What user does cloud-config run as?

Question

When spinning up an AWS or other cloud vendor instance, and using cloud-init to configure the host, what user do bash scripts that get called run as?

Bwana

Answer 1

Building an instance with the following config:

#cloud-config
write_files:
  - path: /root/test.sh
    content: |
        #!/bin/bash
        set -x
        set -e
        whoami
runcmd:
  - bash /root/test.sh

I got an output of:

+ whoami
root

Ubuntu cloud-config runs as root.

Bwana

Is it possible to set a custom user? – Muslin

@RovshanMusayev runuser -l $USER -c "<COMMAND" – Blavatsky

It seems to me like a hack, but not a native cloud-init feature. I am not only about running a command but also running whole cloud init including writing files with custom user – Muslin

I'm not sure it is possible. However, if it is possible and someone knows how to do it, I would love to learn. – Belligerent

@RovshanMusayev As far as files go, you can write those files as root user, and after that chown them to whatever user you need to. – Lobe