Adjusting how long the Session Manager temporary log file is stored on disk - AWS Systems Manager

Adjusting how long the Session Manager temporary log file is stored on disk

After you enable Session Manager logging to CloudWatch or Amazon S3, all commands executed during a session (and the resulting output from those commands) are logged to a temporary file on the disk of the target instance. The temporary file is named ipcTempFile.log. During a session, or after it is completed, Session Manager uploads this temporary log to either CloudWatch or S3. The temporary log is then deleted according to the duration specified for the SSM Agent SessionLogsRetentionDurationHours configuration parameter. By default, the temporary log file is saved on the instance for 14 days in the following location:

  • Linux: /var/lib/amazon/ssm/target ID/session/orchestration/session ID/Standard_Stream/ipcTempFile.log

  • macOS: /opt/aws/ssm/data/target ID/session/orchestration/session ID/Standard_Stream/ipcTempFile.log

  • Windows Server: C:\ProgramData\Amazon\SSM\InstanceData\target ID\session\orchestration\session ID\Standard_Stream\ipcTempFile.log

Use the following procedure to adjust how long the Session Manager temporary log file is stored on disk.

To adjust how long the ipcTempFile.log file is stored on disk

  1. Connect to your instance and locate the amazon-ssm-agent.json file in the following location.

    • Linux: /etc/amazon/ssm/

    • macOS: /opt/aws/ssm/

    • Windows Server: C:\Program Files\Amazon\SSM

    If the file amazon-ssm-agent.json doesn't exist, copy the contents of the amazon-ssm-agent.json.template to a new file in the same directory. Name the new file amazon-ssm-agent.json.

  2. Change the value of SessionLogsRetentionDurationHours to the desired number of hours. If SessionLogsRetentionDurationHours is set to 0, the temporary log file is created during the session and deleted when the session is completed. This setting should ensure the log file doesn't persist after the session ends.

  3. Save your changes.

  4. Restart SSM Agent.