Run Powershell script on selected instance in CloudFormation template?

Question

I am creating a CloudFormation where:

How do I execute a Powershell script from CloudFormation?

What do you mean by "an instance is selected"? CloudFormation can create new resources and you can specify properties for the new resource, but it cannot perform operations on an existing instance. — John Rotenstein
– John Rotenstein, Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 3:20
@JohnRotenstein A dropdown for an existing instance ID is on the CloudFormation template and then the script is executed on that instance — Berry
– Berry, Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 3:22
Oh! No, that is not possible using CloudFormation. It can create new resources, but cannot modify existing resources. If you wish to run a script on an existing Amazon EC2 instance, consider using AWS Systems Manager Run Command - AWS Systems Manager. — John Rotenstein
– John Rotenstein, Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 3:56

John Rotenstein · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-11 03:19:28Z

1

You can pass a PowerShell script via the User Data. It will be executed on the first startup of the instance.

Here is an example script:

<powershell>
$file = $env:SystemRoot + "\Temp\" + (Get-Date).ToString("MM-dd-yy-hh-mm")
New-Item $file -ItemType file
</powershell>

answered Feb 11, 2019 at 3:19

John Rotenstein

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