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amazon-web-servicesamazon-ec2aws-cloudformationwindows-server

How to set the administrator password for a Windows Server machine on AWS from CloudFormation?


I am deploying a CloudFormation template which launches an EC2 instance from the Windows_Server-2019-English-Full-Base-2020.05.13 AMI.

By default, the Windows Server image has an Administrator user. To connect to the instance via RDP, I have to navigate to the console, click on Connect and then get the generated random password from the console.

Is there a way I can set the RDP password to a custom value? I would like to do this from the CloudFormation template, in the UserData section.


Solution

  • Based on the comments.

    The solution was to use the following command in UserData:

    net user Administrator "new_password"
    

    The command, as explained in the docs, can be used to change admin password.

    This works because UserData executes under administrator account (ref):

    User data scripts are executed from the local administrator account when a random password is generated.