UserData scripts for EC with Ansible (via Cloudformation)

cloudformation.cf

"UserData": "{{ launch_script | b64encode}}"

explanation.txt

These are snippets from a piece of work where we're defining an AutoScaling group where the instanes are launched with a User Data script which downloads the build from S3 and installs it.
The install script is managed as a multi-line variable in the Ansible Playbook, which uses a Jinja2 Template to render a CloudFormation Template (for reasons), which is then pushed into CloudFormation

The technique of mult-line script as variable + base64encoding could be used for normal instances too.

playbook.yml

launch_script: |
                  #!/bin/bash
                  export INSTANCE_ID=$(curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id)
                  export REGION=$(curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document | grep region | awk -F\" '{print $4}')
                  # install stuff