AWSCloudFormation - cfn-init failed to run command - aws-cloudformation

Question

I am using cloudformation for installing elasticsearch.
I am downloading and extracting tar.gz.
The following is my EC2 instance section :
"masterinstance": {
"Type": "AWS: : EC2: : Instance",
"Metadata": {
"AWS: : CloudFormation: : Init": {
"configSets" : {
"ascending" : [ "config1" , "config2" ]
},
"config1": {
"sources": {
"/home/ubuntu/": "https: //s3.amazonaws.com/xxxxxxxx/elasticsearch.tar.gz"
},
"files": {
"/home/ubuntu/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml": {
"content": {
"Fn: : Join": [
"",
[
xxxxxxxx
]
]
}
}
}
},
"config2" : {
"commands": {
"runservice": {
"command": "~/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch",
"cwd" : "~",
"test" : "~/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch > test.txt",
"ignoreErrors" : "false"
}
}
}
}
},
"Properties": {
"ImageId": "ami-xxxxxxxxxx",
"InstanceType": {
"Ref": "InstanceTypeParameter"
},
"Tags": [
xxxxxxxx
],
"KeyName": "everybody",
"NetworkInterfaces": [
{
"GroupSet": [
{
"Ref": "newSecurity"
}
],
"AssociatePublicIpAddress": "true",
"DeviceIndex": "0",
"SubnetId": {
"Ref": "oneSubnet"
}
}
],
"UserData": {
"Fn: : Base64": {
"Fn: : Join": [
"",
[
"#!/bin/bash\n",
"sudo add-apt-repository-yppa: webupd8team/java\n",
"sudo apt-get update\n",
"echo'oracle-java8-installershared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1selecttrue'|sudo debconf-set-selections\n",
"sudo apt-getinstall-yoracle-java8-installer\n",
"apt-get update\n",
"apt-get-y installpython-setuptools\n",
"easy_installhttps: //s3.amazonaws.com/cloudformation-examples/aws-cfn-bootstrap-latest.tar.gz\n",
"/usr/local/bin/cfn-init",
"--stack Elasticsearch",
"--resource masterinstance",
"--configsets ascending",
"-v\n"
]
]
}
}
}
}
I am using AWS::CloudFormation::Init for configuration and other settings.
After extracting the tar , I want to start elasticsearch , which I am doing through the command section in AWS::CloudFormation::Init but ,
after the complete creation of stack when I ssh into my instances, I am not able to see my elasticsearch service running.
All other things like extracting tar and creating file is working correctly.
I have gone through the cfn-init.log , it gives me the following information :
2016-07-19 05:53:15,776 P2745 [INFO] Test for Command runservice
2016-07-19 05:53:15,778 P2745 [INFO] -----------------------Command Output-----------------------
2016-07-19 05:53:15,778 P2745 [INFO] /bin/sh: 1: ~/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch: not found
2016-07-19 05:53:15,778 P2745 [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------
2016-07-19 05:53:15,779 P2745 [ERROR] Exited with error code 127
~
If I fire the above command ~/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch directly on my instance then it is working perfectly.
What I am doing wrong here.
Thank you.

Answer 1

I'm guessing that the home directory (~) is evaluating to a different user (not Ubuntu) when trying to run ES. I think CFN-Init runs as the root user instead of as ubuntu/ec2-user. Try to change the paths in the config2 command block to fully qualified paths (/home/ubuntu/elasticsearch).