Guest Customization Using cloud-init
You can customize certain settings in a Linux guest operating system with the help of
the vSphere Web Services SDK. The cloud-init utility is a standardized way to initialize a
virtual machine when you deploy it in a cloud environment.
Guest operating systems can be customized in
one of several ways, depending on certain cloud-init configuration flags and on the
subtype of the
identity
property of the
CustomizationSpec
data object. The following table shows the
combinations needed to achieve raw data cloud-init customization, LinuxPrep with
traditional customization, or LinuxPrep with cloud-init customization. Other
combinations are not allowed.Flags | CustomizationSpec.identity | Result |
|---|---|---|
allow_raw_data: true or absent
(default=true ) | CloudInitPrep
| VMware Tools will work with cloud-init to customize the guest
with the unprocessed metadata and
userdata from
CloudinitPrep . |
disable_vmware_customization: true or
absent (default=true ) | LinuxPrep
| VMware Tools will do traditional customization on the
guest. |
disable_vmware_customization: false
| LinuxPrep
| VMware Tools will work with cloud-init to customize the guest
with configuration derived from LinuxPrep . |
Use the following procedures to apply settings to a virtual machine by passing raw
configuration data to the cloud-init utility. You will use the
CustomizeVM_Task
method with a CustomizationSpec
that contains configuration data compatible with the cloud-init standard.