Configure Windows Lightsail instances with PowerShell and batch scripts - Amazon Lightsail
Create an instance that launches and runs a PowerShell scriptVerify that your script ran successfully

Configure Windows Lightsail instances with PowerShell and batch scripts

When you create a Windows-based instance, you can configure it using a Windows PowerShell script or any other batch script. This is a one-time script that runs right after your instance launches. This topic shows the syntax of the scripts and provides an example to get you started. We also show you how to test your script to see if it ran successfully.

Create an instance that launches and runs a PowerShell script

The following procedure installs a tool called chocolatey on a new instance, right after the instance launches.

  1. In the left navigation pane, choose Create instance.

  2. Choose the AWS Region and Availability Zone where you want to create your instance.

  3. Under Select a platform, choose Microsoft Windows.

  4. Choose OS Only, and then choose Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016.

  5. Choose Add launch script.

  6. Type the following:

    <powershell>
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
</powershell>
    Note

    You must always wrap your PowerShell scripts in <powershell></powershell> tags. You can enter non-PowerShell commands or batch scripts using <script></script> tags or without any tags at all.

  7. Enter a name for your instance.

    Resource names:

    • Must be unique within each AWS Region in your Lightsail account.

    • Must contain 2 to 255 characters.

    • Must start and end with an alphanumeric character or number.

    • Can include alphanumeric characters, numbers, periods, dashes, and underscores.

  8. Choose one of the following options to add tags to your instance:

    • Add key-only tags or Edit key-only tags (if tags have already been added). Enter your new tag into the tag key text box, and press Enter. Choose Save when you’re done entering your tags to add them, or choose Cancel to not add them.

      Key-only tags in the Lightsail console.

    • Create a key-value tag, then enter a key into the Key text box, and a value into the Value text box. Choose Save when you’re done entering your tags, or choose Cancel to not add them.

      Key-value tags can only be added one at a time before saving. To add more than one key-value tag, repeat the previous steps.

      Key-value tags in the Lightsail console.
    Note

    For more information about key-only and key-value tags, see Tags.

  9. Choose Create instance.

Verify that your script ran successfully

You can log in to your instance to verify that the script ran successfully. It can take up to 15 minutes for a Windows-based instance to be ready to accept RDP connections. Once it's ready, log in using the browser-based RDP client or configure your own RDP client. For more information, see Connect to your Windows-based instance.

  1. Once you can connect to your Lightsail instance, open a command prompt (or open Windows Explorer).

  2. Change to the Log directory by typing the following:

    cd C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2-Windows\Launch\Log

  3. Open UserdataExecution.log in a text editor, or type the following: type UserdataExecution.log.

    You should see the following in your log file.

    2017/10/11 20:32:12Z: <powershell> tag was provided.. running powershell content
2017/10/11 20:32:13Z: Message: The output from user scripts: iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

2017/10/11 20:32:13Z: Userdata execution done