Configuring the VM

The method of checking whether Cloud-Init is installed varies depending on the OS.

• If you are in a Python 3 environment, run the following command to check whether Cloud-Init is installed (Ubuntu 22.0.4 is used as an example):

  which cloud-init

  • If information similar to the following is displayed, Cloud-Init has been installed:

    /usr/bin/cloud-init

  • If information similar to the following is displayed, Cloud-Init is not installed:

    /usr/bin/which: no cloud-init in (/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin)

• If you are in a Python 2 environment, run the following command to check whether Cloud-Init is installed (CentOS 6 is used as an example):

  which cloud-init

  • If information similar to the following is displayed, Cloud-Init has been installed:

    cloud-init-0.7.5-10.el6.centos.2.x86_64

  • If no information is returned, Cloud-Init is not installed.
    

    To confirm Cloud-Init is really not installed, you are advised to run rpm -qa |grep cloud-init to check again. If either of which cloud-init and rpm -qa |grep cloud-init shows that Cloud-Init has been installed, Cloud-Init is installed.

After Cloud-Init is installed, perform the following operations:

• Determine whether to continue to use the SSH certificate in the VM OS. If no, delete it.
  • If the certificate is stored in a directory of user root, for example, /$path/$to/$root/.ssh/authorized_keys, run the following commands:

    cd /root/.ssh

    rm authorized_keys

  • If the certificate is not stored in a directory of user root, for example, /$path/$to/$none-root/.ssh/authorized_keys, run the following commands:

    cd /home/centos/.ssh

    rm authorized_keys

• Delete the cache data generated by Cloud-Init to ensure that ECSs created from the image can be logged in by using a certificate:

  sudo rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/*

After the operations are complete, do not restart the VM. Otherwise, you need to perform these operations again.

The method of installing Cloud-init varies depending on the OS. Perform the installation as root.

The following describes how to install Cloud-Init in SUSE Linux, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu. For other OS types, install the required type of Cloud-Init. For example, you need to install coreos-cloudinit for CoreOS.

• SUSE Linux

  URLs for obtaining a Cloud-Init installation package for SUSE Linux

  https://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repositories/Cloud:/Tools/

  http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:/Tools/

  

  Select a repo installation package matching your OS.

  Take SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 12 as an example.

  1. Log in to the VM.
  2. Add a network installation source.

     zypper ar https://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repositories/Cloud:/Tools/SLE_12_SP3/Cloud:Tools.repo

  3. Update the network installation source.

     zypper refresh

  4. Install Cloud-Init.

     zypper install cloud-init

  5. Enable Cloud-Init to automatically start upon system boot.
     • SUSE 11

       chkconfig cloud-init-local on; chkconfig cloud-init on; chkconfig cloud-config on; chkconfig cloud-final on

       service cloud-init-local status; service cloud-init status; service cloud-config status; service cloud-final status

     • SUSE 12 and openSUSE 12/13/42

       systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

       systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

     

     For SUSE and openSUSE, prevent DHCP from changing the hostname.

     1. Open the dhcp file using the vi editor.

        vi etc/sysconfig/network/dhcp

     2. Change the value of DHCLIENT_SET_HOSTNAME in the dhcp file to no.
• CentOS
  Table 1 lists the URLs for obtaining a Cloud-Init installation package for CentOS. Select an epel-release installation package matching your OS.

  Table 1 Network installation sources of Cloud-Init

  OS	Version	How to Obtain
  CentOS	6 32-bit	https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/epel/6/i386/
  	6 64-bit	https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/epel/6/x86_64/
  	7 64-bit	https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/epel/7/x86_64/Packages/e/

  1. Install Cloud-Init.

     yum install network-installation-source/epel-release-x-y.noarch.rpm

     yum install cloud-init

     

     network-installation-source indicates the address of the Cloud-Init epel-release installation package, and x-y indicates the version of the Cloud-Init epel-release matching your OS. Replace them with the actual values based on Table 1.

     • Take CentOS 6 64-bit as an example. If the version is 6.8, the command is as follows:

       yum install https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

     • Take CentOS 7 64-bit as an example. If the version is 7.14, the command is as follows:

       yum install https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/epel/7/x86_64/Packages/e/epel-release-7-14.noarch.rpm

  2. Enable Cloud-Init to automatically start upon system boot.

     systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

     systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

• Fedora

  Before installing Cloud-Init, ensure that the network installation source address has been configured for the OS by checking whether the /etc/yum.repo.d/fedora.repo file contains that address. If the file does not contain the address, configure the address by following the instructions on the Fedora official website.

  1. Install Cloud-Init.

     yum install cloud-init

  2. Enable Cloud-Init to automatically start upon system boot.

     systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

     systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

• Debian and Ubuntu

  Before installing Cloud-Init, ensure that the network installation source address has been configured for the OS by checking whether the /etc/apt/sources.list file contains that address. If the file does not contain the address, configure the address by following the instructions on the Debian or Ubuntu official website.

  1. Install Cloud-Init.

     apt-get update

     apt-get install cloud-init

  2. Enable Cloud-Init to automatically start upon system boot.

     systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

     systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

  Cloud-Init-23.2.2 is used as an example to describe how to install Cloud-Init in CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, and SUSE.

  Download the cloud-init-23.2.2.tar.gz source code package from https://launchpad.net/cloud-init/trunk/23.2.2/+download/cloud-init-23.2.2.tar.gz.

• CentOS 7/Fedora Server 36
  

  Ensure that Python 3 has been installed.

  1. Check whether Cloud-Init has been installed. If any command output is displayed, Cloud-Init has been installed.

     cloud-init -v

  2. Delete the cache directory of Cloud-Init.

     rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/*

  3. Install dependency packages of Cloud-Init.

     yum install python3-pip -y
     yum install python3-devel

  4. Download the Cloud-Init package.

     wget https://launchpad.net/cloud-init/trunk/23.2.2/+download/cloud-init-23.2.2.tar.gz

  5. Decompress the Cloud-Init package.

     tar -zxvf cloud-init-23.2.2.tar.gz

  6. Go to the cloud-init-23.2.2 directory and install dependent libraries:

     cd cloud-init-23.2.2
     pip3 install -r requirements.txt

  7. Install Cloud-Init.

     python3 setup.py build
     python3 setup.py install --init-system systemd

  8. (Optional) Disable Cloud-Init's network configuration capability by modifying the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg file.

     vi /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg

     Add the following content to the file:

     network:
       config: disabled

  9. Restart Cloud-Init and check its status.

     systemctl restart cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service
     systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

     

  10. Enable Cloud-Init related services to automatically start upon system boot.

      systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

  11. Check the Cloud-Init version and whether Cloud-Init is running properly.

      cloud-init -v
      cloud-init init --local 

      

• Ubuntu 22.0.4/Debian 11
  

  Ensure that Python 3 has been installed.

  1. Check and delete redundant Cloud-Init configuration files.

     rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/*
     rm -f /var/log/cloud-init*

     Delete all files except log-related configuration files from the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/ directory.

  2. Update your package list and check whether Wget is installed. If it is not, install it.

     sudo apt update
     sudo apt install wget 

  3. Install dependency packages.

     apt-get install cloud-guest-utils -y
     apt-get install python3-pip -y
     apt-get install python3-devel

  4. Download the Cloud-Init package.

     wget https://launchpad.net/cloud-init/trunk/23.2.2/+download/cloud-init-23.2.2.tar.gz

  5. Decompress the Cloud-Init package.

     tar -zxvf cloud-init-23.2.2.tar.gz

  6. Go to the cloud-init directory.

     cd cloud-init-23.2.2

  7. Install dependent libraries.

     pip3 install -r requirements.txt

  8. Install Cloud-Init.

     python3 setup.py install

  9. (Optional) Disable Cloud-Init's network configuration capability. You need to do so when the Cloud-Init version is 0.7.9 or later and you want to configure the network.
     

     1. Open the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg file.

     vi /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg

     2. Enter i and configure network. (If there is no such a configuration item, add it.)

     network:
       config: disabled

  10. Restart Cloud-Init and check its status.

      systemctl restart cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service
      systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

  11. Enable Cloud-Init related services to automatically start upon system boot.

      systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

  12. Check the Cloud-Init version and whether Cloud-Init is running properly.

      cloud-init -v
      cloud-init init --local

• SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 15
  

  Ensure that Python 3 has been installed.

  1. View existing SUSE repositories.

     zypper lr

  2. Delete the SUSE repositories.

     zypper rr repositories listed in 1

  3. Configure a SUSE repository.

     zypper ar https://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repositories/Cloud:/Tools/SLE_15_SP4/Cloud:Tools.repo

  4. Refresh the SUSE repository.

     zypper refresh

  5. Install Cloud-Init.

     zypper install cloud-init

  6. Run cloud-init -v. If error messages similar to the following are displayed, install the dependency packages.

     

     

     pip install requests pyyaml oauthlib jsonschema jsonpatch jinja2 configobj

  7. Check whether Cloud-Init is successfully installed. If the following error message is displayed, configure datasource_list in /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.
     

     datasource_list: [ OpenStack ]
     datasource:
       OpenStack:
         metadata_urls: ['http://169.254.169.254']
         max_wait: 120
         timeout: 5
         apply_network_config: false

  8. Modify the configuration file, restart Cloud-Init, and check the Cloud-Init status.

     systemctl restart cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service 
     systemctl status cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

  9. Enable Cloud-Init related services to automatically start upon system boot.

     systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-config.service cloud-final.service

     

  10. Check the Cloud-Init version and whether Cloud-Init is running properly.

      cloud-init -v
      cloud-init init --local

1. Enable SSH authentication and remote password login for user root.
   Take CentOS 6.7 as an example. If disable_root in the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg file is 0, root login is enabled. (In some OSs, true indicates disabled and false indicates enabled). Set ssh_pwauth to 1 (indicating remote password login is enabled) and lock_passwd to False (indicating that user passwords are not locked).

   users:
    - name: root
      lock_passwd: False
   
   disable_root: 0
   ssh_pwauth: 1

   

   • If you inject a password, use it for remote login through SSH or noVNC.
   • If you inject a key, use it for remote login through SSH.

2. Modify the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg file to disable Cloud-Init's network configuration capability.

   If the Cloud-Init version is 0.7.9 or later, add the following content to /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg:

   Figure 1 Disabling Cloud-Init's network configuration capability
   
   

   The added content must be in YAML format.

3. Enable the agent to access the IaaS OpenStack data source.
   Add the following content to the last line of /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg:

   datasource_list: [ OpenStack ]
   datasource:
     OpenStack:
       metadata_urls: ['http://169.254.169.254']
       max_wait: 120
       timeout: 5
       apply_network_config: false

   

   • You can decide whether to set max_wait and timeout. The values of max_wait and timeout in the preceding command output are for reference only.
   • If the OS version is earlier than Debian 8 or CentOS 5, you cannot enable the agent to access the IaaS OpenStack data source.
   • The default zeroconf route must be disabled for CentOS and EulerOS for accurate access to the IaaS OpenStack data source.

     echo "NOZEROCONF=yes" >> /etc/sysconfig/network

   • apply_network_config: false is only requited by users who use Cloud-Init 18.3 or later.
4. Add the following content to /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg:

   manage_etc_hosts: localhost

   This prevents the system from staying in the Waiting for cloudResetPwdAgent state for a long time during VM startup.

   Figure 2 Adding manage_etc_hosts: localhost
   
5. Run vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config to open the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file using the vi editor.
   Change the value of PasswordAuthentication in the sshd_config file to yes.

   

   For SUSE and openSUSE, change the values of the following parameters in the sshd_config file to yes:

   • PasswordAuthentication
   • ChallengeResponseAuthentication
6. Modify cloud_init_modules in the cloud.cfg configuration file.
   • Move ssh from the bottom to the top to speed up the SSH login.
   • Enable the hostname update. Do not comment out or delete the -update_hostname statement.

     cloud_init_modules:
      - ssh
      - migrator
      - bootcmd
      - write-files
      - growpart
      - resizefs
      - set_hostname
      - update_hostname
      - update_etc_hosts
      - rsyslog
      - users-groups

7. Modify the configuration so that the hostname of the ECSs created from the image does not contain the .novalocal suffix and can contain a dot (.).
   1. Modify the __init__.py file.

      vi /usr/lib/python*.*/site-packages/cloudinit/sources/__init__.py

      The Python version varies depending on the OS.

      Press i to enter editing mode. Modify the file content as follows based on the keyword toks:

      if toks:
          toks = str(toks).split('.')
      else:
          #toks = ["ip-%s" % lhost.replace(".", "-")] # Comment out this line.
          toks = lhost.split(".novalocal")    # Add this line.
      
      if len(toks) > 1:
          hostname = toks[0]
          #domain = '.'.join(toks[1:]) # Comment out this line.
      else:
          hostname = toks[0]
      
      if fqdn and domain != defdomain:
           return hostname   
          #return "%s.%s" % (hostname, domain) # Comment out this line.
      else:
          return hostname

      After the modification is complete, press Esc to exit the editing mode and enter :wq! to save the settings and exit.

   2. Go to the cloudinit/sources directory.

      cd /usr/lib/python*.*/site-packages/cloudinit/sources/

      The Python version varies depending on the OS.

   3. Delete the __init__.pyc file and the optimized and compiled __init__.pyo file.

      rm -rf __init__.pyc

      rm -rf __init__.pyo

   4. Clear logs.

      rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/*

      rm -rf /var/log/cloud-init*

      Delete all files except log-related configuration files from the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/ directory.

8. Modify the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/05_logging.cfg file to use cloudLogHandler to process logs.

   vim /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/05_logging.cfg

   [logger_cloudinit]
   level=DEBUG
   qualname=cloudinit
   handlers=cloudLogHandler
   propagate=1

9. Delete user linux and the /home/linux directory from the image template.

   userdel linux

   rm -fr /home/linux

10. Ensure that Cloud-Init is enabled.

    If the /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled file exists, run cloud-init clean --machine-id. If there is no such a file, skip this step.

Check whether Cloud-Init has been properly configured.

cloud-init init --local

If Cloud-Init has been properly installed, the version information is displayed and no error occurs. For example, messages indicating lack of files will not be displayed.

(Optional) Set the password validity period of a system user to the maximum.

chage -M 99999 $user_name

user_name is a system user, for example root.

You are advised to set the password validity period to 99999.

Install NetworkManager and use it for automatic network configuration.

1. Install NetworkManager.

   yum install NetworkManager

2. Delete ifcfg-eth1 to ifcfg-eth11 from the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory and retain only ifcfg-eth0.
3. Disable the network service.

   service network stop

4. Disable automatic startup of the network service.

   chkconfig network off

5. Restart MessageBus and NetworkManager and enable NetworkManager to start automatically at system startup.

   service messagebus restart

   service NetworkManager restart

   chkconfig NetworkManager on

Install NetworkManager and use it for automatic network configuration.

1. Install NetworkManager.

   apt-get install network-manager

2. In the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file, change the value of managed to true.
3. Modify /etc/network/interfaces and retain only eth0.
4. Disable the network service, restart MessageBus and NetworkManager, and enable NetworkManager to start automatically at system startup.

   service network-manager restart

   chkconfig network-manager on

   service networking stop

   service messagebus restart

   service network-manager restart

Install NetworkManager and use it for automatic network configuration.

1. Install NetworkManager.

   apt-get install network-manager

2. In the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file, change the value of managed to true.
3. Modify /etc/network/interfaces and retain only eth0.
4. Disable the network service.

   service networking stop

5. Disable automatic startup of the network service.

   chkconfig network off

6. Restart D-Bus and NetworkManager.

   service dbus restart

   service network-manager restart

Install NetworkManager and use it for automatic network configuration.

1. Delete ifcfg-eth1 to ifcfg-eth11 from the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory and retain only ifcfg-eth0.
2. Install NetworkManager.

   zypper install NetworkManager

3. Start YaST, choose Network Devices in the navigation pane on the left, and select Network Settings in the right pane. In the Network Setup Method area of the Global Options page, change Traditional Method with ifup to User Controlled with NetworkManager.