### Session Manager Connections

Support for the AWS Systems Manager session manager lets users manage EC2 instances without the need to open inbound ports, or maintain bastion hosts. Session manager connectivity relies on the use of the [session manager plugin](#session-manager-plugin) to open a secure tunnel between the local machine and the remote instance. Once the tunnel has been created all SSH communication will be tunneled through SSM to the remote instance.

To use the session manager as the connection interface for the SSH communicator you need to add the following configuration options to the Amazon builder options:

 * `ssh_interface`: The ssh interface must be set to "session_manager".  When using this option the builder will create an SSM tunnel to the configured `ssh_port` (defaults to 22) on the remote host.
 * `iam_instance_profile`: A valid instance profile granting Systems Manager permissions to manage the remote instance is required in order for the aws ssm-agent to start and stop session connections.
 See below for more details on IAM instance profile for Systems Manager(#iam-instance-profile-for-systems-manager).

#### Optional
 * `session_manager_port`: A local port on the host machine that should be used as the local end of the session tunnel to the remote host. If not specified Packer will find an available port to use.
 * `temporary_iam_instance_profile_policy_document`: Creates a temporary instance profile policy document to grant Systems Manager permissions to the Ec2 instance. This is an alternative to using an existing `iam_instance_profile`.

```json
{
  "builders": [
      {
        "type": "amazon-ebs",
        "ami_name": "packer-ami-{{timestamp}}",
        "instance_type": "t2.micro",
        "source_ami_filter": {
            "filters": {
                "virtualization-type": "hvm",
                "name": "ubuntu/images/*ubuntu-xenial-16.04-amd64-server-*",
                "root-device-type": "ebs"
            },
            "owners": [
                "099720109477"
            ],
            "most_recent": true
        },
        "ssh_username": "ubuntu",
        "ssh_interface": "session_manager",
        "communicator": "ssh",
        "iam_instance_profile": "{{user `iam_instance_profile`}}"
      }
  ],
  "provisioners": [
      {
          "type": "shell",
          "inline": [ "echo Connected via SSM at '{{build `User`}}@{{build `Host`}}:{{build `Port`}}'" ]
      }
  ]
}
```

#### Session Manager Plugin
Connectivity via the session manager requires the use of a session-manger-plugin, which needs to be installed alongside Packer, and an instance AMI that is capable of running the AWS ssm-agent - see [About SSM Agent](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/prereqs-ssm-agent.html) for details on supported AMIs.


In order for Packer to start and end sessions that connect you to your managed instances, you must first install the Session Manager plugin on your local machine. The plugin can be installed on supported versions of Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Ubuntu Server.
[Installation instructions for the session-manager-plugin](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/session-manager-working-with-install-plugin.html)

#### IAM instance profile for Systems Manager
By default Systems Manager doesn't have permission to perform actions on created instances so SSM access must be granted by creating an instance profile with the `AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore` policy. The instance profile can then be attached to any instance you wish to manage via the session-manager-plugin. See [Adding System Manager instance profile](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/setup-instance-profile.html#instance-profile-add-permissions) for details on creating the required instance profile.
