Cloud Config Builder (cc-builder)

An interactive CLI tool for creating a cloud-config for cloud-init based on the current machine's configuration.

This tool is primarily meant as an exploratory tool to help users understand what cloud-init can do and how it can be used to automate the creation of virtual machines or cloud instances, by providing a starting point for the cloud-config file using a currently running machine as a reference which the user is likely already familiar with.

Features (What can it do?)

This CLI tool gathers information from your system and generates a cloud-config file that can be used with cloud-init to create a simple image similar to the original system.

• Gather and export Apt sources from sources.list and sources.list.d/
• Gather and export Snaps installed on the system
• Gather and export manually installed Apt packages
• Gather and export detailed operating system info
• Rename the current user to the default "ubuntu" user for VM or Cloud use
• Gather and export SSHD config info (root login, password auth, etc.)
• Gather and export SSH keys for the current user (public keys, authorized_keys)
• Gather and export User info such as what shell they use and if they have sudo rights or not

Installation

Preferred Method: Snap

Installing Release Snap Binary manually

Installing Straight From Terminal

You can also install the snap binary directly from the terminal using the following command:

wget https://github.com/a-dubs/cc-builder/releases/download/v1.0.0/cc-builder_1.0.0_amd64.snap -O cc-builder.snap
sudo snap install --classic --dangerous cc-builder.snap

From GitHub UI

Until this tool is available in the Snap Store, you can install the snap binary manually. Head over to the releases page and download the latest snap binary and save it as cc-builder.snap. Then, install the snap binary using the following command:

sudo snap install --classic --dangerous cc-builder.snap

Alternative Method: Manual Installation

1. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/a-dubs/cc-builder.git

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (optional but recommended)

   • Install pyvenv (if not already installed)

   sudo apt-get install python3-venv

   • Create a virtual environment

   python3 -m venv venv

   • Activate the virtual environment

   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install the dependencies

   pip install .

4. Check if the CLI is working

   cc-builder --help

How to use

Generating a cloud-config file

To generate a cloud-config file, use the generate command.

The generate command has the following CLI usage:

 Usage: cc-builder [OPTIONS]                                                                 
                                                                                             
 Generate a cloud-init configuration file for the current machine.                           
 If interactive mode is enabled, the script will prompt for the necessary information to     
 generate the cloud-init config file and step through each configuration module and show the 
 cloud-config portion generated by that module.                                              
 Only -f can be used with -i/--interactive                                                   
                                                                                             
╭─ Options ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ --interactive            -i        Enable interactive mode.                               │
│ --quiet                  -q        Enable quiet output. Only critical errors and          │
│                                    essential information will be displayed.               │
│ --output-path            -o  TEXT  Path to output file. [default: cloud-config.yaml]      │
│ --force                  -f        Write over output file if it already exists.           │
│ --enable-hostname                  Enable gathering the hostname of the machine. This     │
│                                    will cause issues unless this exact machine is being   │
│                                    redeployed using the generated cloud-init config.      │
│ --gather-public-keys               Enable gathering of all public key files in the ~/.ssh │
│                                    directory. This will allow you to use the same public  │
│                                    keys on the new machine as the current machine.        │
│ --password                   TEXT  Set the password for the user. WARNING: This is        │
│                                    incredibly insecure and is stored in plaintext in the  │
│                                    cloud-init config.                                     │
│ --disable-apt                      Disable the gathering and generation of apt config.    │
│ --disable-snap                     Disable the gathering and generation of snap config.   │
│ --disable-ssh                      Disable the gathering and generation of ssh config.    │
│ --disable-user                     Disable the gathering and generation of user config.   │
│ --rename-to-ubuntu-user            Keep the current user config but rename it to the      │
│                                    default 'ubuntu' user.                                 │
│ --help                   -h        Show this message and exit.                            │
│ --version                          Show the version and exit.                             │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Example calls for generating a cloud-config file

Minimal invocation

This will output a cloud-config file named cloud-config.yaml with the default settings.

cc-builder

Interactive mode

This will prompt the user for the necessary information to generate the cloud-config file and show the cloud-config portion generated by each module along the way.

cc-builder -i

Specify custom output path

This will output a cloud-config file named cc.yaml with the default settings.
If cc.yaml already exists, the tool will not overwrite it because the -f flag is not passed.

cc-builder -o cc.yaml

Overwrite existing file

This will output at cloud-config at the default path with default settings but will overwrite the cc.yaml file if it already exists.

cc-builder -o cc.yaml -f 

Overwrite existing file at custom output path

This will output a cloud-config file named cc.yaml with the default settings.
But now, the tool will overwrite cc.yaml if it already exists.

cc-builder -o cc.yaml -f 

Disable apt config

This will gather all other configs except for the apt sources and packages installed on the system. And will overwrite the output file if it already exists.

cc-builder -f --disable-apt

Interactive Mode With Output Path and Force

This will prompt the user for the necessary information to generate the cloud-config file and show the cloud-config portion generated by each module along the way. It will not prompt for the output file path because it is already set to cc.yaml. And it will automatically overwrite cc.yaml if it already exists.

cc-builder -i -o cc.yaml -f

Submitting Feedback Via GitHub

Please feel free to open an issue against this repo for any bugs or features you'd like to see addressed.

Thanks!