AWS Userdata not working on Windows server 2019 - node.js

Question

Current setup:
Manually launched Windows server 2019 instance with nodes app in AWS.
Below commands are working fine with this instance
Pm2 delete myapp
Pm2 start
Issue :
We have created AMI of the above instance and launched it with a cloudformation template.
In the userdata of cloudformation template, we have made some changes in the config file of nodejs and restarting the nodes app with the above commands.
Output:
config file modified successfully with cloduformation userdata
Error:
The above commands (Pm2 delete myapp and Pm2 start) failed in the execution of userdata. below is the userdata log.
The errors from user scripts: pm2 : The term 'pm2' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the
spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At C:\Windows\TEMP\UserScript.ps1:15 char:1
+ pm2 delete RenderWorker
+ ~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (pm2:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
pm2 : The term 'pm2' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the
spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At C:\Windows\TEMP\UserScript.ps1:16 char:1
+ pm2 start
+ ~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (pm2:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
Other findings:
Pm2 command is available with newly launched ec2 instance.
C:\Users\Administrator>pm2
usage: pm2 [options] <command>
pm2 -h, --help all available commands and options
pm2 examples display pm2 usage examples
pm2 <command> -h help on a specific command
Access pm2 files in ~/.pm2
Userdata in cloudofrmation:
UserData:
Fn::Base64: !Sub |
<powershell>
$config = '{
"MyENV": "${MyENV}",
"UR1L": "${URL1}",
"URL2": "${URL2}",
"BUCKET": "${MyBucket}",
"PATH": "${Mypath}"
}'
echo $config
$config | Set-Content C:\Projects\myapp\settings\config.json
cd 'C:\Projects\myapp'
pm2 delete RenderWorker
pm2 start
</powershell>
<runAsLocalSystem>true</runAsLocalSystem>
<persist>true</persist>

Answer 1

I doubt that you can run pm2 directly like that because the path to pm2 does not exist under SYSTEM path.
You are likely required to include the full path of it as follows to run the command.
For example, your pm2 resides under C:\etc\ then you need to include as follows:
C:\etc\.pm2 delete RenderWorker
C:\etc\.pm2 start
or if you are familiar with the path, you can make it as an environment variable.