IBM Cloud Docs
Provisioning with a cloud-init enabled image

Provisioning with a cloud-init enabled image

When you order a virtual server, many operating systems now use a cloud-init enabled image to optimize provisioning time. You can also import a customized image that you enabled for cloud-init.

The following operating systems now default to a cloud-init enabled image when you order a virtual server without add-ons. (Add-ons include extra software, post-provisioning scripts, and advanced monitoring.)

  • CentOS 7
  • Debian 10, 11
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
  • Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04
  • Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022

When you order a virtual server with a cloud-init enabled operating system, you can add user data or metadata with custom provisioning scripts. In the User Data field on the order form, enter optional cloud-init user data or optional metadata for the server.

Before you begin

First, go to the device menu and make sure that you have the correct account permissions to complete the tasks.

  • Go to your console's device menu. For more information, see Navigating to devices.
  • Make sure that you have any necessary account permissions and device access. Only the account owner, or a user with the Manage Users classic infrastructure permission, can adjust the permissions.

For more information about permissions, see Classic infrastructure permissions and Managing device access.

Import a customized cloud-init enabled image

If you created a customized image that’s cloud-init enabled, you can designate it as a cloud-init image on the Import Image page of the IBM Cloud® infrastructure customer portal.

To access the Import Image page of Image Templates and mark an image as cloud-init enabled, complete the following steps:

  1. From the Devices menu, select Manage > Images.
  2. Click the Import Image tab.
  3. Complete the required information for importing your cloud-init enabled image, and select the Cloud-init checkbox that is near the Operating System dropdown box. For more information about importing images, see Import an Image.

Mark an image template as cloud-init enabled

If you have an existing VHD image template that is cloud-init enabled, you can designate it as cloud-init enabled on the details page of the image template.

To access an image template and mark it as cloud-init enabled, complete the following steps:

  1. From the Devices menu, select Manage > Images.
  2. From the list of templates, click the image template name that you want to update.
  3. On the Image Template Details page, select the Enabled checkbox under the Cloud-init heading, and click Update.

If your image is encrypted, the Cloud-init checkbox is already selected by default since encrypted images must be cloud-init enabled.

Work with an image template that was created from a cloud-init provisioned virtual server

Cloud-init typically runs only one time. However, if you provision a virtual server from a cloud-init enabled image and later create an image template from that virtual server, the UUID is recorded. If that image template is used to create another virtual server, cloud-init runs again.

Create image templates that are cloud-init enabled

For information about configuring images, see cloud-init documentation.

For more information about data sources, see Data sources. IBM Cloud cloud-init images are created for the environment by using the Config Drive - Version 2 data source to supply the metadata.

Linux requirements

Linux images that are cloud-init enabled have the following requirements:

  • Cloud-init version 0.7.7 or greater is required.
  • Cloud-init image is configured to use SSH for logging in to your virtual server instance.

The following example cloud.cfg file shows settings that are used in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 deployment. These settings differ from the default settings in the cloud-init installation package on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

# cat /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg
# Configure the Datasource for both instances
datasource_list: [ ConfigDrive ]

user: root
ssh_pwauth: True
disable_root: False
manage_etc_hosts: True

system_info:
 # This will affect which distro class gets used
 distro: rhel
 # Other config here will be given to the distro class and/or path classes
 paths:
    cloud_dir: /var/lib/cloud/
    templates_dir: /etc/cloud/templates/

cloud_init_modules:
 - migrator
 - seed_random
 - bootcmd
 - write-files
 - disk_setup
 - mounts
 - ca-certs
 - rsyslog
 - users-groups
 - ssh

cloud_config_modules:
# Emit the cloud config ready event
# this can be used by upstart jobs for 'start on cloud-config'.
 - snap_config
 - locale
 - set-passwords
 - ntp
 - timezone
 - disable-ec2-metadata
 - set_hostname
 - update_hostname
 - update_etc_hosts
 - runcmd

# The modules that run in the 'final' stage
cloud_final_modules:
 - snappy
 - package-update-upgrade-install
 - fan
 - lxd
 - puppet
 - chef
 - salt-minion
 - mcollective
 - rightscale_userdata
 - scripts-vendor
 - scripts-per-once
 - scripts-per-boot
 - scripts-per-instance
 - scripts-user
 - ssh-authkey-fingerprints
 - keys-to-console
 - phone-home
 - final-message
 - power-state-change

Windows requirements

  • Cloudbase-init Metadata Service for public and private networks support in IBM Cloud infrastructure. The service also updates the Customer Portal with the Windows virtual server credentials. You can access the service at IBM Cloud-cloudbase-init.

  • If you are using a Vyatta in your environment, you must configure the Vyatta to allow API calls to API load balancers.

  • Run the following commands to sysprep the image:

    C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin\SetSetupComplete.cmd

    cd "C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf\"
C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:Unattend.xml