describe-sessions¶

Description¶

Retrieves a list of all active sessions (both connected and disconnected) or terminated sessions from the past 30 days.

Synopsis¶

  describe-sessions
--state <value>
[--filters <value>]
[--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml]
[--starting-token <value>]
[--page-size <value>]
[--max-items <value>]
[--generate-cli-skeleton <value>]

Options¶

--state (string)

The session status to retrieve a list of sessions for. For example, “Active”.

Possible values:

Active

History

--filters (list)

One or more filters to limit the type of sessions returned by the request.

(structure)

Describes a filter for Session Manager information.

key -> (string)

The name of the filter.

value -> (string)

The filter value. Valid values for each filter key are as follows:

InvokedAfter: Specify a timestamp to limit your results. For example, specify 2018-08-29T00:00:00Z to see sessions that started August 29, 2018, and later.

InvokedBefore: Specify a timestamp to limit your results. For example, specify 2018-08-29T00:00:00Z to see sessions that started before August 29, 2018.

Target: Specify an instance to which session connections have been made.

Owner: Specify an Amazon Web Services user account to see a list of sessions started by that user.

Status: Specify a valid session status to see a list of all sessions with that status. Status values you can specify include:

Connected

Connecting

Disconnected

Terminated

Terminating

Failed

SessionId: Specify a session ID to return details about the session.

Shorthand Syntax:

key=string,value=string ...

JSON Syntax:

[
  {
    "key": "InvokedAfter"|"InvokedBefore"|"Target"|"Owner"|"Status"|"SessionId",
    "value": "string"
  }
  ...
]

--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml (string) Reads arguments from the JSON string provided. The JSON string follows the format provided by --generate-cli-skeleton. If other arguments are provided on the command line, those values will override the JSON-provided values. It is not possible to pass arbitrary binary values using a JSON-provided value as the string will be taken literally. This may not be specified along with --cli-input-yaml.

--starting-token (string)

A token to specify where to start paginating. This is the NextToken from a previously truncated response.

For usage examples, see Pagination in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide .

--page-size (integer)

The size of each page to get in the AWS service call. This does not affect the number of items returned in the command’s output. Setting a smaller page size results in more calls to the AWS service, retrieving fewer items in each call. This can help prevent the AWS service calls from timing out.

For usage examples, see Pagination in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide .

--max-items (integer)

The total number of items to return in the command’s output. If the total number of items available is more than the value specified, a NextToken is provided in the command’s output. To resume pagination, provide the NextToken value in the starting-token argument of a subsequent command. Do not use the NextToken response element directly outside of the AWS CLI.

For usage examples, see Pagination in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide .

--generate-cli-skeleton (string) Prints a JSON skeleton to standard output without sending an API request. If provided with no value or the value input, prints a sample input JSON that can be used as an argument for --cli-input-json. Similarly, if provided yaml-input it will print a sample input YAML that can be used with --cli-input-yaml. If provided with the value output, it validates the command inputs and returns a sample output JSON for that command.

See ‘aws help’ for descriptions of global parameters.

Examples¶

Example 1: To list all active Session Manager sessions

This describe-sessions example retrieves a list of the active sessions created most recently (both connected and disconnected sessions) over the past 30 days that were started by the specified user. This command returns only results for connections to targets initiated using Session Manager. It does not list connections made through other means, such as Remote Desktop Connections or SSH.

aws ssm describe-sessions \
    --state "Active" \
    --filters "key=Owner,value=arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Administrator/Shirley-Rodriguez"

Output:

{
    "Sessions": [
        {
            "SessionId": "John-07a16060613c408b5",
            "Target": "i-1234567890abcdef0",
            "Status": "Connected",
            "StartDate": 1550676938.352,
            "Owner": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Administrator/Shirley-Rodriguez",
            "OutputUrl": {}
        },
        {
            "SessionId": "John-01edf534b8b56e8eb",
            "Target": "i-9876543210abcdef0",
            "Status": "Connected",
            "StartDate": 1550676842.194,
            "Owner": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Administrator/Shirley-Rodriguez",
            "OutputUrl": {}
        }
    ]
}

Example 2: To list all terminated Session Manager sessions

This describe-sessions example retrieves a list of the most recently terminated sessions from the past 30 days for all users.

aws ssm describe-sessions \
    --state "History"

Output:

{
    "Sessions": [
        {
            "SessionId": "Mary-Major-0022b1eb2b0d9e3bd",
            "Target": "i-1234567890abcdef0",
            "Status": "Terminated",
            "StartDate": 1550520701.256,
            "EndDate": 1550521931.563,
            "Owner": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Administrator/Mary-Major"
        },
        {
            "SessionId": "Jane-Roe-0db53f487931ed9d4",
            "Target": "i-9876543210abcdef0",
            "Status": "Terminated",
            "StartDate": 1550161369.149,
            "EndDate": 1550162580.329,
            "Owner": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Administrator/Jane-Roe"
        },
        ...
    ],
    "NextToken": "--token string truncated--"
}

For more information, see View Session History in the AWS Systems Manager User Guide.

Output¶

Sessions -> (list)

A list of sessions meeting the request parameters.

(structure)

Information about a Session Manager connection to an instance.

SessionId -> (string)

The ID of the session.

Target -> (string)

The instance that the Session Manager session connected to.

Status -> (string)

The status of the session. For example, “Connected” or “Terminated”.

StartDate -> (timestamp)

The date and time, in ISO-8601 Extended format, when the session began.

EndDate -> (timestamp)

The date and time, in ISO-8601 Extended format, when the session was terminated.

DocumentName -> (string)

The name of the Session Manager SSM document used to define the parameters and plugin settings for the session. For example, SSM-SessionManagerRunShell .

Owner -> (string)

The ID of the Amazon Web Services user account that started the session.

Details -> (string)

Reserved for future use.

OutputUrl -> (structure)

Reserved for future use.

S3OutputUrl -> (string)

Reserved for future use.

CloudWatchOutputUrl -> (string)

Reserved for future use.

NextToken -> (string)

The token for the next set of items to return. (You received this token from a previous call.)

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