diff --git a/release/tools/ec2-base.conf b/release/tools/ec2-base.conf
index bd2c510cd1a7..3ed20474a4e8 100644
--- a/release/tools/ec2-base.conf
+++ b/release/tools/ec2-base.conf
@@ -1,37 +1,39 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 . ${WORLDDIR}/release/tools/ec2.conf
 
 # Packages to install into the image we're creating.  In addition to packages
 # present on all EC2 AMIs, we install:
+# * amazon-ssm-agent (not enabled by default, but some users need to use
+# it on systems not connected to the internet),
 # * ec2-scripts, which provides a range of EC2ification startup scripts,
 # * firstboot-freebsd-update, to install security updates at first boot,
 # * firstboot-pkgs, to install packages at first boot, and
 # * isc-dhcp44-client, used for IPv6 network setup.
-export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} ec2-scripts \
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} amazon-ssm-agent ec2-scripts \
     firstboot-freebsd-update firstboot-pkgs isc-dhcp44-client"
 
 # Services to enable in rc.conf(5).
 export VM_RC_LIST="${VM_RC_LIST} ec2_configinit ec2_ephemeral_swap \
     ec2_fetchkey ec2_loghostkey firstboot_freebsd_update firstboot_pkgs \
     growfs sshd"
 
 vm_extra_pre_umount() {
 	# The AWS CLI tools are generally useful, and small enough that they
 	# will download quickly; but users will often override this setting
 	# via EC2 user-data.
 	echo 'firstboot_pkgs_list="devel/py-awscli"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
 
 	# Any EC2 ephemeral disks seen when the system first boots will
 	# be "new" disks; there is no "previous boot" when they might have
 	# been seen and used already.
 	touch ${DESTDIR}/var/db/ec2_ephemeral_diskseen
 
 	# Configuration common to all EC2 AMIs
 	ec2_common
 
 	# Standard FreeBSD network configuration
 	ec2_base_networking
 
 	return 0
 }
diff --git a/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf b/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf
index 7682d635b1d6..048202e252f6 100644
--- a/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf
+++ b/release/tools/ec2-cloud-init.conf
@@ -1,32 +1,32 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 . ${WORLDDIR}/release/tools/ec2.conf
 
 # Packages to install into the image we're creating.  In addition to packages
-# present on all EC2 AMIs, we install cloud-init.
-export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} net/cloud-init"
+# present on all EC2 AMIs, we install amazon-ssm-agent and cloud-init.
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} amazon-ssm-agent net/cloud-init"
 
 # Services to enable in rc.conf(5).
 export VM_RC_LIST="${VM_RC_LIST} cloudinit sshd"
 
 vm_extra_pre_umount() {
 	# Configuration common to all EC2 AMIs
 	ec2_common
 
 	# Configure cloud-init
 	cat <<-'EOF' > ${DESTDIR}/usr/local/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/98_ec2.cfg
 		disable_root: true
 		system_info:
 		  distro: freebsd
 		  default_user:
 		    name: ec2-user
 		    lock_passwd: True
 		    groups: [wheel]
 		    shell: /bin/sh
 		    homedir: /home/ec2-user
 		    doas:
 		    - permit nopass ec2-user
 	EOF
 
 	return 0
 }
diff --git a/release/tools/ec2.conf b/release/tools/ec2.conf
index 09cf1ce0017f..2cca5fa713af 100644
--- a/release/tools/ec2.conf
+++ b/release/tools/ec2.conf
@@ -1,133 +1,131 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-# Packages which should be installed onto all EC2 AMIs:
+# Package which should be installed onto all EC2 AMIs:
 # * ebsnvme-id, which is very minimal and provides important EBS-specific
 # functionality,
-# * amazon-ssm-agent (not enabled by default, but some users need to use
-# it on systems not connected to the internet).
-export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} ebsnvme-id amazon-ssm-agent"
+export VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES="${VM_EXTRA_PACKAGES} ebsnvme-id"
 
 # Services which should be enabled by default in rc.conf(5).
 export VM_RC_LIST="dev_aws_disk ntpd"
 
 # Build with a 7.9 GB partition; the growfs rc.d script will expand
 # the partition to fill the root disk after the EC2 instance is launched.
 # Note that if this is set to <N>G, we will end up with an <N+1> GB disk
 # image since VMSIZE is the size of the filesystem partition, not the disk
 # which it resides within.
 export VMSIZE=8000m
 
 # No swap space; it doesn't make sense to provision any as part of the disk
 # image when we could be launching onto a system with anywhere between 0.5
 # and 4096 GB of RAM.
 export NOSWAP=YES
 
 ec2_common() {
 	# Delete the pkg package and the repo database; they will likely be
 	# long out of date before the EC2 instance is launched.
 	mount -t devfs devfs ${DESTDIR}/dev
 	chroot ${DESTDIR} ${EMULATOR} env ASSUME_ALWAYS_YES=yes \
 		/usr/sbin/pkg delete -f -y pkg
 	umount ${DESTDIR}/dev
 	rm ${DESTDIR}/var/db/pkg/repo-*.sqlite
 
 	# Turn off IPv6 Duplicate Address Detection; the EC2 networking
 	# configuration makes it unnecessary.
 	echo 'net.inet6.ip6.dad_count=0' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/sysctl.conf
 
 	# Booting quickly is more important than giving users a chance to
 	# access the boot loader via the serial port.
 	echo 'autoboot_delay="-1"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 	echo 'beastie_disable="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 
 	# Tell gptboot not to wait 3 seconds for a keypress which will
 	# never arrive.
 	printf -- "-n\n" > ${DESTDIR}/boot.config
 
 	# The emulated keyboard attached to EC2 instances is inaccessible to
 	# users, and there is no mouse attached at all; disable to keyboard
 	# and the keyboard controller (to which the mouse would attach, if
 	# one existed) in order to save time in device probing.
 	echo 'hint.atkbd.0.disabled=1' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 	echo 'hint.atkbdc.0.disabled=1' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 
 	# EC2 has two consoles: An emulated serial port ("system log"),
 	# which has been present since 2006; and a VGA console ("instance
 	# screenshot") which was introduced in 2016.
 	echo 'boot_multicons="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 
 	# Some older EC2 hardware used a version of Xen with a bug in its
 	# emulated serial port.  It is not clear if EC2 still has any such
 	# nodes, but apply the workaround just in case.
 	echo 'hw.broken_txfifo="1"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 
 	# Load the kernel module for the Amazon "Elastic Network Adapter"
 	echo 'if_ena_load="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 
 	# Use the "nda" driver for accessing NVMe disks rather than the
 	# historical "nvd" driver.
 	echo 'hw.nvme.use_nvd="0"' >> ${DESTDIR}/boot/loader.conf
 
 	# Disable KbdInteractiveAuthentication according to EC2 requirements.
 	sed -i '' -e \
 		's/^#KbdInteractiveAuthentication yes/KbdInteractiveAuthentication no/' \
 		${DESTDIR}/etc/ssh/sshd_config
 
 	# Use FreeBSD Update mirrors hosted in AWS
 	sed -i '' -e 's/update.FreeBSD.org/aws.update.FreeBSD.org/' \
 		${DESTDIR}/etc/freebsd-update.conf
 
 	# Use the NTP service provided by Amazon
 	sed -i '' -e 's/^pool/#pool/' \
 		-e '1,/^#server/s/^#server.*/server 169.254.169.123 iburst/' \
 		${DESTDIR}/etc/ntp.conf
 
 	# Provide a map for accessing Elastic File System mounts
 	cat > ${DESTDIR}/etc/autofs/special_efs <<'EOF'
 #!/bin/sh
 
 if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
         # No way to know which EFS filesystems exist and are
         # accessible to this EC2 instance.
         exit 0
 fi
 
 # Provide instructions on how to mount the requested filesystem.
 FS=$1
 REGION=`fetch -qo- http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/availability-zone | sed -e 's/[a-z]$//'`
 echo "-nfsv4,minorversion=1,oneopenown ${FS}.efs.${REGION}.amazonaws.com:/"
 EOF
 	chmod 755 ${DESTDIR}/etc/autofs/special_efs
 
 	# The first time the AMI boots, run "first boot" scripts.
 	touch ${DESTDIR}/firstboot
 
 	return 0
 }
 
 ec2_base_networking () {
 	# EC2 instances use DHCP to get their network configuration.  IPv6
 	# requires accept_rtadv.
 	echo 'ifconfig_DEFAULT="SYNCDHCP accept_rtadv"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
 
 	# The EC2 DHCP server can be trusted to know whether an IP address is
 	# assigned to us; we don't need to ARP to check if anyone else is using
 	# the address before we start using it.
 	echo 'dhclient_arpwait="NO"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
 
 	# Enable IPv6 on all interfaces, and spawn DHCPv6 via rtsold
 	echo 'ipv6_activate_all_interfaces="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
 	echo 'rtsold_enable="YES"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
 	echo 'rtsold_flags="-M /usr/local/libexec/rtsold-M -a"' >> ${DESTDIR}/etc/rc.conf
 
 	# Provide a script which rtsold can use to launch DHCPv6
 	mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}/usr/local/libexec
 	cat > ${DESTDIR}/usr/local/libexec/rtsold-M <<'EOF'
 #!/bin/sh
 
 /usr/local/sbin/dhclient -6 -nw -N -cf /dev/null $1
 EOF
 	chmod 755 ${DESTDIR}/usr/local/libexec/rtsold-M
 
 	return 0
 }