Ubuntu 22 Cloud Init/Config Network & Partition Assistance

Lulina

Good day

Hope everyone is well

I have begun to look into using Cloud Config to make it a simpler process to push out new VMs

This is for Ubuntu 22.04, the only variables I'd want to input would be the hostname, a static IP, disk space and install specified packages

So far I managed to get the config template to install the VM with the custom hostname
I still have trouble getting the network config working and having the new VM make use of the entire assigned disk space. The new VM will only use the original template VM's disk space (10GBs) and not extend the volume with entered disk space value

My current network template:

#network:
  version: 1
config:
  - type: physical
    name: eth0
    subnets:
      type: static
      address: 129.232.201.212/26
      gateway: 129.232.201.193
dns_nameservers:
  - 8.8.8.8
  - 1.1.1.1

Current user config

#cloud-config
hostname: TEST
growpart:
    mode: 'on'
resize_rootfs: true
package_update: true
packages:
  - htop
  - whois

My process for creating the template:

Install Ubuntu 22.04
Install Guest tools
apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Reboot
apt purge cloud-init cloud-initramfs-dyn-netconf cloud-initramfs-copymods -y
rm -rf /etc/cloud/; rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/
apt update && apt full-upgrade -y
apt install cloud-initramfs-dyn-netconf cloud-initramfs-copymods cloud-initramfs-growroot -y
cloud-init clean

Remove/Clear the following:
10.a rm /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-installer.cfg
10.b rm /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/subiquity-disable-cloudinit-networking.cfg
10.c rm /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml
10.d rm -rf /tmp/* && rm -rf /var/tmp/*
10.e rm -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
10.f truncate -s 0 /etc/hostname && truncate -s 0 /etc/machine-id

Edit cloud.cfg
Here I only commented out the default users, as the users I set won't need to change
apt autoremove && apt clean
cloud-init clean && cloud-init clean --logs

Shutdown and convert to template

I believe my error is the disk and network are not defined in cloud.cfg

Would anyone be able to assist with examples or suggest how to correctly define the volumes and network interface

I will happy to provide any additional information or logs

Thank you

gsrfan01

@Lulina

My cloud-inits are below, I don't mess around with building my own templates and just download the pre-made Ubuntu ones: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/

#cloud-config
hostname: {name}
timezone: America/New_York
users:
  - default
  - name: netserv
    passwd: passwordhash
    ssh_import_id:
      - gh:guthub_account
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    groups: users, admin, sudo
    shell: /bin/bash
    lock_passwd: true
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-ed25519 yourkey
package_update: true
packages:
  - xe-guest-utilities
package_upgrade: true
runcmd:
  - sudo reboot

And network, though this is no longer the correct way to handle it, I've yet to update

version: 2
ethernets:
    eth0:
        dhcp4: false
        dhcp6: false
        addresses:
          - 172.16.100.185/24
        gateway4: 172.16.100.1
        nameservers:
          addresses:
            - 172.16.100.21
            - 172.16.100.22
            - 1.1.1.1
          search:
            - dev.themaw.tech

Lulina

@gsrfan01
Hi there!

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I will try out your example inits

I initially went with setting up my own template since I have several golden disks to use

So you only use those above inits and don't modify cloud.cfg at all?

I appreciate the help!

gsrfan01

No modifications at all. I download the OVA, import into Xen Orchestra, usually change the cpu to 2 cores and ram to 2gb, then convert to template.

I select the template and the cloud configs when creating a new VM. It expands the file system, sets up the user, imports SSH keys, updates packages, installs the tools, then reboots.

You can expand it to add addition users, keys, packages, etc.

rajudm

@gsrfan01 I have taken up XCP-NG for setting up home lab (K8s), and would take your suggestions in creating the template. I would post any issues encountered here to bring up VM instances. thanks

Lulina

@gsrfan01
Good day Gsrfan

I have managed to get the network going using your example network init, thank you it helped a bunch!

So far I can't access the test VM, the default ubuntu user and my custom user don't accept the credentials.
I have seen online it's possible to define the ssh keys in the init, is it a simple enough alternative to Github?

Thank you

rajudm

@Lulina I was trying to have the cloud config and network saved but got error with redis. I couldn't progress further. Do you have the template for those configs.

Lulina

@rajudm
Hi there

We just need some more info from your side
What error did you get?
Which distro are you using to deploy the VMs?

rajudm

@Lulina using cloud image from ubuntu 22.04 --> ubuntu-22.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova

While creating config's i get errors

what would be the ideal cloud config and network config for the following.

Cloud config
Name
Template
#cloud-config
#hostname: {name}%
#ssh_authorized_keys:

- ssh-rsa <myKey>

#packages:

- htop

0 items
ID Name
No items found
Network config
Name
Template

With the same image got the VM template created and VM created in proxmox following Jay Linux's video. A similar one is required for XCP-NG to make popular in community edition. I was looking at exporting from Proxmox and Importing into XCP-NG. Not sure if that would work either given the networking variability among hypervisors.

gsrfan01

If you don't want to import Github keys at all, you can remove that portion and specify it under ssh_authorized_keys for each user built from cloud-init.

#cloud-config
hostname: {name}
timezone: America/New_York
users:
  - default
  - name: YOURUSER
    passwd: YOURPASSWORDHASH
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    groups: users, admin, sudo
    shell: /bin/bash
    lock_passwd: true
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-rsa YOURKEY
package_update: true
packages:
  - xe-guest-utilities
  - htop
package_upgrade: true

If you want to be able to log in from the console instead of only SSH using keys, change lock_passwd: true to lock_passwd: false

Lulina

Hi there Gsrfan

Apologies for the delayed response, I had to shelf this passion project to focus on other work
So far managed to get the host, static IP, packages, users & their keys/password etc sorted with the init

I was working last on lvm partitions, to grow them and that ended up a bit of a mess

I might return to this at a later stage but I found your help and advice invaluable to getting the config to where it is now

Thank you so much