Use cloud-init with VirtualBox?

Cloudinit is used by many cloud images e.g. on EC2 to obtain their initial configuration, like IP address, ssh keys and the like. Is there a way of using it with VirtualBox in a similar way?

I'm looking for a way of putting an ssh authorized_keys file on an VirtualBox instance without having to hard-code it into the image itself.

There is a section on "No Cloud" here but I'm not entirely understanding how this would apply to VirtualBox. Can I generate a /dev/sdb with the files in question, and provide this to VirtualBox as a second drive before booting the instance, and it somehow magically will pick the info up?

I figured it out and blogged about it here. From that link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.
One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

Here’s a way of creating it:

  # Create empty virtual hard drive file
  dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
  # put correct filesystem and disk label on
  mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
  # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
  sudo mount config.img /mnt

Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

  #cloud-config
  users:
   - name: ubos-admin
     gecos: UBOS administrative user
     ssh-authorized-keys:
      - insert ssh key here
     sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"

Example /mnt/meta-data:
```
  instance-id: my-instance-1
```
Then, unmount:
```
  sudo umount /mnt
```
and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info.
The .vmdk image file for this second hard drive can be created using the following commands, if you are on a Linux distro that uses apt:
```
 sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm
 qemu-img convert -O vmdk  config.img config.vmdk
```

A slightly different approach that also works:

Using the CentOS 7 Cloud Image found here: https://cloud.centos.org/centos/7/images/ (choose CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2)

user-data

#!/bin/bash
##
## dependencies required for:
##        VBoxGuestAdditions
##        Minimal Desktop
##
DEPS='wget unzip python-pip git gnome-classic-session gnome-terminal nautilus-open-terminal control-center liberation-mono-fonts bzip2 libguest libguestfs binutils gcc make kernel-headers kernel-devel'

update(){
    sudo yum -y -q update
}


install_epel(){
    sudo yum -y install epel-release
    sudo yum -y update
}

configure(){
    sudo yum -y -q install $DEPS
    yum -y groupinstall "X Window System"
    unlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target
    ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

    reboot
}

set -x
update
install_epel
configure

meta-data

instance-id: dev
local-hostname: dev.example.com
public-keys:
    - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1y[...]2yX3 [email protected]

network-interfaces: |
    auto eth1
    iface eth1 inet dhcp

vbox-config-drive.sh

#!/bin/bash

##
## generate the config-drive iso
##
gen_iso(){
    echo "Generating ISO"
    genisoimage -output vbox-config.iso -volid cidata -joliet -r meta-data user-data
}

##
## resize as necessary
##
resize(){
    echo "Resizing Disk"
    qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o preallocation=metadata CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2.new 12G
    virt-resize --quiet --expand /dev/sda1 CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2 CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2.new
    mv CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2.new CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2
}
##
## convert the qcow to vmdk
##
make_vmdk(){
    echo "Converting QCOW to VMDK"
    qemu-img convert -f qcow2 CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2 -O vmdk CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.vmdk
}

gen_iso
##
## OPTIONAL
## resize
##
make_vmdk
echo "Done"

Use the resulting VMDK as your VirtualBox primary disk and the resulting ISO as the optical drive.

Hope this helps. M.

Use cloud-init with VirtualBox?

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