On Demand Patching | Run - AMS Advanced Change Type Reference
Change Type DetailsAdditional InformationExecution Input ParametersExample: Required ParametersExample: All Parameters

On Demand Patching | Run

Run on-demand SSM patching on specified instances; either a list of instances or instances with the specified tag/key pair.

Full classification: Management | Patching | On demand patching | Run

Change Type Details

Change type ID

ct-3oy53m1qzl2s5

Current version

1.0

Expected execution duration

3600 minutes

AWS approval

Required

Customer approval

Not required

Execution mode

Automated

Additional Information

Run on-demand patching

Screenshot of this change type in the AMS console:

On Demand Patching details showing description, ID, and version for SSM patching on instances.

How it works:

  1. Navigate to the Create RFC page: In the left navigation pane of the AMS console click RFCs to open the RFCs list page, and then click Create RFC.

  2. Choose a popular change type (CT) in the default Browse change types view, or select a CT in the Choose by category view.

    • Browse by change type: You can click on a popular CT in the Quick create area to immediately open the Run RFC page. Note that you cannot choose an older CT version with quick create.

      To sort CTs, use the All change types area in either the Card or Table view. In either view, select a CT and then click Create RFC to open the Run RFC page. If applicable, a Create with older version option appears next to the Create RFC button.

    • Choose by category: Select a category, subcategory, item, and operation and the CT details box opens with an option to Create with older version if applicable. Click Create RFC to open the Run RFC page.

  3. On the Run RFC page, open the CT name area to see the CT details box. A Subject is required (this is filled in for you if you choose your CT in the Browse change types view). Open the Additional configuration area to add information about the RFC.

    In the Execution configuration area, use available drop-down lists or enter values for the required parameters. To configure optional execution parameters, open the Additional configuration area.

  4. When finished, click Run. If there are no errors, the RFC successfully created page displays with the submitted RFC details, and the initial Run output.

  5. Open the Run parameters area to see the configurations you submitted. Refresh the page to update the RFC execution status. Optionally, cancel the RFC or create a copy of it with the options at the top of the page.

How it works:

  1. Use either the Inline Create (you issue a create-rfc command with all RFC and execution parameters included), or Template Create (you create two JSON files, one for the RFC parameters and one for the execution parameters) and issue the create-rfc command with the two files as input. Both methods are described here.

  2. Submit the RFC: aws amscm submit-rfc --rfc-id ID command with the returned RFC ID.

    Monitor the RFC: aws amscm get-rfc --rfc-id ID command.

To check the change type version, use this command:

aws amscm list-change-type-version-summaries --filter Attribute=ChangeTypeId,Value=CT_ID
Note

You can use any CreateRfc parameters with any RFC whether or not they are part of the schema for the change type. For example, to get notifications when the RFC status changes, add this line, --notification "{\"Email\": {\"EmailRecipients\" : [\"email@example.com\"]}}" to the RFC parameters part of the request (not the execution parameters). For a list of all CreateRfc parameters, see the AMS Change Management API Reference.

INLINE CREATE:

Issue the create RFC command with execution parameters provided inline (escape quotes when providing execution parameters inline), and then submit the returned RFC ID. For example, you can replace the contents with something like this:

   aws amscm create-rfc --title my-test-patchbaseline --change-type-id ct-3oy53m1qzl2s5 --change-type-version 1.0 --execution-parameters '{"Name":"test-ODP","PatchingTargets":[{"Key":"tag:Patch Group","Values":"[test-odp]"}],"StartInactiveInstances":"True", "BackupVaultName":"test-backup-vault-name", "BackupIamRole":"test-backup-iam-role", "BackupRetentionInDays":"10"}'

TEMPLATE CREATE:

  1. Output the execution parameters JSON schema for this change type to a JSON file; this example names it RunOndemandPatchParams.json:

    aws amscm get-change-type-version --change-type-id "ct-3oy53m1qzl2s5" --query "ChangeTypeVersion.ExecutionInputSchema" --output text > RunOndemandPatchParams.json

  2. Modify and save the RunOndemandPatchParams file.

    {
  "Name": "test-ODP",
  "PatchingTargets": [
    {
      "Key": "InstanceIds",
      "Values": ["INSTANCE_ID"]
    }
  ],
  "StartInactiveInstances": "True",
  "BackupVaultName": "test-backup-vault-name",
  "BackupIamRole": "test-backup-iam-role",
  "BackupRetentionInDays": "10"
}

  3. Output the RFC template to a file in your current folder; this example names it RunOndemandPatchRfc.json:

    aws amscm create-rfc --generate-cli-skeleton > RunOndemandPatchRfc.json

  4. Modify and save the RunOndemandPatchRfc.json file. For example, you can replace the contents with something like this:

    {
"ChangeTypeVersion":    "1.0",	
"ChangeTypeId":         "ct-3oy53m1qzl2s5",
"Title":                "Run-Ondemand-Patch-RFC"
}

  5. Create the RFC, specifying the RunOndemandPatchRfc file and the RunOndemandPatchParams file:

    aws amscm create-rfc --cli-input-json file://RunOndemandPatchRfc.json --execution-parameters file://RunOndemandPatchParams.json

    You receive the ID of the new RFC in the response and can use it to submit and monitor the RFC. Until you submit it, the RFC remains in the editing state and does not start.

Inactive instances

If you set StartInactiveInstances to True, inactive instances are started, patched, and returned to their original stopped state after patching is completed.

Concurrency limits

Any concurrently running maintenance windows will impact the safe limit execution of this RFC. This is because SSM automation is limited to 100 concurrent runs per account. Automations exceeding the concurrency limit are added to a queue of up to 1,000 executions. If a maintenance window is running on 50 instances, that leaves room for only 50 more to be concurrent runs for on-demand patching, adding any additional instances to the queue to be run once the in-progress executions are complete.

To learn more about AMS Patch Orchestrator and setting up SSM patch baseline and patch window, see Patch Orchestrator in the AMS Multi-account landing zone User Guide.

Execution Input Parameters

For detailed information about the execution input parameters, see Schema for Change Type ct-3oy53m1qzl2s5.

Example: Required Parameters

Example not available.

Example: All Parameters

{
  "Description": "description",
  "Name": "Test1",
  "PatchingTargets": [
    {
      "Key": "tag:Patch Group",
      "Values": [
        "testGroup"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "StartInactiveInstances": "True",
  "BackupVaultName": "backup-vault-name",
  "BackupIamRole": "backup-iam-role",
  "BackupRetentionInDays": "1"
}