EC2 instances have long been a core service provided by AWS and EC2 still continues to evolve with newer sets of features and instance types added every year. One such really awesome service added during AWS re:Invent 2016 was the EC2 Systems Manager!

In this chapter, we will be learning a lot about the EC2 Systems Manager and its associated sub-services; namely:

• Run Command: Service that allows you to execute commands directly on an EC2 Systems Manager enabled EC2 instance
• State Manager: Allows you to specify a desired state for an EC2 Systems Manager enabled EC2 instance
• Patch management: Provides administrators with the ability to manage the deployment of patches over EC2 instances
• Automations: Allows administrators to automate the deployment of certain tasks
• Inventory: Service that collects and manages a list of software inventory from your managed EC2 instances

Sound exciting? Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started!