VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

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Prepare a Virtual Machine Template for Raw Data cloud-init Customization
Last Updated December 16, 2024

The following steps prepare a virtual machine template for customization with raw cloud-init data.
  1. In the guest operating system, install open-vm-tools version 11.3.0 or later. Configure the Linux guest to run open-vm-tools services when the guest operating system starts.
    Example for an Ubuntu 20.04 guest operating system:
    $ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install open-vm-tools
$ sudo vmtoolsd -v
$ sudo systemctl is-enabled open-vm-tools.service
  2. In the guest operating system, install cloud-init version 21.1 or later. Configure the Linux guest to run cloud-init services when the guest operating system starts.
    Example for an Ubuntu 20.04 guest operating system:
    $ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install cloud-init
$ sudo cloud-init -v
$ sudo systemctl is-enabled cloud-init.service
$ sudo systemctl is-enabled cloud-init-local.service
  3. Configure cloud-init to accept the OVF data source for VMware raw cloud-init configuration.
    Edit the cloud-init configuration file in
    /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg
     or in
    /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/*
    , depending on the Linux distribution. Add
    OVF
     to the list of datasources accepted by cloud-init.
    Example line for cloud-init version 21.3:
    datasource_list: [ NoCloud, ConfigDrive, Azure, OVF, OpenStack, Ec2 ]
  4. Configure cloud-init to enable VMware customization with raw cloud-init data.
    Edit the cloud-init configuration file in
    /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg
     or in
    /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/*
    , depending on the Linux distribution. Set the flag
    disable_vmware_customization
     to
    true
     and set the flag
    allow_raw_data
     to
    true
    . If customization time-out is an issue, you can set the value of
    vmware_cust_file_max_wait
     (default: 15 seconds).
    Example lines for cloud-init version 21.3:
    disable_vmware_customization: true
datasource:
  OVF:
    allow_raw_data: true
vmware_cust_file_max_wait: 25
  5. Run the cloud-init clean step to remove any artifacts from previous configuration failures.
    $ sudo cloud-init clean
  6. Power off the virtual machine template.
    $ sudo poweroff

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