Session Manager launches Run As to start interactive sessions with your own operating system user account

Posted on: Jul 9, 2019

AWS Systems Manager Session Manager now lets you define the operating system user account that an interactive shell uses on an instance. You can associate an operating system user with your IAM principal (user or role) for Session Manager. You can also set the operating system user in your Session Manager preferences. This enables you to better manage shell privileges for multiple users that need interactive access to instances. 

To get started, go to the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) console in your account to tag your users and roles with the operating system user account value that Session Manager should use. Then enable Run As in your account’s Session Manager preferences in the Systems Manager console. New sessions will use the value from this IAM tag as the operating system user when starting a session.

Session Manager is a feature in Systems Manager. Systems Manager enables visibility and control of your cloud and on-premises infrastructure. It provides an integrated experience that combines native features and other AWS services for viewing data and securely automating operational tasks across your infrastructure. This simplifies resource and application management, shortens the time to detect and resolve operational problems, and makes it easier to operate and manage your infrastructure securely at scale. 

This enhancement, and the latest AWS Systems Manager Agent, is available in all AWS Regions where Systems Manager is available. For more information, see our Documentation. To learn more about Session Manager, visit our Product Page.