Automating AWS EC2 Instance Patch Management with Tag-Based Grouping

1. Tag EC2 Instances:

• Before you can use Patch Group tags, you need to tag your EC2 instances accordingly. For example, you might tag an EC2 instance with a tag named “PatchGroup” and assign it a value such as “PatchGroup1” or “PatchGroup2” based on which group it belongs to.
• You can tag your instances using the AWS CLI or through the AWS Management Console. Here’s an example of how you might tag an instance using the AWS CLI: aws ec2 create-tags --resources i-1234567890abcdef0 --tags Key=PatchGroup,Value=PatchGroup1
• Replace i-1234567890abcdef0 with the actual instance ID.

1. Register Targets with Patch Group Tags:

• The following commands associate EC2 instances with specific maintenance windows based on their Patch Group tags: # Register targets from PatchGroup1 to MaintenanceWindow1 aws ssm register-targets-for-maintenance-window --window-id "MaintenanceWindow1" --targets "Key=tag:PatchGroup,Values=PatchGroup1" # Register targets from PatchGroup2 to MaintenanceWindow2 aws ssm register-targets-for-maintenance-window --window-id "MaintenanceWindow2" --targets "Key=tag:PatchGroup,Values=PatchGroup2"
• In these commands, the --targets parameter uses the Key=tag:PatchGroup,Values=PatchGroup1 and Key=tag:PatchGroup,Values=PatchGroup2 conditions to target instances with the specified Patch Group tags.

1. Associating the AWS-RunPatchBaseline Document:

• The last step assigns the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document as a task within each maintenance window: # Assign the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document to MaintenanceWindow1 aws ssm create-association --name "PatchAssociation1" --targets "Key=WindowTargetIds,Values=MaintenanceWindow1Id" --document-name "AWS-RunPatchBaseline" # Assign the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document to MaintenanceWindow2 aws ssm create-association --name "PatchAssociation2" --targets "Key=WindowTargetIds,Values=MaintenanceWindow2Id" --document-name "AWS-RunPatchBaseline"
• In these commands, "MaintenanceWindow1Id" and "MaintenanceWindow2Id" should be replaced with the actual IDs of the maintenance windows to which the EC2 instances are associated based on their Patch Group tags.

By tagging EC2 instances with the appropriate Patch Group tags and then using these tags in the maintenance window and patch baseline associations, you can ensure that specific instances are included in the patch management tasks as per your desired patch group assignments. This approach allows for flexibility and automation in managing patches on EC2 instances with different maintenance requirements.