Can I add initialization scripts to droplet that is already deployed?

Hi there,

Yes, you can modify an already deployed Droplet without destroying it or re-create it.

This could be done in a few different ways depending on the exact requirements, but here are a few examples:

1. Use /etc/environment: This is a system-wide configuration file to be used by all processes. You can append your environment variable here:

   echo 'DOMAIN_NAME="yourdomain.com"' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment
   

   Remember to load the environment after setting:

   source /etc/environment
   

2. Startup Scripts with systemd: You can use systemd to create custom startup services that run your script at boot:

   • Create a script, for example, /usr/local/bin/set-domain.sh:

     #!/bin/bash
     export DOMAIN_NAME="yourdomain.com"
     

   • Make the script executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/set-domain.sh

   • Create a systemd service unit for this script, for example, /etc/systemd/system/set-domain.service:

     [Unit]
     Description=Set domain name environment variable
     
     [Service] ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/set-domain.sh
     
     [Install]
     WantedBy=multi-user.target
     

   • Enable and start the service:

     systemctl enable set-domain
     systemctl start set-domain
     

Alternatively, if you’ve used cloud-init for your initial setup, you can modify the cloud-init configuration. However, changing cloud-init scripts on an already running Droplet can be tricky since cloud-init is primarily designed for the initial setup.

Hope that this helps!

Best,

Bobby

Heya,

I’ll recommend you to check the cloud-init stuff - https://docs.digitalocean.com/tutorials/droplet-cloudinit/

Cloud-init is an industry standard tool that allows you to automate the initialization of your Linux instances. This means that you can use cloud-init to inject a file into your Droplets at deployment that automatically sets up things like new users, firewall rules, app installations, and SSH keys. DigitalOcean’s User Data feature leverages cloud-init so you can deploy and automate the set up of several Droplets simultaneously. Learning to use cloud-init can save you a lot of set up time when deploying new Droplets.