 and on-prem instances, through a consistent set of policies. At scale, managing device and systems software across a wide variety of edge and IT systems becomes a significant investment in time and money. This is time that could be better spent deploying, optimizing, and managing the very edge devices that they’re maintaining.

What’s New?
Today, we have integrated AWS IoT Greengrass and AWS Systems Manager to simplify the management and maintenance of system software for edge devices. When coupled with the AWS IoT Greengrass Client Software, edge device administrators now can remotely access and securely manage with the multitude of devices that they own – from OS patching, to application deployments. Additionally, regularly scheduled operations that maintain edge compute systems can be automated, all without the need for creating additional custom processes. For IT administrators, this release gives a complete overview of all of their devices through a centralized interface, and a consistent set of tools and policies with the AWS Systems Manager.

For customers new to the AWS IoT Greengrass platform, the integration with AWS Systems Manager simplifies setup even further with a new on- boarding wizard that can reduce the time it takes to create operational management systems for edge devices from weeks to hours.

How is this achieved?
This new capability is enabled by the AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Agent. As of today, customers can deploy the AWS Systems Manager Agent, via the AWS IoT Greengrass console, to their existing edge devices. Once installed on each device, AWS Systems Manager will list all of the devices in the Systems Manager Console, thereby giving administrators and IoT stakeholders an overview of their entire fleet. When coupled with the AWS IoT Greengrass console, administrators can manage their newly configured devices remotely; patching or updating operating systems, troubleshooting remotely, and deploying new applications, all through a centralized, integrated user interface. Devices can be patched individually, or in groups organized by tags or resource groups.

Further information
These new features are now available in all regions where AWS Systems Manager and AWS IoT Greengrass are available. To get started, please visit the AWS IoT Greengrass home page.