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Freeleapp

Connect to EC2 with SSM

Freeleapp can open a terminal session on an EC2 instance through AWS Systems Manager Session Manager, with no SSH keys or open ports. It uses the session’s temporary credentials.

Before you start, make sure the requirements are met. Freeleapp checks for the AWS CLI and the Session Manager plugin when you open the SSM dialog and tells you if one is missing. To prepare your instances, follow Setting up Session Manager.

Connect

Section titled “Connect”
  1. Right-click an AWS session and choose View SSM Sessions.
  2. Check the region where the instance runs. The dialog opens on the region you used last for that session, else on the session’s region.
  3. Pick the instance and click Connect. Instances already loaded show right away, with when they were loaded; the refresh button next to the region loads them from AWS again. Only running instances are listed, by their Name tag.
  4. A terminal opens with the session. Type /bin/bash and press Return to get a shell.

The terminal app is set in Settings › General › macOS Terminal (Terminal, iTerm2 or Warp).

The copy icon next to Connect copies the aws ssm start-session command with the session’s named profile, to run it in any terminal while the session is active.

To reach a port on the instance, or a database behind it, use SSM tunnels.