run docker-compose in EC2 user-data

Question

I have an EC2 linux2 instance containing dokcer compose. I want the instance to start the docker service, navigate to the correct folder, and then run docker-compose up -d, three simple lines, every time the instance start:

sudo service docker start
cd APP
docker-compose up -d

As shown here, entering this to the user data when the instance is stopped should work:

#!/bin/bash
sudo service docker start
cd APP
docker-compose up -d

But it does nothing. The aws doc has also this script:

Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="//"
MIME-Version: 1.0

--//
Content-Type: text/cloud-config; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="cloud-config.txt"

#cloud-config
cloud_final_modules:
- [scripts-user, always]

--//
Content-Type: text/x-shellscript; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="userdata.txt"

#!/bin/bash
/bin/echo "Hello World" >> /tmp/testfile.txt  <<<<<<<<------- ACTUAL USER SCRIPT
--//

When I paste my three lines instead of the hello world line, only the first one, start the docker service, works.

I am new to Linux, so it is probably something small that I'm missing.

Thanks

EDIT Thanks guys for your help, the issue is really the path to dir APP.

From your host go to `/var/log/cloud-init-output. log`. This will contain an errors outputted in your user-data — Chris Williams, Jul 29 '20 at 12:31
The user-data script runs as `root`, not as `ec2-user` so the shell paths, and home directories will be different. Because of that you should really use absolute paths in user-data scripts. For example `cd APP` may need to be `cd /home/ec2-user/APP`? — Mark B, Jul 29 '20 at 12:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 29 '20 at 12:55

entering this to the user data when the instance is stopped should work

The first attempt will sadly not work. This is because UserData executes only when a new instance is launched.

When I paste my three lines instead of the hello world line, only the first one

The second attempt fails because this script runs as root in / folder (root of the filesystem). So unless your APP is in /APP, this will not work.

run docker-compose in EC2 user-data

1 Answers1