I'm trying to setup a cloud-config file to invoke a script that will run apt-get to update packages and install a few additional packages. Because the kernel can be updated by the 'apt-get upgrade', I want to reboot at the end to activate the new kernel. Given that the cloud-config will be executed during the boot process itself (during the first boot), what is the best practice for scheduling a reboot? Should I just do it immediately (i.e., leaving some of the boot scripts perhaps unexecuted in the first boot) or should I schedule it for 10 seconds later (i.e., guessing that the remaining boot scripts will have completed by then) or is there some better way to handle this scenario. Here is what I think (not yet tried) my cloud-config file would look like: #cloud-config runcmd: - [ sh, "/mnt/data/setup/init.sh'" ] Here is my init.sh script (tested via sudo from 'ubuntu' user command line and works there): #! /bin/sh # # Get security and distribution updates # (Note: sec.sources.list is a copy of sources.list with only security sources specified) # apt-get update apt-get upgrade -o Dir::Etc::sourcelist=/etc/apt/sec.sources.list # Install llvm and clang # apt-get install llvm-3.0 apt-get install llvm-3.0-doc apt-get install llvm-3.0-dev apt-get install clang # Update the CNAME for <a href="http://dev.mydomain.com">dev.mydomain.com</a> to point to this # instance # INSTANCE_ID_=`curl -s -g <a href="http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id`">http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id`</a> # echo instance id is $INSTANCE_ID_ PUBLIC_HOSTNAME_=`curl -s -g <a href="http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-hostname`">http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-hostname`</a> # echo public hostname is $PUBLIC_HOSTNAME_ python setr53.py $INSTANCE_ID_ $PUBLIC_HOSTNAME_ # restart the system to pick up kernel changes # (yep, there might not have been any, but reboot anyway) # shutdown -r now -- Dave Hein