Now author AWS Systems Manager Automation runbooks using Visual Studio Code

Posted on: Oct 1, 2020

AWS Systems Manager now enables developers to view, author, and publish Automation runbooks directly from Visual Studio Code, a free code editor built on open source. You can now use the editor to author runbooks faster and be more productive by starting with pre-built templates, auto-completing the code with snippets, and validating the runbook for syntax errors in real time. Once built, you can publish the runbooks from the editor to the cloud with a single click.  

You can use Systems Manager Automation to author runbooks to execute common IT tasks, such as patching or restarting instances, at scale with rate controls. You can now use Visual Studio Code to quickly author and publish such runbooks. For example, you can download a copy of an existing AWS-owned runbook, edit it to suit your needs, and publish it as a self-owned runbook to the cloud – all with a few clicks in the editor. 

To get started, install the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code and navigate to Systems Manager in the AWS Explorer. For additional details, refer to Working with AWS Services in the AWS Explorer. This feature is available at no additional charge in all AWS Regions where AWS Systems Manager is offered. For more information about Automation, visit the Systems Manager Automation documentation