EC2 Java SDK - User data script

Question

I'm looking for a way to attach a user data script to an EC2 RunRequest in the Java SDK (the equivalent of ec2-run-instances ami-1234567 -f startup-script.zip for the command line tool).

Several things I've read indicate that anything user data string with "#! " will execute, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Is this even possible?

FYI: here's my test class:

public class AWSTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        AWSCredentials credentials = new BasicAWSCredentials("access-key","secret-access-key");
        AmazonEC2Client ec2 = new AmazonEC2Client(credentials);
        RunInstancesRequest request = new RunInstancesRequest();
        request.setInstanceType(InstanceType.M1Small.toString());
        request.setMinCount(1);
        request.setMaxCount(1);
        request.setImageId("ami-84db39ed");
        request.setKeyName("linux-keypair");
        request.setUserData(getUserDataScript());
        ec2.runInstances(request);    
    }

    private static String getUserDataScript(){
        ArrayList<String> lines = new ArrayList<String>();
        lines.add("#! /bin/bash");
        lines.add("curl http://www.google.com > google.html");
        lines.add("shutdown -h 0");
        String str = new String(Base64.encodeBase64(join(lines, "\n").getBytes()));
        return str;
    }

    static String join(Collection<String> s, String delimiter) {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        Iterator<String> iter = s.iterator();
        while (iter.hasNext()) {
            builder.append(iter.next());
            if (!iter.hasNext()) {
                break;
            }
            builder.append(delimiter);
        }
        return builder.toString();
    }

}

Unfortunately, after I run this, I'm able to SSH into the box, and confirm that

• It hasn't shut down and
• It didn't download the file

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Best,

Zach

Answer 1

This works to insert user data in an instance run request, in this case specifically to join an ECS cluster:

private static String getECSuserData(String clusterName) {
    String userData = "";
    userData = userData + "#!/bin/bash" + "\n";
    userData = userData + "echo ECS_CLUSTER=" + clusterName + " ";
    userData = userData + ">> /etc/ecs/ecs.config";
    String base64UserData = null;
    try {
        base64UserData = new String( Base64.encodeBase64( userData.getBytes( "UTF-8" )), "UTF-8" );
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return base64UserData;
}