• 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). 

# Configuring session logging to disk


After you enable Session Manager logging to CloudWatch or Amazon S3, all commands executed during a session (and the resulting output from those commands) are logged to a temporary file on the disk of the target instance. The temporary file is named `ipcTempFile.log`. 

The `ipcTempFile.log` is controlled by the `SessionLogsDestination` parameter in the SSM Agent configuration file. This parameter accepts the following values:
+ **disk**: If you specify this parameter and session logging to CloudWatch or Amazon S3 are *enabled*, SSM Agent creates the `ipcTempFile.log` temporary log file and logs session commands and output to disk. Session Manager uploads this log to either CloudWatch or S3 during or after the session, depending on the logging configuration. The log is then deleted according to the duration specified for the SSM Agent `SessionLogsRetentionDurationHours` configuration parameter.

  If you specify this parameter and session logging to CloudWatch and Amazon S3 are *disabled*, SSM Agent still logs command history and output in the `ipcTempFile.log` file. The file will be deleted according to the duration specified for the SSM Agent `SessionLogsRetentionDurationHours` configuration parameter.
+ **none**: If you specify this parameter and session logging to CloudWatch or Amazon S3 are *enabled*, logging to disk works exactly as it does as if you'd specified the `disk` parameter. SSM Agent requires the temporary file when session logging to CloudWatch or Amazon S3 are enabled.

  If you specify this parameter and session logging to CloudWatch or Amazon S3 are *disabled*, SSM Agent doesn't create the `ipcTempFile.log` file.

Use the following procedure to enable or disable creating the `ipcTempFile.log` temporary log file to disk when a session is stared.

**To enable or disable creating the Session Manager temporary log file to disk**

1. Either install SSM Agent on your instance or upgrade to version 3.2.2086 or higher. For information about how to check the agent version number, see [Checking the SSM Agent version number](ssm-agent-get-version.md). For information about how to manually install the agent, locate the procedure for your operating system in the following sections:
   + [Manually installing and uninstalling SSM Agent on EC2 instances for Linux](manually-install-ssm-agent-linux.md)
   + [Manually installing and uninstalling SSM Agent on EC2 instances for macOS](manually-install-ssm-agent-macos.md)
   + [Manually installing and uninstalling SSM Agent on EC2 instances for Windows Server](manually-install-ssm-agent-windows.md)

1. Connect to your instance and locate the `amazon-ssm-agent.json` file in the following location.
   + **Linux**: /etc/amazon/ssm/
   + **macOS**: /opt/aws/ssm/
   + **Windows Server**: C:\$1Program Files\$1Amazon\$1SSM

   If the file `amazon-ssm-agent.json` doesn't exist, copy the contents of the `amazon-ssm-agent.json.template` to a new file in the same directory. Name the new file `amazon-ssm-agent.json`. 

1. Specify either `none` or `disk` for the `SessionLogsDestination` parameter. Save your changes.

1. [Restart](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/ssm-agent-status-and-restart.html) SSM Agent.

If you specified `disk` for the `SessionLogsDestination` parameter, you can verify that SSM Agent creates the temporary log file by starting a new session and then locating the `ipcTempFile.log` in the following location:
+ **Linux**: /var/lib/amazon/ssm/*target ID*/session/orchestration/*session ID*/Standard\$1Stream/ipcTempFile.log
+ **macOS**: /opt/aws/ssm/data/*target ID*/session/orchestration/*session ID*/Standard\$1Stream/ipcTempFile.log
+ **Windows Server**: C:\$1ProgramData\$1Amazon\$1SSM\$1InstanceData\$1*target ID*\$1session\$1orchestration\$1*session ID*\$1Standard\$1Stream\$1ipcTempFile.log

**Note**  
By default, the temporary log file is saved on the instance for 14 days.

If you want to update the `SessionLogsDestination` parameter across multiple instances, we recommend you create an SSM Document that specifies the new configuration. You can then use Systems Manager Run Command to implement the change on your instances. For more information, see [Writing your own AWS Systems Manager documents (blog)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/mt/writing-your-own-aws-systems-manager-documents/) and [Running commands on managed nodes](running-commands.md).