CODEWITHSUNDEEP
amazon-web-servicesamazon-ec2debianenvironment-variables
PJ Bergeron
PJ Bergeron

Reputation: 2998

How to set an environment variable in Amazon EC2

I created a tag on the AWS console for one of my EC2 instances.

enter image description here

However, when I look on the server, no such environment variable is set.

The same thing works with elastic beanstalk. env shows the tags I created on the console.

$ env
 [...]
 DB_PORT=5432

How can I set environment variables in Amazon EC2?

Upvotes: 61

Views: 154623

Answers (6)

Apurv
Apurv

Reputation: 87

If you are using linux or mac os for your ec2 instance then,

Go to your root directory and write command:

vim .bash_profile

You can see your bash_profile file and now press 'i' for inserting a lines, then add

export DB_PORT="5432"

After adding this line you need to save file, so press 'Esc' button then press ':' and after colon write 'w' it will save the file without exiting.

For exit, again press ':' after that write 'quit' and now you are exit from the file.

Run source ~/.bash_profile to ensure the changes are applied immediately and the environment is updated for the current shell session

To check that your environment variable is set or not write below commands:

python
>>>import os
>>>os.environ.get('DB_PORT')
>>>5432

Upvotes: 5

Rishabh Tripathi
Rishabh Tripathi

Reputation: 1

If you are using linux or mac os for your ec2 instance then, go to your root directory and run the following command:

vim .bash_profile

You will see your bash_profile file open in the text editor 'vim'. Next press 'i' to enter 'insert' mode (or 'o' to enter insert mode on a new line), then append the following:

export DB_PORT="5432"

After adding this line, you need to save the file. So press the 'Esc' key to exit insert mode, then press ':' to initiate a new command, and after colon write 'w' and then press enter to save the file. It will save the file without exiting. To exit, again press ':' after that write 'quit' and the file will close. Alternatively, you can enter 'x' instead of 'w' to save and close the file all at once.

refer here for a vim cheat sheet.

After that run the command, "source ~/.bash_profile" in your shell. To check that your environment variable is set, enter the below commands in your shell to check via python:

python
>>>import os
>>>os.environ.get('DB_PORT')
>>>5432

or the following in your shell to check natively:

echo DB_PORT

Upvotes: -1

dlz21
dlz21

Reputation: 131

Lately, it seems AWS Parameter Store is a better solution.

Now there is even a secrets manager which auto manages sensitive configurations as database keys and such..

See this script using SSM Parameter Store based of the previous solutions by Guy and PJ Bergeron.

https://github.com/lezavala/ec2-ssm-env

Upvotes: 11

PJ Bergeron
PJ Bergeron

Reputation: 2998

Following the instructions given by Guy, I wrote a small shell script. This script uses AWS CLI and jq. It lets you import your AWS instance and AMI tags as shell environment variables.

I hope it can help a few people.

https://github.com/12moons/ec2-tags-env

Upvotes: 5

Marcello DeSales
Marcello DeSales

Reputation: 22359

I used a combination of the following tools:

  • Install jq library (sudo apt-get install -y jq)
  • Install the EC2 Instance Metadata Query Tool

Here's the gist of the code below in case I update it in the future: https://gist.github.com/marcellodesales/a890b8ca240403187269

######
# Author: Marcello de Sales ([email protected])
# Description: Create Create Environment Variables in EC2 Hosts from EC2 Host Tags
# 
### Requirements:  
# * Install jq library (sudo apt-get install -y jq)
# * Install the EC2 Instance Metadata Query Tool (http://aws.amazon.com/code/1825)
#
### Installation:
# * Add the Policy EC2:DescribeTags to a User
# * aws configure
# * Souce it to the user's ~/.profile that has permissions
#### 
# REboot and verify the result of $(env).

# Loads the Tags from the current instance
getInstanceTags () {
  # http://aws.amazon.com/code/1825 EC2 Instance Metadata Query Tool
  INSTANCE_ID=$(./ec2-metadata | grep instance-id | awk '{print $2}')

  # Describe the tags of this instance
  aws ec2 describe-tags --region sa-east-1 --filters "Name=resource-id,Values=$INSTANCE_ID"
}

# Convert the tags to environment variables.
# Based on https://github.com/berpj/ec2-tags-env/pull/1
tags_to_env () {
    tags=$1

    for key in $(echo $tags | /usr/bin/jq -r ".[][].Key"); do
        value=$(echo $tags | /usr/bin/jq -r ".[][] | select(.Key==\"$key\") | .Value")
        key=$(echo $key | /usr/bin/tr '-' '_' | /usr/bin/tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]')
        echo "Exporting $key=$value"
        export $key="$value"
    done
}

# Execute the commands
instanceTags=$(getInstanceTags)
tags_to_env "$instanceTags"

Upvotes: 9

Guy
Guy

Reputation: 12939

You can retrieve this information from the meta data and then run your own set environment commands.

You can get the instance-id from the meta data (see here for details: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-metadata.html#instancedata-data-retrieval)

curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id

Then you can call the describe-tags using the pre-installed AWS CLI (or install it on your AMI)

aws ec2 describe-tags --filters "Name=resource-id,Values=i-5f4e3d2a" "Name=Value,Values=DB_PORT"

Then you can use OS set environment variable command

export DB_PORT=/what/you/got/from/the/previous/call

You can run all that in your user-data script. See here for details: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/user-data.html

Upvotes: 36

Related Questions