CODEWITHSUNDEEP
amazon-web-servicesamazon-ec2aws-cloudformation
Jebaseelan Ravi
Jebaseelan Ravi

Reputation: 793

Userdata not working in Custom AMI (built on Windows 2019 Base AMI)?

I am using the Custom AMI built on top of Windows 2019 Base AMI(ami-0fa60543f60171fe3) to create a windows server. But I see the Userdata is not working. This is the CFT I am using.

RabbitMQServer:
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
    Properties:
      KeyName: !Ref PublicKeyName
      IamInstanceProfile: !Ref IamInstanceProfile      
      ImageId: !Ref RabbitMQServerAMI 
      InstanceType: !Ref RabbitMQServerInstanceType
      Monitoring: true
      SecurityGroupIds:
        - !Ref PrivateInstanceSG
      SubnetId: !Ref PrivateSubnetID 
      UserData: !Base64 |
          <script>
          echo Current date and time >> C:\test.log
          echo %DATE% %TIME% >> C:\test.log
          </script>
          <persist>true</persist>

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1400

Answers (3)

it_works_on_my_computer
it_works_on_my_computer

Reputation: 349

For Windows 2022 custom AMI,

ec2 instances created using custom AMI were not running userdata.

You need to run sysprep shutdown command while creating AMI. So when you create ec2 instance using this custom AMI, it will run userdata.

"& 'C:\Program Files\Amazon\EC2Launch\EC2Launch.exe' sysprep --shutdown"

I followed this references for sysprep command since I used Packer to create AMI. https://gonzalo.f-v.es/blog/2022-10-14-windows-2022-eks/

Upvotes: 0

Adarsha
Adarsha

Reputation: 2377

Note that User data is processed by EC2Launch v2 on Windows Server 2022, EC2Launch on Windows Server 2016 and 2019, and EC2Config on Windows Server 2012 R2 and earlier.

The solution quoted in @devanathan is applicable to EC2Config only.

In case of newer EC2Launch v2 AWS documentation provide a way. By default, the user data scripts are run one time when you launch the instance. To run the user data scripts every time you reboot or start the instance, add <persist>true</persist> to the user data.

but if you just want the script to run once next tinme system boots (e.g. you are about to create an AMI out of this EC2 isntance, and you want the new instaces created from the AMI to respect userdata, you need to use ec2launch sysprep

 <powershell>
  ....
 </powershell>
 <persist>true</persist>

ref - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2launch-v2-settings.html#ec2launch-v2-directory

Upvotes: 1

devanathan
devanathan

Reputation: 818

In Windows by design, this task is disabled after it is run for the first time for security reasons. To enable it please execute the following command,

C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2-Windows\Launch\Scripts\InitializeInstance.ps1 –Schedule

However, using the persist tag causes Invoke-UserData to schedule a separate task via Register-FunctionScheduler, to persist your user data on subsequent boots. You can see this for yourself at C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2-Windows\Launch\Module\Scripts\Invoke-Userdata.ps1.

For further analysis If you're having additional issues with your user data scripts, you can find the user data execution logs at C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2-Windows\Launch\Log\UserdataExecution.log(This is a hidden folder)

for other options please refer https://blog.kloud.com.au/2017/04/23/re-execute-the-userdata-script-in-an-aws-windows-instance/

Upvotes: 3

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