Use Cloud-init yaml with Proxmox

Introduction

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Cloud-Init_Support https://cloud-init.io/

In order to use Cloud-init with Proxmox, the following steps are recommended:

1. Get a dedicated Cloud-init image for the Linux distribution.
2. Use this image to build a template VM.
3. Provision servers by cloning the template VM and mounting the Cloud-init configuration, so that it will be applied during startup.

Multiple ways to provide Cloud-init configuration exist in Proxmox, also via GUI. Most cloud providers do support yaml configuration files and this can be done in Proxmox as well - via Custom Cloud-Init Configuration.

Good to know:

• Cloud-init configuration files must be placed in the snippets directory of a Proxmox storage volume. This storage type is not enabled by default and must be added in e.g. "Datacenter" -> "Storage" -> Edit: local.
  • In Proxmox clusters, these snippets must be accessible for all nodes in a shared storage, Link.
• Cloud-init configs for user data and networking must be split: qm set 9000 --cicustom "user=<volume>,network=<volume>,meta=<volume>"

Usage

This repository provides scripts to provision Debian 12 on a single node Proxmox in the default storage volume local-lvm.

Configs and .env for the provisioned VM in ./provision/1337 are exemplary and require modifications.

Cloud-init configs:

• user data e.g.:
  • set hostname
  • set up a user with SSH pubkey authentication and passwordless sudo
  • install various packages
  • create a swap file
  • mounts for /tmp and /dev/shm
  • disable cloudinit on subsequent boots
• networking:
  • netplan for static IPv4 and DNS

# root@proxmox:~#
git clone https://github.com/martipoe/proxmox-cloudinit-debian
cd proxmox-cloudinit-debian

# create template vm
source /.env.template
bash ./1-template.sh

# provision from template vm
source ./cloudinit/1337/.env
bash ./2-provision.sh

Inspired by

• https://github.com/chris2k20/proxmox-cloud-init