Auto Install Cloudbase-Init
Ever since vRealize Automation 8 was released, and we started using Cloud-Init, I have been looking at installing CloudBase-Init for Windows as well, as part of my automated Packer template deployment.
While Cloud-Init on Linux, is dead simple to install, the Windows version, has given me a lot of problems.
Until a couple of weeks ago, where I got the solution from my collegaue Steffen Moen, who had found a way to do it manualily.
I quickly got it automated, so it’s now part of my Packer deployment of Windows machines.
I won’t go into details on how to create a Packer deployment, of a Windows machine. There are lot’s of others, that has done this already. If you are looking for inspiration, then I highly recommend, to take a look at my good collegaue Michael Poore’s blog series, around this.
I will only focus on the config files, and the script to make it work.
The config files
There are 2 config files, that needs to be in a location, where you can copy them to Windows. In packer, I have mine in a script folder, that is then mountet as a A:/ drive.
cloudbase-init-unattend.conf
[DEFAULT]
username=Administrator
groups=Administrators
inject_user_password=true
config_drive_raw_hhd=true
config_drive_cdrom=true
config_drive_vfat=true
bsdtar_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin\bsdtar.exe
mtools_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin\
verbose=true debug=true
log-dir=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log\
log-file=cloudbase-init-unattend.log
default_log_levels=comtypes=INFO,suds=INFO,iso8601=WARN,requests=WARN
logging_serial_port_settings=
mtu_use_dhcp_config=true
ntp_use_dhcp_config=true
local_scripts_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\LocalScripts\
metadata_services=cloudbaseinit.metadata.services.ovfservice.OvfService
plugins=cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.mtu.MTUPlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.sethostname.SetHostNamePlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.windows.extendvolumes.ExtendVolumesPlugin
allow_reboot=false
stop_service_on_exit=false
check_latest_version=false
cloudbase-init.conf
[DEFAULT]
username=Administrator
groups=Administrators
inject_user_password=true
config_drive_raw_hhd=true
config_drive_cdrom=true
config_drive_vfat=true
bsdtar_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin\bsdtar.exe
mtools_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin\
verbose=true
debug=true
log-dir=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log\
log-file=cloudbase-init.log
default_log_levels=comtypes=INFO,suds=INFO,iso8601=WARN,requests=WARN
logging_serial_port_settings=
mtu_use_dhcp_config=true
ntp_use_dhcp_config=true
local_scripts_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\LocalScripts\
check_latest_version=true
first_logon_behaviour=always
metadata_services=cloudbaseinit.metadata.services.ovfservice.OvfService
plugins=cloudbaseinit.plugins.windows.createuser.CreateUserPlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.windows.setuserpassword.SetUserPasswordPlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.sshpublickeys.SetUserSSHPublicKeysPlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.userdata.UserDataPlugin,cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.localscripts.LocalScriptsPlugin
Script
I also have a script file, that
- Downloads the installation file from Github
- Installs Cloudbase-Init
- Copys the config files, to Windows.
- And then runs a sysprep.
cloudbase.ps1
# download installer
$client = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$client.DownloadFile("https://github.com/cloudbase/cloudbase-init/releases/download/1.1.2/CloudbaseInitSetup_1_1_2_x64.msi", "C:\windows\temp\CloudbaseInitSetup_Stable_x64.msi" )
# install Cloudbase-Init
start-process -FilePath 'c:\Windows\temp\CloudbaseInitSetup_Stable_x64.msi' -ArgumentList '/qn /l*v C:\windows\temp\cloud-init.log' -passthru | wait-process
# Move conf files to Cloudbase directory
move-item a:/cloudbase-init.conf "C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf\cloudbase-init.conf" -force
move-item a:/cloudbase-init-unattend.conf "C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf\cloudbase-init-unattend.conf" -force
# Run sysprep
start-process -nonewwindow -FilePath "C:/Windows/system32/sysprep/sysprep.exe" -ArgumentList "/generalize /oobe /unattend:C:\progra~1\cloudb~1\cloudb~1\conf\Unattend.xml" -wait
Note I do not power off the VM, after the sysprep is finished, since I let Packer do that.
But that is all it takes.
For me, I use Cloudbase-Init to set hostname, on my VM, and to install the Salt Minion, so do further configuration, when I deploy using vRealize Automation.
I have added an example, on how the Cloudbase part of the Cloud Template, could look like below.
cloudConfig: |
#cloud-config
set_hostname: '${self.resourceName}'
runcmd:
- start /B /wait c:\salt\salt-minion.exe /S /minion-name='${self.resourceName}' /start-service=1
- start /B /wait salt-call grains.set baseline "${input.baseline}"
- start /B /wait salt-call state.apply
Photo by Jonathan Hanna on Unsplash