Cloud-Init is the de facto multi-distribution package that handles early initialization of a virtual machine instance. Using Cloud-Init, configuration of network devices and ssh keys on the hypervisor side is possible. When the VM starts for the first time, the Cloud-Init software inside the VM will apply those settings.

Many Linux distributions provide ready-to-use Cloud-Init images, mostly designed for OpenStack. These images will also work with Proxmox VE. While it may seem convenient to get such ready-to-use images, we usually recommended to prepare the images by yourself. The advantage is that you will know exactly what you have installed, and this helps you later to easily customize the image for your needs.

Once you have created such a Cloud-Init image we recommend to convert it into a VM template. From a VM template you can quickly create linked clones, so this is a fast method to roll out new VM instances. You just need to configure the network (and maybe the ssh keys) before you start the new VM.

We recommend using SSH key-based authentication to login to the VMs provisioned by Cloud-Init. It is also possible to set a password, but this is not as safe as using SSH key-based authentication because Proxmox VE needs to store an encrypted version of that password inside the Cloud-Init data.

Proxmox VE generates an ISO image to pass the Cloud-Init data to the VM. For that purpose, all Cloud-Init VMs need to have an assigned CD-ROM drive. Usually, a serial console should be added and used as a display. Many Cloud-Init images rely on this, it is a requirement for OpenStack. However, other images might have problems with this configuration. Switch back to the default display configuration if using a serial console doesn’t work.

## Preparing Cloud-Init Templates

The first step is to prepare your VM. Basically you can use any VM. Simply install the Cloud-Init packages inside the VM that you want to prepare. On Debian/Ubuntu based systems this is as simple as:

    apt-get install cloud-init

| This command is not intended to be executed on the Proxmox VE host, but only inside the VM.

Already many distributions provide ready-to-use Cloud-Init images (provided as `.qcow2` files), so alternatively you can simply download and import such images. For the following example, we will use the cloud image provided by Ubuntu at https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com.

    # download the image
    wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/bionic/current/bionic-server-cloudimg-amd64.img

    # create a new VM with VirtIO SCSI controller
    qm create 9000 --memory 2048 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci

    # import the downloaded disk to the local-lvm storage, attaching it as a SCSI drive
    qm set 9000 --scsi0 local-lvm:0,import-from=/path/to/bionic-server-cloudimg-amd64.img

| Ubuntu Cloud-Init images require the `virtio-scsi-pci` controller type for SCSI drives.

##### Add Cloud-Init CD-ROM drive

The next step is to configure a CD-ROM drive, which will be used to pass the Cloud-Init data to the VM.

    qm set 9000 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit

To be able to boot directly from the Cloud-Init image, set the `boot` parameter to `order=scsi0` to restrict BIOS to boot from this disk only. This will speed up booting, because VM BIOS skips the testing for a bootable CD-ROM.

    qm set 9000 --boot order=scsi0

For many Cloud-Init images, it is required to configure a serial console and use it as a display. If the configuration doesn’t work for a given image however, switch back to the default display instead.

    qm set 9000 --serial0 socket --vga serial0

In a last step, it is helpful to convert the VM into a template. From this template you can then quickly create linked clones. The deployment from VM templates is much faster than creating a full clone (copy).

    qm template 9000

## Deploying Cloud-Init Templates

You can easily deploy such a template by cloning:

    qm clone 9000 123 --name ubuntu2

Then configure the SSH public key used for authentication, and configure the IP setup:

    qm set 123 --sshkey ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
    qm set 123 --ipconfig0 ip=10.0.10.123/24,gw=10.0.10.1

You can also configure all the Cloud-Init options using a single command only. We have simply split the above example to separate the commands for reducing the line length. Also make sure to adopt the IP setup for your specific environment.

## Custom Cloud-Init Configuration

The Cloud-Init integration also allows custom config files to be used instead of the automatically generated configs. This is done via the `cicustom` option on the command line:

    qm set 9000 --cicustom "user=<volume>,network=<volume>,meta=<volume>"

The custom config files have to be on a storage that supports snippets and have to be available on all nodes the VM is going to be migrated to. Otherwise the VM won’t be able to start. For example:

    qm set 9000 --cicustom "user=local:snippets/userconfig.yaml"

There are three kinds of configs for Cloud-Init. The first one is the `user` config as seen in the example above. The second is the `network` config and the third the `meta` config. They can all be specified together or mixed and matched however needed. The automatically generated config will be used for any that don’t have a custom config file specified.

The generated config can be dumped to serve as a base for custom configs:

    qm cloudinit dump 9000 user

The same command exists for `network` and `meta`.

## Cloud-Init on Windows

There is a reimplementation of Cloud-Init available for Windows called cloudbase-init. Not every feature of Cloud-Init is available with Cloudbase-Init, and some features differ compared to Cloud-Init.

Cloudbase-Init requires both `ostype` set to any Windows version and the `citype` set to `configdrive2`, which is the default with any Windows `ostype`.

There are no ready-made cloud images for Windows available for free. Using Cloudbase-Init requires manually installing and configuring a Windows guest.

## Preparing Cloudbase-Init Templates

The first step is to install Windows in a VM. Download and install Cloudbase-Init in the guest. It may be necessary to install the Beta version. Don’t run Sysprep at the end of the installation. Instead configure Cloudbase-Init first.

A few common options to set would be:

- username: This sets the username of the administrator

- groups: This allows one to add the user to the `Administrators` group

- inject_user_password: Set this to `true` to allow setting the password in the VM config

- first_logon_behaviour: Set this to `no` to not require a new password on login

- rename_admin_user: Set this to `true` to allow renaming the default `Administrator` user to the username specified with `username`

- metadata_services: Set this to `cloudbaseinit.metadata.services.configdrive.ConfigDriveService` for Cloudbase-Init to first check this service. Otherwise it may take a few minutes for Cloudbase-Init to configure the system after boot.

Some plugins, for example the SetHostnamePlugin, require reboots and will do so automatically. To disable automatic reboots by Cloudbase-Init, you can set `allow_reboot` to `false`.

A full set of configuration options can be found in the official cloudbase-init documentation.

It can make sense to make a snapshot after configuring in case some parts of the config still need adjustments. After configuring Cloudbase-Init you can start creating the template. Shutdown the Windows guest, add a Cloud-Init disk and make it into a template.

    qm set 9000 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit
    qm template 9000

Clone the template into a new VM:

    qm clone 9000 123 --name windows123

Then set the password, network config and SSH key:

    qm set 123 --cipassword <password>
    qm set 123 --ipconfig0 ip=10.0.10.123/24,gw=10.0.10.1
    qm set 123 --sshkey ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Make sure that the `ostype` is set to any Windows version before setting the password. Otherwise the password will be encrypted and Cloudbase-Init will use the encrypted password as plaintext password.

When everything is set, start the cloned guest. On the first boot the login won’t work and it will reboot automatically for the changed hostname. After the reboot the new password should be set and login should work.

## Cloudbase-Init and Sysprep

Sysprep is a feature to reset the configuration of Windows and provide a `new` system. This can be used in conjunction with Cloudbase-Init to create a clean template.

When using Sysprep there are 2 configuration files that need to be adapted. The first one is the normal configuration file, the second one is the one ending in `-unattend.conf`.

Cloudbase-Init runs in 2 steps, first the Sysprep step using the `-unattend.conf` and then the regular step using the primary config file.

For `Windows Server` running Sysprep with the provided `Unattend.xml` file should work out of the box. Normal Windows versions however require additional steps:

1. Open a PowerShell instance

2. Enable the Administrator user:

       net user Administrator /active:yes`

3. Install Cloudbase-Init using the Administrator user

4. Modify `Unattend.xml` to include the command to enable the Administrator user on the first boot after sysprepping:

       <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
         <Path>net user administrator /active:yes</Path>
         <Order>1</Order>
         <Description>Enable Administrator User</Description>
       </RunSynchronousCommand>

   Make sure the `<Order>` does not conflict with other synchronous commands. Modify `<Order>` of the Cloudbase-Init command to run after this one by increasing the number to a higher value: `<Order>2</Order>`

5. (Windows 11 only) Remove the conflicting Microsoft.OneDriveSync package:

       Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.OneDriveSync | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers

6. `cd` into the Cloudbase-Init config directory:

       cd 'C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf'

7. (optional) Create a snapshot of the VM before Sysprep in case of a misconfiguration

8. Run Sysprep:

       C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /unattend:Unattend.xml

After following the above steps the VM should be in shut down state due to the Sysprep. Now you can make it into a template, clone it and configure it as needed.

## Cloud-Init specific Options

`cicustom`: `[meta=<volume>] [,network=<volume>] [,user=<volume>] [,vendor=<volume>]`

  Specify custom files to replace the automatically generated ones at start.

  `meta`=`<volume>`

    Specify a custom file containing all meta data passed to the VM via" ." cloud-init. This is provider specific meaning configdrive2 and nocloud differ.

  `network`=`<volume>`

    To pass a custom file containing all network data to the VM via cloud-init.

  `user`=`<volume>`

    To pass a custom file containing all user data to the VM via cloud-init.

  `vendor`=`<volume>`

    To pass a custom file containing all vendor data to the VM via cloud-init.

`cipassword`: `<string>`

  Password to assign the user. Using this is generally not recommended. Use ssh keys instead. Also note that older cloud-init versions do not support hashed passwords.

`citype`: `<configdrive2 | nocloud | opennebula>`

  Specifies the cloud-init configuration format. The default depends on the configured operating system type (`ostype`. We use the `nocloud` format for Linux, and `configdrive2` for windows.

`ciupgrade`: `<boolean>` (default = `1`)

  do an automatic package upgrade after the first boot.

`ciuser`: `<string>`

  User name to change ssh keys and password for instead of the image’s configured default user.

`ipconfig[n]`: `[gw=<GatewayIPv4>] [,gw6=<GatewayIPv6>] [,ip=<IPv4Format/CIDR>] [,ip6=<IPv6Format/CIDR>]`

  Specify IP addresses and gateways for the corresponding interface.

  IP addresses use CIDR notation, gateways are optional but need an IP of the same type specified.

  The special string dhcp can be used for IP addresses to use DHCP, in which case no explicit gateway should be provided. For IPv6 the special string auto can be used to use stateless autoconfiguration. This requires cloud-init 19.4 or newer.

  If cloud-init is enabled and neither an IPv4 nor an IPv6 address is specified, it defaults to using dhcp on IPv4.

  `gw`=`<GatewayIPv4>`

    Default gateway for IPv4 traffic.

    | Requires option(s): `ip`

  `gw6`=`<GatewayIPv6>`

    Default gateway for IPv6 traffic.

    | Requires option(s): `ip6`

  `ip`=`<IPv4Format/CIDR>` (default = `dhcp`)

    IPv4 address in CIDR format.

  `ip6`=`<IPv6Format/CIDR>` (default = `dhcp`)

    IPv6 address in CIDR format.

`nameserver`: `<string>`

  Sets DNS server IP address for a container. Create will automatically use the setting from the host if neither searchdomain nor nameserver are set.

`searchdomain`: `<string>`

  Sets DNS search domains for a container. Create will automatically use the setting from the host if neither searchdomain nor nameserver are set.

`sshkeys`: `<string>`

  Setup public SSH keys (one key per line, OpenSSH format).

## See Also

- Qemu/KVM Virtual Machines