aws command not getting recognized after MSI install

Question

I am new to powershell here. I can't figure out why after successfully installing AWS CLI, I intermittently get back aws command not recognized error. I put in sleep thinking some environment variables might be getting set in background. Need help figuring out what do I need to do here to able to to successfully execute $putItem command.

I followed the instructions here https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2-windows.html

PLEASE NOTE: The whole thing has to be automated, so I can't manually login to a host and fix something as this same script has to be run on 100+ hosts

Write-Output "Checking if AWS CLI support exists..."
cmd.exe /c "aws --version"
if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0){
    Write-Output "AWS CLI installed already"
} else {
    Write-Output "Installing AWS CLI V2"
    cmd.exe /c "msiexec.exe /i https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.msi /qn"
    if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0){
        Write-Output "AWS CLI installed successfully"
        Start-Sleep -s 5
    } else {
        Write-Output "Could not install AWS CLI"
        exit 1
    }
}
$putItem = 'aws dynamodb put-item --table-name  ' + $instanceStatusDDBTable + ' --item "{\"HostName\" : {\"S\" : \"' + $instanceName + '\"},  \"Modules\" : {\"M\" : {}},  \"DAGName\" : {\"S\" : \"' + $dagName +'\"}}"'

Write-Output "Executing DB put item query $putItem"
cmd.exe /c $putItem
if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0){
  Write-Output "Created entry for $instanceName in $instanceStatusDDBTable DDB table"
} else {
  Write-Output "Could not complete put Item operation for $instanceName"
  exit 1
}

Here is the output

Checking if AWS CLI support exists...

Installing AWS CLI V2

AWS CLI installed successfully

Executing DB put item query aws dynamodb put-item --table-name Ex2019-HostStatusTable --item "{\"HostName\" : {\"S\" : \"Host1\"}, \"Modules\" : {\"M\" : {}}, \"DAGName\" : {\"S\" : \"USW-D01\"}}"

Could not complete put Item operation for Host1

Error output -

'aws' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

Many things to say here. First of all, you can check if aws is installed through the Get-Command cmdlet. Then, why do you go through cmd.exe to call the aws CLI? You can do that directly in PowerShell. Also, why don't you install the AWS PowerShell modules instead? Finally, what AWS credentials do you use when you run your script? — David Brabant, Sep 29 '21 at 05:14
AWS Dynamo DB set/query data APIs aren't available for Powershell https://github.com/aws/aws-tools-for-powershell/issues/41 Hence, the use of cmd.exe. I use SSM managed instances and this script gets executed as a run command in an SSM automation document — Shubham Pandey, Sep 29 '21 at 07:56

Seb · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-29T15:30:00.577

Try adding the below code to refresh your environment variables after you check your $LASTEXITCODE variable. The shell session has to regather the updated environment variables your installer just added. See this response for more info.

$env:Path = [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path","Machine") + ";" + [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path","User")

You may also want to consider using the Start-Process with the -wait and -passthru params to invoke your installer as the cmd may not wait long enough for the app to finish installing. You can read up on here. I do agree with David, you could just check to see if it's installed by running aws --version and then reading in the version number or catching the error in a try catch block.

aws command not getting recognized after MSI install

1 Answers1