• The AWS Systems Manager CloudWatch Dashboard will no longer be available after April 30, 2026. Customers can continue to use Amazon CloudWatch console to view, create, and manage their Amazon CloudWatch dashboards, just as they do today. For more information, see [Amazon CloudWatch Dashboard documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch_Dashboards.html). 

# Working with Distributor packages
<a name="distributor-working-with"></a>

You can use the AWS Systems Manager console, AWS command line tools (AWS CLI and AWS Tools for PowerShell), and AWS SDKs to add, manage, or deploy packages in Distributor. Distributor is a tool in AWS Systems Manager. Before you add a package to Distributor:
+ Create and zip installable assets.
+ (Optional) Create a JSON manifest file for the package. This isn't required to use the **Simple** package creation process in the Distributor console. Simple package creation generates a JSON manifest file for you.

  You can use the AWS Systems Manager console or a text or JSON editor to create the manifest file.
+ Have an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket ready to store your installable assets or software. If you're using the **Advanced** package creation process, upload your assets to the Amazon S3 bucket before you begin.
**Note**  
You can delete or repurpose this bucket after you finish creating your package because Distributor moves the package contents to an internal Systems Manager bucket as part of the package creation process.

AWS published packages are already packaged and ready for deployment. To deploy an AWS-published package to managed nodes, see [Install or update Distributor packages](distributor-working-with-packages-deploy.md).

You can share Distributor packages between AWS accounts. When using a package shared from another account in AWS CLI commands use the package Amazon Resource Name (ARN) instead of the package name.

**Topics**
+ [View packages in Distributor](distributor-view-packages.md)
+ [Create a package in Distributor](distributor-working-with-packages-create.md)
+ [Edit Distributor package permissions in the console](distributor-working-with-packages-ep.md)
+ [Edit Distributor package tags in the console](distributor-working-with-packages-tags.md)
+ [Add a version to a Distributor package](distributor-working-with-packages-version.md)
+ [Install or update Distributor packages](distributor-working-with-packages-deploy.md)
+ [Uninstall a Distributor package](distributor-working-with-packages-uninstall.md)
+ [Delete a Distributor package](distributor-working-with-packages-dpkg.md)