Use guest setup to configure Windows instances in AWS

Abiquo 5.4 adds new guest setup options for Windows in Amazon AWS via API. These options are available in the UI in Abiquo 5.4.1.

These options are:

• CLOUDBASE_INIT 

• EC2LAUNCH_V2

• EC2LAUNCH

• EC2CONFIG

VM variables

After you launch your VM, you can find the VM variables at:

cloudbase-init

You can only log into the VM using a guest initial password. We recommend that as soon as the VM starts up, you should log in and change this password.

In the Bootstrap script, users should be able to add any script because AWS passes the script to the instance in UserData as a MIME multi-part message with a text/x-shellscript content type. (See https://cloudbase-init.readthedocs.io/en/latest/userdata.html#multi-part-content)

ec2launch and ec2config

You must enclose the bootstrap script with <script></script> tags for a batch script and <powershell></powershell> tags for a powershell script.

ec2launch v2

The bootstrap script should be in a YAML format. See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-windows-user-data.html#user-data-yaml-scripts

If you enter a script in an invalid format, AWS will fall back to legacy format, which is the format used by ec2launch and ec2config.

For more info, see: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-windows-user-data.html

AWS bootstrap and template links

For example bootstrap scripts, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-windows-user-data.html#user-data-scripts

For example templates, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-windows-instances.html.

Summary of example template names:

• ec2 launch v2: EC2LaunchV2_Preview-Windows_Server-2019-English-Core-Base-2021.08.11.

• ec2launch: Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Base 

• ec2Config: Windows Server 2012 R2 and earlier.

• cloud-init (Linux): Amazon Linux 2 AMI (HVM)