Running PowerShell commands in CloudFormation template

Question

I have a CloudFormation template that launches Windows instances with Java and Tomcat running as a service. I have to set the value of Maximum memory pool size for Tomcat in registry. I prepared a PowerShell command and it works fine from the command line. Then I tried 3 different ways of running them as a part of a CloudFormation template and none of those worked.

Neither Windows EventLog nor files in C:\Program Files\Amazon\Ec2ConfigService\Logs provided me any clue about why it had not worked.

1

"LaunchConfig" : {
    "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
    "Properties" : {
        --- some props removed ---,
        "UserData" : {
            "Fn::Base64" : {
                "Fn::Join" : [
                    "",
                    [
                        "<powershell>\n",
                            "Set-ItemProperty -Path \"HKLM:\\Software\\Wow6432Node\\Apache Software Foundation\\Procrun 2.0\\Tomcat8\\Parameters\\Java\" -Name JvmMx -Value 5000 \n",
                            "Restart-Service Tomcat8 \n",
                        "</powershell>"
                    ]
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

2

"LaunchConfig" : {
    "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
    "Properties" : {
        --- some props removed ---,
        "UserData" : {
            "Fn::Base64" : {
                "Fn::Join" : [
                    "",
                    [
                        "<script>\n",
                            "PowerShell -Command \"& {Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\\Software\\Wow6432Node\\Apache Software Foundation\\Procrun 2.0\\Tomcat8\\Parameters\\Java' -Name JvmMx -Value 5000}\" \n",
                            "PowerShell -Command \"& {Restart-Service Tomcat8}\" \n",
                        "</script>"
                    ]
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

3

"LaunchConfig" : {
    "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
    "Properties" : {
        --- some props removed ---,
        "UserData" : {
            "Fn::Base64" : {
                "Fn::Join" : [
                    "",
                    [
                        "<script>\n",
                            "cfn-init.exe -v -s ", {"Ref" : "AWS::StackId"}, " -r LaunchConfig --region ", {"Ref" : "AWS::Region"}, "\n",
                        "</script>"
                    ]
                ]
            }
        }
    },
    "Metadata" : {
        "AWS::CloudFormation::Init" : {
            "config" : {
                "commands" : {
                    "1-heapsize" : {
                        "command" : "PowerShell -Command \"& {Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\\Software\\Wow6432Node\\Apache Software Foundation\\Procrun 2.0\\Tomcat8\\Parameters\\Java' -Name JvmMx -Value 5000}\""
                    },
                    "2-restart" : {
                        "command" : "PowerShell -Command \"& {Restart-Service Tomcat8}\""
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Naveen Vijay · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-11 11:01:41Z

6

User Data in the EC2 instance has to be enabled for the cfn-init and other user-data injected script to be applied / run.

You need to open the EC2ConfigurationService - check the Enable User Data, stop the instance and take an AMI and please use the newly created AMI.

Detailed information can be found at the Amazon Documentation Link - http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/UsingConfig_WinAMI.html

answered Aug 11, 2015 at 11:01

Naveen Vijay

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1 Comment

Naveen Vijay Over a year ago

I was banging my head against a wall for quite sometime to figure this out - long ago. Currently - I am having problem of User Data - getting executed sometime and not getting executed other time.

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