• 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). 

# Logging AWS Systems Manager API calls with AWS CloudTrail


AWS Systems Manager is integrated with [AWS CloudTrail](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-user-guide.html), a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service. CloudTrail captures all API calls for Systems Manager as events. The calls captured include calls from the Systems Manager console and code calls to the Systems Manager API operations. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that was made to Systems Manager, the IP address from which the request was made, when it was made, and additional details.

Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:
+ Whether the request was made with root user or user credentials.
+ Whether the request was made on behalf of an IAM Identity Center user.
+ Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for a role or federated user.
+ Whether the request was made by another AWS service.

CloudTrail is active in your AWS account when you create the account and you automatically have access to the CloudTrail **Event history**. The CloudTrail **Event history** provides a viewable, searchable, downloadable, and immutable record of the past 90 days of recorded management events in an AWS Region. For more information, see [Working with CloudTrail Event history](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/view-cloudtrail-events.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*. There are no CloudTrail charges for viewing the **Event history**.

For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account past 90 days, create a trail or a [CloudTrail Lake](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake.html) event data store.

**CloudTrail trails**  
A *trail* enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. All trails created using the AWS Management Console are multi-Region. You can create a single-Region or a multi-Region trail by using the AWS CLI. Creating a multi-Region trail is recommended because you capture activity in all AWS Regions in your account. If you create a single-Region trail, you can view only the events logged in the trail's AWS Region. For more information about trails, see [Creating a trail for your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-create-and-update-a-trail.html) and [Creating a trail for an organization](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/creating-trail-organization.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.  
You can deliver one copy of your ongoing management events to your Amazon S3 bucket at no charge from CloudTrail by creating a trail, however, there are Amazon S3 storage charges. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see [AWS CloudTrail Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/). For information about Amazon S3 pricing, see [Amazon S3 Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/).

**CloudTrail Lake event data stores**  
*CloudTrail Lake* lets you run SQL-based queries on your events. CloudTrail Lake converts existing events in row-based JSON format to [ Apache ORC](https://orc.apache.org/) format. ORC is a columnar storage format that is optimized for fast retrieval of data. Events are aggregated into *event data stores*, which are immutable collections of events based on criteria that you select by applying [advanced event selectors](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake-concepts.html#adv-event-selectors). The selectors that you apply to an event data store control which events persist and are available for you to query. For more information about CloudTrail Lake, see [Working with AWS CloudTrail Lake](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.  
CloudTrail Lake event data stores and queries incur costs. When you create an event data store, you choose the [pricing option](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake-manage-costs.html#cloudtrail-lake-manage-costs-pricing-option) you want to use for the event data store. The pricing option determines the cost for ingesting and storing events, and the default and maximum retention period for the event data store. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see [AWS CloudTrail Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/).

## Systems Manager data events in CloudTrail


[Data events](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/logging-data-events-with-cloudtrail.html#logging-data-events) provide information about the resource operations performed on or in a resource (for example, creating or opening a control channel). These are also known as data plane operations. Data events are often high-volume activities. By default, CloudTrail doesn’t log data events. The CloudTrail **Event history** doesn't record data events.

Additional charges apply for data events. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see [AWS CloudTrail Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/).

You can log data events for the Systems Manager resource types by using the CloudTrail console, AWS CLI, or CloudTrail API operations. For more information about how to log data events, see [Logging data events with the AWS Management Console](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/logging-data-events-with-cloudtrail.html#logging-data-events-console) and [Logging data events with the AWS Command Line Interface](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/logging-data-events-with-cloudtrail.html#creating-data-event-selectors-with-the-AWS-CLI) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.

The following table lists the Systems Manager resource types for which you can log data events. The **Data event type (console)** column shows the value to choose from the **Data event type** list on the CloudTrail console. The **resources.type value** column shows the `resources.type` value, which you would specify when configuring advanced event selectors using the AWS CLI or CloudTrail APIs. The **Data APIs logged to CloudTrail** column shows the API calls logged to CloudTrail for the resource type. 


| Data event type (console) | resources.type value | Data APIs logged to CloudTrail | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
| Systems Manager |  AWS::SSMMessages::ControlChannel  |  [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/monitoring-cloudtrail-logs.html) For more information about these operations, see [ Actions defined by Amazon Message Gateway Service](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/service-authorization/latest/reference/list_amazonmessagegatewayservice.html#amazonmessagegatewayservice-actions-as-permissions) in the *Service Authorization Reference*.  | 
| Systems Manager managed node |  AWS::SSM::ManagedNode  |  [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/monitoring-cloudtrail-logs.html)For more information about the `RequestManagedInstanceRoleToken` operation, see [Validating hybrid-activated machines using a hardware fingerprint](ssm-agent-technical-details.md#fingerprint-validation)  | 

You can configure advanced event selectors to filter on the `eventName`, `readOnly`, and `resources.ARN` fields to log only those events that are important to you. For more information about these fields, see [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/APIReference/API_AdvancedFieldSelector.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/APIReference/API_AdvancedFieldSelector.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail API Reference*.

## Systems Manager management events in CloudTrail


[Management events](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/logging-management-events-with-cloudtrail.html#logging-management-events) provide information about management operations that are performed on resources in your AWS account. These are also known as control plane operations. By default, CloudTrail logs management events.

Systems Manager logs all control plane operations to CloudTrail as management events. Systems Manager API operations are documented in the [AWS Systems Manager API Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html). For example, calls to the `CreateMaintenanceWindows`, `PutInventory`, `SendCommand`, and `StartSession` actions generate entries in the CloudTrail log files. For an example of setting up CloudTrail to monitor a Systems Manager API call, see [Monitoring session activity using Amazon EventBridge (console)](session-manager-auditing.md#session-manager-auditing-eventbridge-events).

## Systems Manager event examples


An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested API operation, the date and time of the operation, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so events don't appear in any specific order.

**Topics**
+ [

### Management event examples
](#monitoring-cloudtrail-logs-log-entries-example-mgmt)
+ [

### Data event examples
](#monitoring-cloudtrail-logs-log-entries-example-data)

### Management event examples


**Example 1: `DeleteDocument`**  
The following example shows a CloudTrail event that demonstrates the `DeleteDocument` operation on a document named `example-Document` in the US East (Ohio) Region (us-east-2).

```
{
    "eventVersion": "1.04",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "AssumedRole",
        "principalId": "AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE:203.0.113.11",
        "arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/example-role/203.0.113.11",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
            "attributes": {
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
                "creationDate": "2018-03-06T20:19:16Z"
            },
            "sessionIssuer": {
                "type": "Role",
                "principalId": "AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
                "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/example-role",
                "accountId": "123456789012",
                "userName": "example-role"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2018-03-06T20:30:12Z",
    "eventSource": "ssm.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "DeleteDocument",
    "awsRegion": "us-east-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "203.0.113.11",
    "userAgent": "example-user-agent-string",
    "requestParameters": {
        "name": "example-Document"
    },
    "responseElements": null,
    "requestID": "86168559-75e9-11e4-8cf8-75d18EXAMPLE",
    "eventID": "832b82d5-d474-44e8-a51d-093ccEXAMPLE",
    "resources": [
        {
            "ARN": "arn:aws:ssm:us-east-2:123456789012:document/example-Document",
            "accountId": "123456789012"
        }
    ],
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
    "eventCategory": "Management"
}
```

**Example 2: `StartConnection`**  
The following example shows a CloudTrail event for a user who starts an RDP connection using Fleet Manager in the US East (Ohio) Region (us-east-2). The underlying API action is `StartConnection`.

```
{
    "eventVersion": "1.08",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "AssumedRole",
        "principalId": "AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/exampleRole",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
            "sessionIssuer": {
                "type": "Role",
                "principalId": "AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
                "arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/exampleRole",
                "accountId": "123456789012",
                "userName": "exampleRole"
            },
            "webIdFederationData": {},
            "attributes": {
                "creationDate": "2021-12-13T14:57:05Z",
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2021-12-13T16:50:41Z",
    "eventSource": "ssm-guiconnect.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "StartConnection",
    "awsRegion": "us-east-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "34.230.45.60",
    "userAgent": "example-user-agent-string",
    "requestParameters": {
        "AuthType": "Credentials",
        "Protocol": "RDP",
        "ConnectionType": "SessionManager",
        "InstanceId": "i-02573cafcfEXAMPLE"
    },
    "responseElements": {
        "ConnectionArn": "arn:aws:ssm-guiconnect:us-east-2:123456789012:connection/fcb810cd-241f-4aae-9ee4-02d59EXAMPLE",
        "ConnectionKey": "71f9629f-0f9a-4b35-92f2-2d253EXAMPLE",
        "ClientToken": "49af0f92-d637-4d47-9c54-ea51aEXAMPLE",
        "requestId": "d466710f-2adf-4e87-9464-055b2EXAMPLE"
    },
    "requestID": "d466710f-2adf-4e87-9464-055b2EXAMPLE",
    "eventID": "fc514f57-ba19-4e8b-9079-c2913EXAMPLE",
    "readOnly": false,
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "managementEvent": true,
    "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
    "eventCategory": "Management"
}
```

### Data event examples


**Example 1: `CreateControlChannel`**  
The following example shows a CloudTrail event that demonstrates the `CreateControlChannel` operation.

```
{
  "eventVersion":"1.08",
  "userIdentity":{
    "type":"AssumedRole",
    "principalId":"AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
    "arn":"arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/exampleRole",
    "accountId":"123456789012",
    "accessKeyId":"AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
    "sessionContext":{
      "sessionIssuer":{
        "type":"Role",
        "principalId":"AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
        "arn":"arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/exampleRole",
        "accountId":"123456789012",
        "userName":"exampleRole"
      },
      "attributes":{
        "creationDate":"2023-05-04T23:14:50Z",
        "mfaAuthenticated":"false"
      }
    }
  },
  "eventTime":"2023-05-04T23:53:55Z",
  "eventSource":"ssm.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName":"CreateControlChannel",
  "awsRegion":"us-east-1",
  "sourceIPAddress":"192.0.2.0",
  "userAgent":"example-agent",
  "requestParameters":{
    "channelId":"44295c1f-49d2-48b6-b218-96823EXAMPLE",
    "messageSchemaVersion":"1.0",
    "requestId":"54993150-0e8f-4142-aa54-3438EXAMPLE",
    "userAgent":"example-agent"
  },
  "responseElements":{
    "messageSchemaVersion":"1.0",
    "tokenValue":"Value hidden due to security reasons.",
    "url":"example-url"
  },
  "requestID":"54993150-0e8f-4142-aa54-3438EXAMPLE",
  "eventID":"a48a28de-7996-4ca1-a3a0-a51fEXAMPLE",
  "readOnly":false,
  "resources":[
    {
      "accountId":"123456789012",
      "type":"AWS::SSMMessages::ControlChannel",
      "ARN":"arn:aws:ssmmessages:us-east-1:123456789012:control-channel/44295c1f-49d2-48b6-b218-96823EXAMPLE"
    }
  ],
  "eventType":"AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent":false,
  "recipientAccountId":"123456789012",
  "eventCategory":"Data"
}
```

**Example 2: `RequestManagedInstanceRoleToken`**  
The following example shows a CloudTrail event that demonstrates the `RequestManagedInstanceRoleToken` operation.

```
{
    "eventVersion": "1.08",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "AssumedRole",
        "principalId": "123456789012:aws:ec2-instance:i-02854e4bEXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/aws:ec2-instance/i-02854e4bEXAMPLE",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
            "sessionIssuer": {
                "type": "Role",
                "principalId": "123456789012:aws:ec2-instance",
                "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/aws:ec2-instance",
                "accountId": "123456789012",
                "userName": "aws:ec2-instance"
            },
            "attributes": {
                "creationDate": "2023-08-27T03:34:46Z",
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
            },
            "ec2RoleDelivery": "2.0"
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2023-08-27T03:37:15Z",
    "eventSource": "ssm.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "RequestManagedInstanceRoleToken",
    "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
    "sourceIPAddress": "192.0.2.0",
    "userAgent": "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (Java/1.8.0_362)",
    "requestParameters": {
        "fingerprint": "i-02854e4bf85EXAMPLE"
    },
    "responseElements": null,
    "requestID": "2582cced-455b-4189-9b82-7b48EXAMPLE",
    "eventID": "7f200508-e547-4c27-982d-4da0EXAMLE",
    "readOnly": true,
    "resources": [
        {
            "accountId": "123456789012",
            "type": "AWS::SSM::ManagedNode",
            "ARN": "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:123456789012:instance/i-02854e4bEXAMPLE"
        }
    ],
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "managementEvent": false,
    "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
    "eventCategory": "Data"
}
```

For information about CloudTrail record contents, see [CloudTrail record contents](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-event-reference-record-contents.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.