I have been doing some reading and have come to the understanding that if you wish to use a launchConfig with Ubuntu you will need to install the cfn-init file yourself which I have done: "Properties" : { "KeyName" : { "Ref" : "KeyName" }, "SpotPrice" : "0.05", "ImageId" : { "Fn::FindInMap" : [ "AWSRegionArch2AMI", { "Ref" : "AWS::Region" }, { "Fn::FindInMap" : [ "AWSInstanceType2Arch", { "Ref" : "InstanceType" }, "Arch" ] } ] }, "SecurityGroups" : [ { "Ref" : "InstanceSecurityGroup" } ], "InstanceType" : { "Ref" : "InstanceType" }, "UserData" : { "Fn::Base64" : { "Fn::Join" : ["", [ "#!/bin/bash\n", "apt-get -y install python-setuptools\n", "easy_install https://s3.amazonaws.com/cloudformation-examples/aws-cfn-bootstrap-1.0-6.tar.gz\n", "cfn-init ", " --stack ", { "Ref" : "AWS::StackName" }, " --resource LaunchConfig ", " --configset ALL", " --access-key ", { "Ref" : "WorkerKeys" }, " --secret-key ", {"Fn::GetAtt": ["WorkerKeys", "SecretAccessKey"]}, " --region ", { "Ref" : "AWS::Region" }, " || error_exit 'Failed to run cfn-init'\n" ]]}} But I have a problem with this setup that I cannot seem to get a decent answer to. I keep getting this error in the logs: Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: config-scripts-per-once already ran once Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: handling scripts-per-boot with freq=None and args=[] Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: handling scripts-per-instance with freq=None and args=[] Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: handling scripts-user with freq=None and args=[] Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] cc_scripts_user.py[WARNING]: failed to run-parts in /var/lib/cloud/instance/scripts Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[WARNING]: Traceback (most recent call last):#012 File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cloudinit/CloudConfig/__init__.py", line 117, in run_cc_modules#012 cc.handle(name, run_args, freq=freq)#012 File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cloudinit/CloudConfig/__init__.py", line 78, in handle#012 [name, self.cfg, self.cloud, cloudinit.log, args])#012 File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cloudinit/__init__.py", line 326, in sem_and_run#012 func(*args)#012 File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cloudinit/CloudConfig/cc_scripts_user.py", line 31, in handle#012 util.runparts(runparts_path)#012 File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cloudinit/util.py", line 223, in runparts#012 raise RuntimeError('runparts: %i failures' % failed)#012RuntimeError: runparts: 1 failures Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[ERROR]: config handling of scripts-user, None, [] failed Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: handling keys-to-console with freq=None and args=[] Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: handling phone-home with freq=None and args=[] Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] __init__.py[DEBUG]: handling final-message with freq=None and args=[] Jun 15 12:02:34 ip-0 [CLOUDINIT] cloud-init-cfg[ERROR]: errors running cloud_config [final]: ['scripts-user'] I have absolutely no idea what scripts-user means and Google is not helping much here either. I can, when I ssh into the server, see that it runs the userdata script since I can access cfn-init as a command whereas I cannot in the original AMI the instance is made from. However I have a launchConfig: "Comment" : "Install a simple PHP application", "AWS::CloudFormation::Init" : { "configSets" : { "ALL" : ["WorkerRole"] }, "WorkerRole" : { "files" : { "/etc/cron.d/worker.cron" : { "content" : "*/1 * * * * ubuntu /home/ubuntu/worker_cron.php &> /home/ubuntu/worker.log\n", "mode" : "000644", "owner" : "root", "group" : "root" }, "/home/ubuntu/worker_cron.php" : { "content" : { "Fn::Join" : ["", [ "#!/usr/bin/env php", "<?php", "define('ROOT', dirname(__FILE__));", "const AWS_KEY = \"", { "Ref" : "WorkerKeys" }, "\";", "const AWS_SECRET = \"", { "Fn::GetAtt": ["WorkerKeys", "SecretAccessKey"]}, "\";", "const QUEUE = \"", { "Ref" : "InputQueue" }, "\";", "exec('git clone x '.ROOT.'/worker');", "if(!file_exists(ROOT.'/worker/worker_despatcher.php')){", "echo 'git not downloaded right';", "exit();", "}", "echo 'git downloaded';", "include_once ROOT.'/worker/worker_despatcher.php';" ]]}, "mode" : "000755", "owner" : "ubuntu", "group" : "ubuntu" } } } } Which does not seem to run at all. I have checked for the files existance in my home directory and it's not there. I have checked for the cronjob entry and it's not there either. I cannot, after reading through the documentation, seem to see what's potentially wrong with my code. Any thoughts on why this is not working? Am I missing something blatant?