• The AWS Systems Manager CloudWatch Dashboard will no longer be available after April 30, 2026. Customers can continue to use Amazon CloudWatch console to view, create, and manage their Amazon CloudWatch dashboards, just as they do today. For more information, see [Amazon CloudWatch Dashboard documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch_Dashboards.html). 

# (Optional) Turn on Session Manager plugin logging
<a name="install-plugin-configure-logs"></a>

The Session Manager plugin includes an option to allow logging for sessions that you run. By default, logging is turned off.

If you allow logging, the Session Manager plugin creates log files for both application activity (`session-manager-plugin.log`) and errors (`errors.log`) on your local machine.

**Topics**
+ [Turn on logging for the Session Manager plugin (Windows)](#configure-logs-windows)
+ [Enable logging for the Session Manager plugin (Linux and macOS)](#configure-logs-linux)

## Turn on logging for the Session Manager plugin (Windows)
<a name="configure-logs-windows"></a>

1. Locate the `seelog.xml.template` file for the plugin. 

   The default location is `C:\Program Files\Amazon\SessionManagerPlugin\seelog.xml.template`.

1. Change the name of the file to `seelog.xml`.

1. Open the file and change `minlevel="off"` to `minlevel="info"` or `minlevel="debug"`.
**Note**  
By default, log entries about opening a data channel and reconnecting sessions are recorded at the **INFO** level. Data flow (packets and acknowledgement) entries are recorded at the **DEBUG** level.

1. Change other configuration options you want to modify. Options you can change include: 
   + **Debug level**: You can change the debug level from `formatid="fmtinfo"` to `formatid="fmtdebug"`.
   + **Log file options**: You can make changes to the log file options, including where the logs are stored, with the exception of the log file names. 
**Important**  
Don't change the file names or logging won't work correctly.

     ```
     <rollingfile type="size" filename="C:\Program Files\Amazon\SessionManagerPlugin\Logs\session-manager-plugin.log" maxsize="30000000" maxrolls="5"/>
     <filter levels="error,critical" formatid="fmterror">
     <rollingfile type="size" filename="C:\Program Files\Amazon\SessionManagerPlugin\Logs\errors.log" maxsize="10000000" maxrolls="5"/>
     ```

1. Save the file.

## Enable logging for the Session Manager plugin (Linux and macOS)
<a name="configure-logs-linux"></a>

1. Locate the `seelog.xml.template` file for the plugin. 

   The default location is `/usr/local/sessionmanagerplugin/seelog.xml.template`.

1. Change the name of the file to `seelog.xml`.

1. Open the file and change `minlevel="off"` to `minlevel="info"` or `minlevel="debug"`.
**Note**  
By default, log entries about opening data channels and reconnecting sessions are recorded at the **INFO** level. Data flow (packets and acknowledgement) entries are recorded at the **DEBUG** level.

1. Change other configuration options you want to modify. Options you can change include: 
   + **Debug level**: You can change the debug level from `formatid="fmtinfo"` to `outputs formatid="fmtdebug"`
   + **Log file options**: You can make changes to the log file options, including where the logs are stored, with the exception of the log file names. 
**Important**  
Don't change the file names or logging won't work correctly.

     ```
     <rollingfile type="size" filename="/usr/local/sessionmanagerplugin/logs/session-manager-plugin.log" maxsize="30000000" maxrolls="5"/>
     <filter levels="error,critical" formatid="fmterror">
     <rollingfile type="size" filename="/usr/local/sessionmanagerplugin/logs/errors.log" maxsize="10000000" maxrolls="5"/>
     ```
**Important**  
If you use the specified default directory for storing logs, you must either run session commands using **sudo** or give the directory where the plugin is installed full read and write permissions. To bypass these restrictions, change the location where logs are stored.

1. Save the file.