Passing script as user data into AWS EC2 spot instance

Question

I am trying to create a new spot request using aws cli but it gives me an error if i pass a shell script as user-data to spot request

i tried this

    aws ec2 request-spot-instances --spot-price "0.04" --instance-count 1 --launch-specification "{\"UserData\": \"/srv/user-data.sh\",\"InstanceType\": \"m1.small\"}"

and this gives me an error

    Invalid BASE64 encoding of user data (400 response code)

and

how can i Tags my spot request with Name & Value

Ray · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-08 13:24:47Z

3

Exactly that, aws expects a base64 encoded string to be passed for the UserData value. Why the tools doesn't do this for you, I don't know.

So, instead of the string:

  /srv/user-data.sh

Use a base64 encoded version of the string (using an online encoder, I got the following):

 L3Nydi91c2VyLWRhdGEuc2g=

I'm guessing the final json it should look something like this:

   '{"UserData": "L3Nydi91c2VyLWRhdGEuc2g=","InstanceType": "m1.small"}'

Creating tags is pretty straight forward. Here's a link to the 'aws' CLI command documentation: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/create-tags.html

You'll need to determine the resource AMI id:

  aws ec2 create-tags --resources ami-78a54011 --tags Key=Name,Value=myname

edited Aug 8, 2014 at 13:24

answered Aug 8, 2014 at 13:12

Ray

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8 Comments

Terence Over a year ago

test="$(cat /srv/user-data.sh| base64)" aws ec2 request-spot-instances --spot-price "0.04" --instance-count 1 --launch-specification "{\"UserData\": \"$test\",\"InstanceType\": \"m1.small\"}" but it gives me an error Error parsing parameter '--launch-specification': Invalid JSON: Invalid control character at: line 1 column 133 (char 133

Ray Over a year ago

@user310685 getting better, now you just need to figure why the json is invalid. Echo out the created string

Terence Over a year ago

Error parsing parameter '--launch-specification': Invalid JSON: Invalid control character at: line 1 column 133 (char 133) JSON received: {"UserData": "IyEvYmluL2Jhc2gKZWNobyAiaGkgaXQgd29ya3MgbW9zZXMiID4gL3Nydi9tb3Nlc25ld2luc3Rh bmNlc3VzZXItZGF0YXdvcmtzLnR4dAo=","InstanceType": "m1.small"}

Ray Over a year ago

@user310685 Looks like perfect json to me. Try hardcodeing that string above.

Terence Over a year ago

hardcoding it works.. but cant i take it into a variable as pass it

|

Tereance · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-27 10:55:07Z

1

yes i got it to work like this

     test="$(cat /srv/user-data.sh | base64 -w 0)"

     aws ec2 request-spot-instances \"UserData\": \"$test\",\"InstanceType\": \"m1.small\"}"

the problem mainly solved with

   -w, --wrap=COLS
          wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76).  Use 0 to disable line wrapping

and for tagging the aws instances

  aws ec2 create-tags --resources $instanceId --tags Key=Name,Value=$instancesName

edited Feb 27, 2015 at 10:55

Tereance

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answered Aug 8, 2014 at 13:39

Terence

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