[pve-devel] [PATCH docs] cloudinit: add Windows cloudbase-init section

[Mira Limbeck]

Signed-off-by: Mira Limbeck <m.limbeck at proxmox.com>
---
 qm-cloud-init.adoc | 79 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 79 insertions(+)

diff --git a/qm-cloud-init.adoc b/qm-cloud-init.adoc
index 8686ed7..4baab31 100644
--- a/qm-cloud-init.adoc
+++ b/qm-cloud-init.adoc
@@ -169,6 +169,85 @@ qm cloudinit dump 9000 user
 The same command exists for `network` and `meta`.
 
 
+Cloud-Init on Windows
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+There is a reimplementation of Cloud-Init available for Windows called
+https://cloudbase.it/[cloudbase-init]. Not every feature of Cloud-Init is
+available with cloudbase-init, and some features differ compared to Cloud-Init.
+
+cloudbase-init requires both `ostype` set to any Windows version and the
+`citype` set to `configdrive2`, which is the default with any Windows
+`ostype`.
+
+There are no ready-made cloud images for Windows available for free. Using
+cloudbase-init requires manually installing and configuring a Windows guest.
+
+
+Preparing cloudbase-init Templates
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The first step is to install Windows in a VM. Download and install
+cloudbase-init in the guest. It may be necessary to install the Beta version.
+Don't sysprep at the end of the installation. Instead configure cloudbase-init
+first.
+
+A few common options to set would be:
+
+* 'username': This sets the username of the administrator
+
+* 'groups': This allows one to add the user to the `Administrators` group
+
+* 'inject_user_password': Set this to `true` to allow setting the password
+in the VM config
+
+* 'first_logon_behaviour': Set this to `no` to not require a new password on
+login
+
+* 'rename_admin_user': Set this to `true` to allow renaming the default
+`Administrator` user to the username specified with `username`
+
+Some plugins, for example the SetHostnamePlugin, require reboots and will do
+so automatically. To disable automatic reboots by cloudbase-init, you can set
+`allow_reboot` to `false`.
+
+A full set of configuration options can be found in the
+https://cloudbase-init.readthedocs.io/en/latest/config.html[official
+cloudbase-init documentation]
+
+It can make sense to make a snapshot after configuring in case some parts of
+the config still need adjustments.
+After configuring cloudbase-init you can start creating the template. Shutdown
+the Windows guest, add a Cloud-Init disk and make it into a template.
+
+----
+qm set 9000 --ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit
+qm template 9000
+----
+
+Clone the template into a new VM:
+
+----
+qm clone 9000 123 --name windows123
+----
+
+Then set the password, network config and SSH key:
+
+----
+qm set 123 --cipassword <password>
+qm set 123 --ipconfig0 ip=10.0.10.123/24,gw=10.0.10.1
+qm set 123 --sshkey ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
+----
+
+Make sure that the `ostype` is set to any Windows version before setting the
+password. Otherwise the password will be encrypted and cloudbase-init will use
+the encrypted password as plaintext password.
+
+When everything is set, start the cloned guest. On the first boot the login
+won't work and it will reboot automatically for the changed hostname.
+After the reboot the new password should be set and login should work.
+
+
 Cloud-Init specific Options
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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2.39.2