# What is Amazon DCV Session Manager? What is Session Manager? **Note** Amazon DCV was previously known as NICE DCV. Amazon DCV Session Manager is set of installable software packages (an Agent and a Broker) and an application programming interface (API) that makes it easy for developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to build front-end applications that programmatically create and manage the lifecycle of Amazon DCV sessions across a fleet of Amazon DCV servers. This guide explains how to install and configure the Session Manager Agent and Broker. For more information about using the Session Manager APIs, see the *Amazon DCV Session Manager Developer Guide*. **Topics** + [ ## How Session Manager works ](#how) + [ ## Features ](#features) + [ ## Limitations ](#limitations) + [ ## Pricing ](#pricing) + [Requirements](requirements.md) ## How Session Manager works The following diagram shows the high-level components of Session Manager. ![\[Amazon DCV Session Manager components\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/images/session-mgr.png) ****Broker**** The Broker is a web server that hosts and exposes the Session Manager APIs. It receives and processes *API* requests to manage Amazon DCV sessions from the *client*, and then passes the instructions to the relevant *Agents*. The Broker must be installed on a host that is separate from your Amazon DCV servers, but it must be accessible to the client, and it must be able to access the Agents. ****Agent**** The Agent is installed on each Amazon DCV server in the fleet. The Agents receive instructions from the *Broker* and run them on their respective Amazon DCV servers. The Agents also monitor the state of the Amazon DCV servers, and send periodic status updates back to the Broker. ****APIs**** Session Manager exposes a set of REST application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be used to manage Amazon DCV sessions on a fleet of Amazon DCV servers. The APIs are hosted on and exposed by the *Broker*. Developers can build custom session management *clients* that call the APIs. ****Client**** The client is the front-end application or portal that you develop to call the Session Manager *APIs* that are exposed by the *Broker*. End users use the client to manage the sessions hosted on the Amazon DCV servers in the fleet. ****Access token**** In order to make an API request, you must provide an access token. Tokens can be requested from the Broker, or an external authorization server, by registered client APIs. To request and access token, the client API must provide valid credentials. ****Client API**** The client API is generated from the Session Manager API definition YAML file, using Swagger Codegen. The client API is used to make API requests. ****Amazon DCV session**** An Amazon DCV session is a span of time when the Amazon DCV server is able to accept connections from a client. Before your clients can connect to an Amazon DCV session, you must create an Amazon DCV session on the Amazon DCV server. Amazon DCV supports both console and virtual sessions, and each session has a specified owner and set of permissions. You use the Session Manager APIs to manage the lifecycle of Amazon DCV sessions. Amazon DCV sessions can be in one of the following states: + `CREATING`—the Broker is in the process of creating the session. + `READY`—the session is ready to accept client connections. + `DELETING`—the session is being deleted. + `DELETED`—the session has been deleted. + `UNKNOWN`—unable to determine the session's state. The Broker and the Agent might be unable to communicate. ******** ## Features DCV Session Manager offers the following features: + **Provides Amazon DCV session information**—get information about the sessions running on multiple Amazon DCV servers. + **Manage the lifecycle for multiple Amazon DCV sessions**—create or delete multiple sessions for multiple users across multiple Amazon DCV servers with one API request. + **Supports tags**—use custom tags to target a group of Amazon DCV servers when creating sessions. + **Manages permissions for multiple Amazon DCV sessions**—modify user permissions for multiple sessions with one API request. + **Provides connection information**—retrieve client connection information for Amazon DCV sessions. + **Supports for cloud and on-premises**—use Session Manager on AWS, on-premises, or with alternative cloud-based servers. ## Limitations Session Manager does not provide resource provisioning capabilities. If you are running Amazon DCV on Amazon EC2 instances, you might need to use additional AWS services, such as Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling to manage the scaling of your infrastructure. ## Pricing Session Manager is available at no cost for AWS customers running EC2 instances. On-premises customers require a Amazon DCV Plus or Amazon DCV Professional Plus license. For information about how to purchase a Amazon DCV Plus or Amazon DCV Professional Plus license, see [How to Buy](https://www.nice-software.com/index.html#buy) on the Amazon DCV website and find a Amazon DCV distributor or reseller in your region. To allow all on-premises customers to experiment with the Amazon DCV Session Manager, the licensing requirements will only be enforced starting with Amazon DCV version 2021.0. For more information, see [ Licensing the Amazon DCV Server](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/adminguide/setting-up-license.html) in the *Amazon DCV Administrator Guide*. # Amazon DCV Session Manager requirements Requirements The Amazon DCV Session Manager Agent and Broker have the following requirements. | | Broker | Agent | | --- | --- | --- | | **Operating system** | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/requirements.html) | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/requirements.html) | | **Architecture** | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/requirements.html) | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/requirements.html) | | **Memory** | 8 GB | 4 GB | | **Amazon DCV version** | Amazon DCV 2020.2 and later | Amazon DCV 2020.2 and later | | **Additional requirements** | Java 11 | - | ## Networking and connectivity requirements The following diagram provides a high-level overview of the Session Manager networking and connectivity requirements. ![\[Amazon DCV Session Manager network architecture\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/images/requirements.png) The **Broker** must be installed on a separate host, but it must have network connectivity with the Agents on the Amazon DCV servers. If you choose to have multiple Brokers to improve availability, then you must install and configure each broker on a separate host, and use one or more load balancers to manage the traffic between the client and the Brokers, and the Brokers and the Agents. The Brokers should also be able to communicate with each other in order to exchange information about the Amazon DCV servers and sessions. The Brokers can store their keys and status data on an external database and have this information available after reboot or termination. This helps mitigate the risk of losing important Broker information by persisting it on the external database. You can retrieve it later. If you choose to have it, then you must set up the external database and configure the brokers. DynamoDB, MariaDB, and MySQL are supported. You can find configuration parameters are listed on the [Broker Configuration File](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/latest/sm-admin/broker-file.html). The **Agents** must be able to initiate secure, persistent, bi-directional HTTPs connections with the Broker. Your **client**, or frontend application, must be able to access the Broker in order to call the APIs. The client should also be able to access your authentication server.