---
layout: page
page_title: "Configure a VM with Cloud-Init"
subcategory: Guides
description: |-
    This guide explains how to use the Proxmox provider to create and manage virtual machines using cloud-init.
---

# Configure a VM with Cloud-Init

## Native Proxmox Cloud-Init support

Proxmox supports Cloud-Init natively, so you can use the `initialization` block to configure your VM:

```terraform
data "local_file" "ssh_public_key" {
  filename = "./id_rsa.pub"
}

resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_vm" "ubuntu_vm" {
  name      = "test-ubuntu"
  node_name = "pve"

  initialization {

    ip_config {
      ipv4 {
        address = "192.168.3.233/24"
        gateway = "192.168.3.1"
      }
    }

    user_account {
      username = "ubuntu"
      keys     = [trimspace(data.local_file.ssh_public_key.content)]
    }
  }

  disk {
    datastore_id = "local-lvm"
    file_id      = proxmox_virtual_environment_download_file.ubuntu_cloud_image.id
    interface    = "virtio0"
    iothread     = true
    discard      = "on"
    size         = 20
  }

  network_device {
    bridge = "vmbr0"
  }
}

resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_download_file" "ubuntu_cloud_image" {
  content_type = "iso"
  datastore_id = "local"
  node_name    = "pve"

  url = "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
}
```

Note that many cloud images do not have `qemu-guest-agent` installed by default, so you won't be able to retrieve the dynamic IP address of the VM from Proxmox, as this is agent's responsibility. You can use the `ip_config` block to configure a static IP address instead.

## Custom Cloud-Init configuration

Because of several limitations of the native Proxmox cloud-init support, you may want to use a custom Cloud-Init configuration instead. This would allow you to adjust the VM configuration to your needs, and also install the `qemu-guest-agent` and additional packages.

In order to use a custom cloud-init configuration, you need to create a `cloud-config` snippet file and pass it to the VM as a `user_data_file_id` parameter. You can use the `proxmox_virtual_environment_file` resource to create the file. Make sure the "Snippets" content type is enabled on the target datastore in Proxmox before applying the configuration below.

```terraform
data "local_file" "ssh_public_key" {
  filename = "./id_rsa.pub"
}

resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_file" "cloud_config" {
  content_type = "snippets"
  datastore_id = "local"
  node_name    = "pve"

  source_raw {
    data = <<-EOF
    #cloud-config
    users:
      - default
      - name: ubuntu
        groups:
          - sudo
        shell: /bin/bash
        ssh_authorized_keys:
          - ${trimspace(data.local_file.ssh_public_key.content)}
        sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    runcmd:
        - apt update
        - apt install -y qemu-guest-agent net-tools
        - timedatectl set-timezone America/Toronto
        - systemctl enable qemu-guest-agent
        - systemctl start qemu-guest-agent
        - echo "done" > /tmp/cloud-config.done
    EOF

    file_name = "cloud-config.yaml"
  }
}
```

```terraform
resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_vm" "ubuntu_vm" {
  name      = "test-ubuntu"
  node_name = "pve"

  agent {
    enabled = true
  }

  cpu {
    cores = 2
  }

  memory {
    dedicated = 2048
  }

  disk {
    datastore_id = "local-lvm"
    file_id      = proxmox_virtual_environment_download_file.ubuntu_cloud_image.id
    interface    = "virtio0"
    iothread     = true
    discard      = "on"
    size         = 20
  }

  initialization {
    ip_config {
      ipv4 {
        address = "dhcp"
      }
    }

    user_data_file_id = proxmox_virtual_environment_file.cloud_config.id
  }

  network_device {
    bridge = "vmbr0"
  }

}

resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_download_file" "ubuntu_cloud_image" {
  content_type = "iso"
  datastore_id = "local"
  node_name    = "pve"

  url = "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
}

output "vm_ipv4_address" {
  value = proxmox_virtual_environment_vm.ubuntu_vm.ipv4_addresses[1][0]
}
```