This is an article about the preparation of Cloud-Init images for a Proxmox server to ease the deployment and setup of Virtual Machines. It coverts a few common operating system environments such as Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS.
The article was updated 8 November 2021 to provide a link to updating the Cloud-Init images with ‘qemu-guest-agent’ which is an essential tool when you’re running these services for your clients.
Normally Cloud-Init is installed like so:
apt-get install cloud-init
However, many distributions offered read-to-use Cloud-Init images as .qcow2 files. For Ubuntu, go here:
https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/
The one we’re after is `focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img`
We’ve included scripts for Ubuntu, CentOS 7, and Debian. There are 8 steps per distribution. All that changes is the VM ID 9xxx and the download file.
Table of Contents
Instructions for Ubuntu Focal 20.04 (9000)
wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img virt-customize -a focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img --install qemu-guest-agent [optional for Virtualmin quotas] virt-customize -a focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img --install linux-image-generic qm create 9000 --memory 2048 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 qm importdisk 9000 focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img local-lvm qm set 9000 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --scsi0 local-lvm:vm-9000-disk-0 qm set 9000 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit qm set 9000 --boot c --bootdisk scsi0 qm set 9000 --serial0 socket --vga serial0 qm template 9000
virt-customize
See: https://registry.terraform.io/modules/sdhibit/cloud-init-vm/proxmox/latest/examples/ubuntu_single_vm
Instructions for CentOS 7 (9103)
wget https://cloud.centos.org/altarch/7/images/CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud-2111.qcow2c virt-customize -a CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud-2111.qcow2c --install qemu-guest-agent virt-customize -a CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud-2111.qcow2c --run-command "sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication no/PasswordAuthentication yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config" qm create 9103 --memory 2048 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 qm importdisk 9103 CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud-2111.qcow2c local-lvm qm set 9103 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --scsi0 local-lvm:vm-9103-disk-0 qm set 9103 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit qm set 9103 --boot c --bootdisk scsi0 qm set 9103 --serial0 socket --vga serial0 qm template 9103
Updates
11 Nov 2022
- Added version 2111 instead of version 2009
- Added both install
qemu-guest-agentandPasswordAuthenticationcustomizations - Changed identifier from 9001 to 9103
Instructions for Debian 11 – Bullseye (9002) – Released 14 August 2021
Source: http://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/
wget http://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/20210814-734/debian-11-generic-amd64-20210814-734.qcow2 qm create 9002 --memory 2048 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 qm importdisk 9002 debian-11-generic-amd64-20210814-734.qcow2 local-lvm qm set 9002 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --scsi0 local-lvm:vm-9002-disk-0 qm set 9002 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit qm set 9002 --boot c --bootdisk scsi0 qm set 9002 --serial0 socket --vga serial0 qm template 9002
Instructions for Ubuntu 21.04
wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/hirsute/current/hirsute-server-cloudimg-amd64.img qm create 9003 --memory 2048 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 qm importdisk 9003 hirsute-server-cloudimg-amd64.img local-lvm qm set 9003 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --scsi0 local-lvm:vm-9003-disk-0 qm set 9003 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit qm set 9003 --boot c --bootdisk scsi0 qm set 9003 --serial0 socket --vga serial0 qm template 9003
Instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 (9101)
In the example below, bold indicates extra customization. The customizations are:
- Install the QEMU Guest Agent
- Allow SSH
PasswordAuthenticationby using SED find and replace. Please note, this is a security risk so be careful.
wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img virt-customize -a jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img --install qemu-guest-agent virt-customize -a jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img --run-command "sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication no/PasswordAuthentication yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config" qm create 9101 --memory 2048 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 qm importdisk 9101 jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img local-lvm qm set 9101 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --scsi0 local-lvm:vm-9101-disk-0 qm set 9101 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit qm set 9101 --boot c --bootdisk scsi0 qm set 9101 --serial0 socket --vga serial0 qm template 9101
Updates
11 Nov 2022
- Fixed typo for
sedcommand was pointing to a Bionic image
2 thoughts on “How to prepare a Cloud-Init Templates with Proxmox”
Hello.
Please, change “–” > “-”
Example:
“–memory” > “-memory”.
Thank you! I noted some pre tags were missing and fixed the problem.