One does not rule out the other. In fact, they are better together. AWS Systems Manager allows you to reach the running instances (managed by SSM), and run commands there (SendCommand, etc.) See: aws.amazon.com/blogs/mt/running-an...
Running Ansible playbooks (via SSM or directly) is one of the better options to update instances, install additional software, and basically do more complicated tasks on those instances.
However, running playbooks from a "home" (AKA controller) machine is sometimes more convenient. In these cases, you need a way to connect to those instances. You will notice that I use hostnames: [instance-id, dns-names] in my plugin configuration. This works well with my SSH over SSM setup on this home machine, and Ansible uses that. So since ssh i-xxxxxxxxxx works, ansible -m ping i-xxxxxxxxxx also works.
Are there any advantages on using Ansible over AWS Systems Manager?
One does not rule out the other. In fact, they are better together. AWS Systems Manager allows you to reach the running instances (managed by SSM), and run commands there (SendCommand, etc.) See: aws.amazon.com/blogs/mt/running-an...
Running Ansible playbooks (via SSM or directly) is one of the better options to update instances, install additional software, and basically do more complicated tasks on those instances.
However, running playbooks from a "home" (AKA controller) machine is sometimes more convenient. In these cases, you need a way to connect to those instances. You will notice that I use
hostnames: [instance-id, dns-names]in my plugin configuration. This works well with my SSH over SSM setup on this home machine, and Ansible uses that. So sincessh i-xxxxxxxxxxworks,ansible -m ping i-xxxxxxxxxxalso works.See: docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manage... for more information on getting started with that.