Using cloud-init

[Nordal]

Hi all

I would like to use a real cloud-init user_data file, and not use the limited proxmox build-in options.
It seems to be doable, but the documentation and examples maybe could be better.

I have made a snippets enabled datastore on proxmox called "snippets" and made the following terraform code:

in the initialization resource, i have added this line:

user_data_file_id = proxmox_virtual_environment_file.ci-user_data.id

and made the following file resource:

resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_file" "ci-user_data" {
content_type = "snippets"
datastore_id = "snippets"
node_name = "proxnode01"

source_file {
path = "ci-user_data.yaml"
}
}

I have placed the ci-user_data.yaml in the root of the terraform folder, but it's not working.

Could anyone come with an example on how to do this?
I have earlier been working with KVM directly, and it was so easy creating a cd-rom containing the user_data file and everything was working. Maybe I am blinded by the "old" method and not seeing the forest because of all the trees.

Looking forward to hear from you.
BR Kasper

[otopetrik]

Hi @Nordal,

this worked for me, it might be a useful starting point.

Using cloud-init with the default bios="seabios" generally works.

Using cloud-init with bios="ovmf" seems to require:

initialization {
    interface = "scsi1" # or scsi2, scsi3,...
...
}

But there are some, who have no issues with the ide2 default value. It might depend on the image used - maybe a Linux image with different cloud-init version or configuration.

Make sure to read about the guest agent, Proxmox behavior with agent enabled and not installed is a bit surprising.

[Nordal]

Thank you, I will have a look.
I am deploying by cloning a template in proxmox and not by an ISO file. I assume i can skip most of the declarations in the bottom.

[otopetrik]

That content_type = "iso" is required for Proxmox to accept disk image upload (it does not like .raw or .img), but it is not an CD/DVD ISO file, it is just a normal cloud-init-compatible disk image (which usually resizes to the requested disk size on first boot).

There should not be anything preventing clones working with cloud-init, but I have not used clones in a long time.
When using a clone, the terraform file does not completely describe the VM, it does not have VM configuration inherited from the template. That makes it easy to miss something (though terraform plan and terraform show help).

Not sure if template VM should have the cloud-init drive already created, probably not, but that is just a guess.