Can't execute AWS CLI command with user_data in Terraform - windows

Question

I am using Terraform to spin up an EC2-instance where I have defined some user_data. In the user_data I download AWS CLI and set up the config file and credentials file. I then want to grab a file from my s3 bucket. This is what I've written so far:
data "template_file" "scripts" {
template = <<EOF
<powershell>
$dlurl = "installpathtoawscli.msi"
$installerPath = Join-Path $env:TEMP (Split-Path $dlurl -Leaf)
Invoke-WebRequest $dlurl -OutFile $installerPath
Start-Process -FilePath msiexec -Args "/i $installerPath /passive" -Verb RunAs -Wait
mkdir C:\temp
New-Item -Name 'b.bat' -Path 'C:\temp' -Value 'aws s3 cp s3://mybucketname/myfile.extension C:\temp\extension > C:\temp\test.txt'
New-Item -Name 'a.bat' -Path 'C:\Users\Administrator' -Value 'mkdir C:\Users\Administrator\.aws
echo [default]>> C:\Users\Administrator\.aws\credentials
echo aws_access_key_id = MY_ACCESS_KEY>> C:\Users\Administrator\.aws\credentials
echo aws_secret_access_key = MY_SECRET_KEY>> C:\Users\Administrator\.aws\credentials
echo [default]>> C:\Users\Administrator\.aws\config
echo region = MY_REGION>> C:\Users\Administrator\.aws\config
echo output = MY_OUTPUT>> C:\Users\Administrator\.aws\config'
C:\Users\Administrator\a.bat
C:\temp\b.bat
</powershell>
EOF
}
b.bat is executed and a txt file is created, however, it is empty and no file is grabbed from the s3 bucket. If I try to execute it manually (by RDPing to the instance) it grabs the file. Any ideas why this is happening?

Answer 1

I found the solution after several days of trying.
The AWS.exe location was not being registered in the PATH environment yet. Restarting the command prompt would do the trick, however, Terraform can't do this, thus explaining why it worked when I did it manually.
I had to provide the full path for AWS.exe in order to make it work e.g. C:\Program Files\Amazon\AWSCLI\bin\aws.exe or C:\Program Files\Amazon\AWSCLIV2\aws.exe depending on the version of AWS CLI.