aws ssm send command cli does not work to create a file

Question

I try below aws ssm send-command to create a file on the EC2-instance but it does not work.

aws ssm send-command --instance-ids i-XXXXXXXXXX --document-name "AWS-RunShellScript" --parameters commands="touch /home/hadoop/test2.txt" --output text

After I type the command, the command immediately return and output below message. I then check the test2.txt does not exist on that EC2 instance. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.

`COMMAND AAAAAAAA-ZZZZ-XXXX-YYYY-XXXXXXXXXXXX 0 0 AWS-RunShellScript 0 XXXXXXXXXX.91 50 0 XXXXXXXXXX.91Pending Pending 1 3600 CLOUDWATCHOUTPUTCONFIG False

INSTANCEIDS i-XXXXXXXXXX

NOTIFICATIONCONFIG

COMMANDS touch /home/hadoop/test2.txt`

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 10 '20 at 04:58

I tried to replicate the issue using Amazon Linux 2. Indeed, the command fails. I found that the cause was that the /home/hadoop/ folder did not exist. Subsequently, you can't touch a file in a folder that does not exist.

The solution was:

aws ssm send-command \
    --instance-ids i-0788cf54681f8bd52 \
    --document-name "AWS-RunShellScript" \
    --parameters commands='["mkdir -p /home/hadoop/","touch /home/hadoop/test2.txt"]' \
    --output text

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '21 at 21:54

In case someone faces the same pending problem and the command executable in the EC2 using ssh, according to the docs:

If the command execution shows "Pending" or "InProgress" you run this command again to see the response data.

so you need to run this to see the result:

# $sh-command-id is the command-id and you get it from output of aws ssm send-command
aws ssm list-command-invocations \
--command-id $sh-command-id \
--details

for more details; see section Get command information with response data here

aws ssm send command cli does not work to create a file

2 Answers2