/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2023/07/29/#cloud-init.txt

effendy[m]I eventually did something else, as stopping and starting the vmtoolsd would led to a restart before cloud-init finished. I've profited from the fact that vmware-tools uses old references, and so I've unlinked /usr/sbin/telinit altogether. I've no idea what the consequences are as of now, but only now did it work. As a temporary solution until I find something better. At least I can move forward and focus on the important stuff. Horrible09:28
effendy[m]experience...09:28
Dus10Hello!  I am only tangentially aware of CloudInit.  Does it only work for Linux-based workloads?  Can it work for other *nix stuff?  What about Windows?13:18
Dus10From what I am gathering... it seems like the use case is for Linux... just wanted to verify... a lack of words around Windows doesn't necessarily prove lack of support for it :)13:19
minimalDus10: cloud-init does not support Windows13:23
minimalhowever there is AFAIK a 3rd party cloudbase-init for Windows13:24
minimalcloud-init does support FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Dragonfly BSD as well as various Linux distros13:24
meenastructurally, cloud-init is so deeply embedded into Unix that i imagine it difficult to adapt for windows.13:26
meenabut then again, a year ago, it was structurally deeply embedded into Linux and I've changed it enough to make room for BSD13:27
meena*helped change it13:27
minimalmeena: the cloudbase-init code is there if you want to see how it handle it: https://github.com/cloudbase/cloudbase-init13:28
Dus10cool13:30
Dus10I just had a coworker say he was using Cloud-Init instead of Packer lately and I was concerned about the efficacy13:31
Dus10I would say it probably shouldn't be "instead of" but perfectly fine for "in conjunction with"13:31
Dus10many of our customers have need for similar patterns with Windows and *nix systems...13:31
Dus10learning a bunch of one off tools isn't great unless they provide overwhelming value13:32
minimalpacker and cloud-init are different things really13:32
minimalpacker would be for creating disk images13:32
Dus10Yes, but Packer has a cloud-init provisioner13:32
minimalcloud-init is for performing configuration when such disk images are run13:32
Dus10so, Packer makes a temporary system and makes sure the host running Packer can reach it, then it hands off configuration duties to different tools via the provisioners13:33
Dus10 one such tool being cloud-init13:33
Dus10it basically "orchestrates" config tools and captures an image of the resulting system13:33
Dus10Packer doesn't do the configuration13:34
minimalI know what packer, I've used it before. However my point is that packer is not designed/intended to be used on a deployed system, it is intended to create a disk image for such a deployed system13:34
Dus10yes, I also know what packer is13:34
Dus10sounds like neither of us wants to be 'splained to13:34
minimalmy original point is that packer and cloud-init are intended for different purposes13:35
minimalwhich is indeed why packer may well use cloud-init in some circumstances13:35
minimaland as you initially said you were "only tangentially aware of CloudInit" I was trying to point out that distinction13:37
Dus10all good13:40
Dus10I have run into similar things internally, so nothing to do with you13:40
Dus10thank you for responding to my question13:40
Dus10if I want to become more familiar with it, are the tutorials in the documentation sound ways to get familiar?13:41
minimalthe documentation is very extensive13:41
minimalhowever probably the best way to become familiar is to spin up a VM which has cloud-init present, like one of the various Linux distros' cloud images, and play with it13:42
Dus10I've had a bad week with documentation :)  I am more skeptical than normal about it13:42
minimalusing NoCloud as a datasource (where you create a small ISO with the required cloud-init YAML files)13:43
Dus10I spent 4 hours this week making requests to fix massive gaps in documentation for several things13:43
Dus10So, NoCloud kind of behaves like unattended files of the past?13:44
minimalNoCloud looks for an ISO or other filesystem with a label of "cidata" which contains files like meta-data.yaml, user-data.yaml, network-config.yaml and uses those for cloud-init processing13:45
minimalmost of the other DataSources are for various cloud providers where the talk to the provider's metadata server (via HTTP) to obtain the configuration info13:46
effendy[m]Dus10: I use packer with cloud-init, yes. Initially, I need it do to basically stuff, such as injecting ssh keys so that packer can connect afterwards to provision everything with ansible. Of course, I could have configured more in cloud-init directly through packer, but it seems easier/more robust to use ansible to create the templates.22:05
meenaeffendy[m]: if it's always the same, put it in the template22:18
effendy[m]What is the same? Using ansible vs cloud-init, for instance?22:19
meenaif something needs configuration, at run time, put it in cloud-init, otherwise, put it in the image template22:21

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