awsCloudWatch Plugin Consultation

[csy97]

The technology Apache Log4net version 2.0.14.0 associated with the path C:\\Program Files\\Amazon\\SSM\\Plugins\\awsCloudWatch\\log4net.dll has been End-of-Life

Action Taken

1. I tried installing the latest Windows version of the SSM Agent. It still uses Log4net version 2.0.14.0. I’ve uploaded the attachment for reference.
2. The log4net.dll is stored as a binary dynamic library in the SSM Agent source code, and the latest source version is also 2.0.14.0.
3. I tried deleting the C:\Program Files\Amazon\SSM\Plugins\awsCloudWatch directory. It doesn’t seem to affect the functionality of SSM Session or Run Command, and SSM’s own logs can still be uploaded to CloudWatch.

Resource Link

SSM agnet version 3.3.3050.0

Action Required

1. Is SSM still using CloudWatch? Are there any methods to enable or disable it?

2. Can the version of Log4net in the plugin be upgraded?

[Aperocky]

You are correct, we have been alerted to this issue and we are working with CloudWatch team to evaluate deprecation and migration from this attachment.

Earlier in 2023, we have already marked the plugin execution as deprecated: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/documents-command-ssm-plugin-reference.html#aws-cloudWatch, but we refrained from removing this binary due to backwards compatibility concerns. The default cloudwatch agent on windows should substitute for cloudwatch monitoring and we have a separate documentation for that: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/installing-cloudwatch-agent-ssm.html.

As for now, you can remove C:\Program Files\Amazon\SSM\Plugins\awsCloudWatch directory and no agent functionality other than aws:cloudwatch plugin and AWS-ConfigureCloudWatch document would be affected. CloudWatch logs setup from the agent itself does not go through this agent and will continue to work as normal. This problem and aforementioned documents is only applicable to Windows OS.

You should expect to see a modification here within the next 2 release. Note that while 2.0.14 is newly marked as EOL, there are not any active CVE with it, so we are taking the time to be deliberate about backwards compatibility and customer experience.

Thanks for your understanding.