diff --git a/cloudinit/metadata_service.go b/cloudinit/metadata_service.go
index 351dcd7..8125dcb 100644
--- a/cloudinit/metadata_service.go
+++ b/cloudinit/metadata_service.go
@@ -19,8 +19,12 @@ func (ms *metadataService) UserData() ([]byte, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return []byte{}, err
 	}
-
 	defer resp.Body.Close()
+
+	if resp/100 != 2 {
+		return []byte{}, nil
+	}
+
 	respBytes, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/coreos-cloudinit.go b/coreos-cloudinit.go
index ba36417..102bc44 100644
--- a/coreos-cloudinit.go
+++ b/coreos-cloudinit.go
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ func main() {
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 
+	if userdata == "" {
+		log.Printf("No user data to handle, exiting.")
+		os.Exit(0)
+	}
+
 	parsed, err := cloudinit.ParseUserData(userdata)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatalf("Failed parsing user-data: %v", err)