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Dave Ball / nzdjb (he/him)

About me

Husband, Dad, Computer Wrangler in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa.

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AWS Multi-session Support

Dave @ 2025-12-02

A major issue with working in an AWS environment beyond a trivial size has always been that you can only use the Console on a single account at a time. This had lead to all sorts of workarounds such as using incognito windows or additional browser profiles.

AWS fixed this (mostly) in January this year by adding multi-session support.

What is it?

Multi-session support is pretty much what it says on the tin. You can now be logged into multiple AWS Console sessions at a time.

This is handled by using a custom domain name for each of your AWS Console sessions, to maintain a separate session cookie for each.

How do I get it?

You need to enable multi-session support before you can use it. This can be done by selecting "Turn on multi-session support" in the AWS Management Console or by selecting "Enable multi-session" on https://console.aws.amazon.com.

Caveats

There are a few things to keep in mind when using multi-session support.

  • You can only be signed into up to five sessions at a time. If you attempt to sign in to a sixth session, you'll be prompted to sign out of one of the existing ones.
  • When using SSO, signing into the same role twice will count as two different sessions (this may depend on your organization's setup).
  • Not every single part of the Console supports multiple sessions properly. The coverage of this has gotten much better since launch, but there are still a few odd corners that don't.