passing user-data as a string to aws cli ec2 run-instance command

Question

I am trying to provide bash command for bootstrapping my ec2 instance during creation time in the following way

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-0000025f7c02a13b2 --count 1 --instance-type t2.micro --user-data '#!/bin/bash\nyum install git -y'

I can spin up the ec2 but I cannot get the bash script to work. In the logs I see the following

/bin/bash\nyum: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

which makes me feel like the string is formatted wrong.

I tested on my terminal and the command executed without any errors. — jellycsc
– jellycsc, Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 21:20
you mean the install git command or spinning up the ec2 command. I can spin up the ec2 just fine but the bash script I provide using user-data does not get executed — Fizi
– Fizi, Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 21:26

jellycsc · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-21 21:31:27Z

3

Try adding a $ in front of your user data string.

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-0000025f7c02a13b2 --count 1 --instance-type t2.micro --user-data $'#!/bin/bash\nyum install git -y'

answered Jan 21, 2021 at 21:31

jellycsc

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Fizi Over a year ago

Worked!! Thank you! I spent so much time on it. Should've asked the question a lot earlier

Amado Saladino · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-10 20:12:33Z

1

If you intend to load a long script, it would be better to load the script from a file like this:

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-abcd1234 --count 1 --instance-type m3.medium \
--key-name my-key-pair --subnet-id subnet-abcd1234 --security-group-ids sg-abcd1234 \
--user-data file://my_script.txt

and you file should be like this:

#!/bin/bash
yum update -y
service httpd start
chkconfig httpd on

See more details about loading data from a file while working with aws cli from this link

answered May 10, 2022 at 20:12

Amado Saladino

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2 Comments

Fizi Over a year ago

thanks! where is the file being loaded from. Can it be an s3 path

Amado Saladino Over a year ago

most welcome:) the file would be in the same location where you run this command, if you need to load from s3, I guess you will have to download it first from s3 to the current location and then use it --user-data file://$(aws s3 cp s3://bucket/folder/file.txt). I did not try this before, but you can give it a go :)

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