Windows: User data format: unrecognized

[guicaulada]

When using version 5.6.3 I noticed Windows instances were not executing the User Data script and C:\UserData.log was not created when using SSM to log into the machine.

I believe this was caused by: #3717

That PR fixed another issue that I had with my Linux runners where my user data would endup too big, however it broke the Windows runners when they stopped executing the user data script.

Looking at C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2Launch\log\agent.log.

When using 5.6.3 I get the following log message:

2024-01-24 16:54:51 Info: Getting user data
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Info: Try parsing user data in YAML format.
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Info: Parsing failed, fall back to XML format.
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Warning: No XML or YAML user data detected. If XML or YAML user data is intended, check for typos or refer to documentation (https://docs
.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2launch-v2-settings.html#ec2launch-v2-example-user-data): %!w(*fmt.wrapError=&{Failed to unmarshal user data as
YAML: yaml: control characters are not allowed 0xc000115e70})
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Console: User data format: unrecognized
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: IsTelemetryEnabled=true
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: AgentOsArch=windows_amd64
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: IsAgentScheduledPerBoot=true
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: AgentCommandErrorCode=0
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Console: Message: Windows is Ready to use
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Info: Initialize user-data state.
2024-01-24 16:54:51 Info: User-data state initialized successfully.

When using 5.6.2:

2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Getting user data
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Try parsing user data in YAML format.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Parsing failed, fall back to XML format.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Converting user data to YAML format.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Frequency is set to: once
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Run as user is set to: 'admin'.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Script is set to run as an inline process.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: PowerShell content detected
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: User-data conversion completed.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: User data format: xml
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: IsTelemetryEnabled=true
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: AgentOsArch=windows_amd64
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: IsAgentScheduledPerBoot=true
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: IsUserDataScheduledPerBoot=false
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: EC2LaunchTelemetry: AgentCommandErrorCode=0
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Console: Message: Windows is Ready to use
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Initialize user-data state.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: User-data state initialized successfully.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Start script.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Frequency: once
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Type: powershell
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Run as: admin
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Not running as a detached process.
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Script file is created at: C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Temp\EC2Launch2228337985\UserScript.ps1
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Error file is created at: C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Temp\EC2Launch2228337985\err.tmp
2024-01-24 16:35:35 Info: Output file is created at: C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Temp\EC2Launch2228337985\output.tmp

[guicaulada]

I got over this issue by reverting to 5.6.2 for now, using Terraform to upload all my user data, pre-install scripts, etc. to S3 and used Terraform to set the userdata_pre_install of each runner to aws s3 cp s3://mybucket/runnername - | bash or | Out-String | iex for Windows.

[pawelfraczyk]

I faced the same issue - reverting to 5.6.2 also helped.

[npalm]

Thx for reporting. This is indeed broken. Indeed cause by #3717