I tested with simple PowerShell script mkdir C:\tempdir
When I specify it as UserData for instance launched from Amazon image, everything works fine. If I launch instance with specified UserData and make image of that instance, UserData is not executed for instances created from my custom image.
What is interesting, "C:\Program Files\Amazon\Ec2ConfigService\Scripts\UserScript.ps1" contains UserData of initial launch (before image was created), although, it should contain data specified during last launch.
More interesting, even UserScript.ps1 is present, it is not executed (it should create text file but text file is not present).
Here is UserData from second launch
<powershell>
mkdir C:\tempdir
</powershell>
User data scripts only run once when the instance is launched (created not started up). They are then disabled on the instance. So when when you grab an AMI from that instance and launch a new one, user data has already been disabled.
Enable UserData
To allow it run again when you launch a new one from an AMI you created you must turn user data support back on at the EC2ConfigService Settings utility by checking the UserData box (before grabbing the AMI).
Persist Enabling UserData
Now after this if you reboot the instance again then the UserData will run and again disable itself. To disable this functionality too you will need to add <persist>true</persist> to the instance's UserData which will keep the checkbox in the same state (on if you turn it on).
More info:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-instance-metadata.html
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/user-data.html
User-data scripts is not running on my custom AMI, but working in standard Amazon linux
Amazon EC2 custom AMI not running bootstrap (user-data)
I had the same problem. Here's what solved it
Launch an instance from your image if you haven't already
RDP into it
Open powershell, and run this C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2-Windows\Launch\Scripts\InitializeInstance.ps1 –Schedule
If you had a custom password for the instance, it will have been reset in the previous step. If you want it back, open powershell and run the following (assuming your username is Administrator net user Administrator "your_new_password" (if you didn't have a custom password, and were just using one generated by a .pem file, then you can ignore this step)
Now go into the AWS console (i.e in the browser) and create an AMI from the instance
Ensure your user data is of following form (the persist/true part is essential).
<powershell>
# Some powershell code here
</powershell>
<persist>true</persist>
That's it. Your userdata powershell script will now run next time your instance is launched.
Related
I have an ec2 micro instance. I can start it from the console, ssh into it (using a .pem file) and visit the website it hosts.
Using the old ec2 CLI, I can start the instance and perform other actions including ssh and website access.
I am having trouble with the new ec2 CLI. When I do "aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-xxx" I get the message "A client error (InvalidInstanceID.NotFound) occurred when calling the StartInstances operation: The instance ID 'i-xxx' does not exist".
Clearly the instance exists, so I don't what the message is really indicating.
Here is some of my thinking:
One difference between the old and new CLI is that the the later used .pem files whereas the new interface uses access key pairs. The instance has an access key pair associated with is, but have tried all the credentials I can find, and none of them change anything).
I tried created an IAM user and a new access key pair for it. The behavior in all cases is unchanged (start from console or old CLI, web access, ssh) but not using the new CLI.
I realize that there is a means for updating the access key pairs by detaching the volume (as described here), but the process looks a little scary to me.
I realize that I can clone another instance from the image, but the image is a little out of date, and I don't want to lose my changes.
Can anyone suggest what the message really means and what I can do to get around the problem?
The problem had to do with credentials. I had the correct environment
variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY and AWS_SECRET_KEY) set. But they didn't match what was in my .aws/credentials file. That is, despite what it says here, the new CLI worked only when I had the environment variables and
the credentials file correct and in sync.
Configure your aws cli with "aws configure" in new cli instance with region in which your ec2 instance reside. and then try to give the same command. The instance should start.
I have created a EC2 Instance using the cloud formation script and in that process I have executed around 20 commands in "AWS::CloudFormation::Init". This is a windows instance.
After that, I created a image from this and tried to create another EC2 instance using this image with couple of commands I wanted to be executed in "AWS::CloudFormation::Init".
This is giving me problem. The instance after getting created is not running the new commands which I specified in the template. But trying to run the commands which I specified while creating the old EC2Instance from which image was taken. This is through sysprep process which was given in one of the docs.
Is there any way to execute only the new commands and leaving out the old commands when the new image is created. I tried many alternatives. It is either executing old commands or none at all.
Have you stopped your instance before creating your image ? (like advised here).
i am facing some problem with userdata execution on windows AMI, trying to execute the userdata like, opening notepad start notepad.exe i had tried to execute this its not working,this script is getting copied to instance but when i tried to connect to instance the notepad didn't open..Any one had faced the similar problem?
Userdata is only used when an instance is launched for the first time. It can be used to configure or run process on your instances when you first launch it. This is useful if you have a lot of instances you need to setup at once.
Userdata scripts do not run when you connect, but you could use it to add scripts to windows startup.
I am windows user and wanted to use a spot instance using my own EBS windows AMI. For this I have followed these steps:
I had my own on-demand instance with specific settings
Using AWS console I used option "Create Image EBS" to create EBS based windows AMI. IT worked and AMI created successfully
Then using this new AMI I launched a spot medium instance that was created well and now running with status checks passed.
After waiting an hour or more I am trying to connect it using windows 7 RDC client but is not reachable with client tool's standard error that either computer is not reachable or not powered on.
I have tried to achieve this goal and created/ deleted many volums, instances, snapshots everything but still unsuccessful. Doesn't anybody else have any solution to this problem?
Thanks
Basically what's happening is that the existing administrator password (and other user authentication information) for Windows is only valid in the original instance, and can't be used on the new "hardware" that you're launching the AMI on (even though it's all virtualized).
This is why RDP connections will fail to newly launched instances, as will any attempts to retrieve the administrator password. Unfortunately you have no choice but to shut down the new instances you've been trying to connect to because you won't be able to do anything with them.
For various reasons the Windows administrator password cannot be preserved when running a snapshot of the operating system on different hardware (even virtualized hardware) - this is a big part of the reason why technologies like Active Directory exist, so that user authentication information is portable between machines and networks.
It sounds like you did all the steps necessary to get this working except for one - you never took any steps to cause a new password to be assigned to your newly-launched instances based on the original AMI you created.
To fix this, BEFORE turning your instance into a custom AMI that can be used to launch new instances, you need to (in the original instance) run the Ec2ConfigService Settings tool (found in the start menu when remoted into the original instance using RDP), and enable the option to generate a new password on next reboot. Save this setting change.
Then when you do create an AMI from the original instance, and use that AMI to launch new instances, they will each boot up to your custom Windows image but will choose their own random administrator password.
At this point you can go to your ec2 dashboard and retrieve the newly-generated password for the new instance based on the old AMI, and you'll also be able to download the RDP file used to connect to it.
One additional note is that Amazon warns that it can take upwards of 30 minutes for the retrieval of an administrator password after launching a new instance, however in my previous experience I've never had to wait more than a few minutes to be able to get it.
Your problem is most likely that the security group you used to launch the AMI does not have RDP (TCP port #3389) enabled.
When you launch the windows AMI for the first time, AWS will populate the quicklaunch with this port enabled. However, when you launch the subsequent AMI, you will have to ensure that this port is open for your security group.
I started an default instance of EC2 Wowza AMI (LINUX) and then I bundled/snapshot it via 'ec2-bundle-vol', uploaded it to s3 and registered the AMI.
When I start the bundled AMI with user data (zip file) with a script, it doesn't seem to execute it.
But when I start a default instance with the same user data (zip file), it works.
Does anyone know why my bundled AMI is not executing the user data I specify?
Thanks.
I'm not familiar with wowza or how they have their AMIs setup but...
On its own the ec2 user data does nothing - it only has relevance because a script running on that machine checks for the presence of the user data and does something with it.
Sometimes these scripts are set so that they only do stuff on the instance's first boot, they then drop a file somewhere so that on subsequent reboots the startup scripts aren't rerun.
If the wowza amis work on this basis then when you first boot up the ami this process is followed, so the data you've saved into the new AMI includes the "don't run startup scripts again" file. If this is the case you'd need to delete that file before creating your ami.
The user data mechanism on EC2 allows a script on the image to download the startup package as a file via HTTP from a link-local address (169.254.something) - if it's plaintext, it will execute directly. If it's compressed data, wowza startup will unpack it to /opt/working - the Wowza startup process is logged to wowzamediaserver_startup.log in Wowza's logs directory.
I had the same issue. Looking at our script I discovered that we were removing a cloud init dependancy in the script, making it a run once operation. The dependancy in question was boto.