System Basics

Core identity and locale settings written to the instance on first boot.

Distro / OS Family *

Hostname Short hostname, no dots

FQDN Optional — overrides hostname

Manage /etc/hosts

Timezone IANA format

Locale

Users & Authentication

Configure user accounts, SSH keys, and authentication settings.

Disable root SSH login

SSH Password Authentication

User Accounts

ℹ️ cloud-init does not accept plain text passwords. Each user's password field expects a SHA-512 crypt hash. Generate one with: openssl passwd -6 (prompts you to type the password, outputs the hash).

Global SSH Authorized Keys

Keys added here are injected into the default cloud user (e.g. ubuntu, ec2-user). One key per line.

Force Password Change (chpasswd)

Expire passwords on first login

Password list format: username:hashed_password, one per line

Network Configuration

Configure network interfaces. Generates a separate network-config file (cloud-init network v2 / Netplan format).

Network Config Mode

Package Management

Install packages and configure repositories on first boot.

Update package cache on boot

Equivalent to apt-get update / yum makecache

Upgrade all packages on boot

Equivalent to apt-get upgrade / yum upgrade

Reboot if required after upgrade

Reboots automatically if a kernel or libc upgrade requires it

Packages to Install

Additional APT Sources

APT Proxy Optional HTTP proxy for apt

Storage — Mounts & Swap

Configure additional disk mounts and swap space. The root filesystem is handled automatically.

Mounts

ℹ️ Entries map to /etc/fstab. Use nofail for non-critical mounts to prevent boot failures if the device is absent. NFS/CIFS mounts automatically get _netdev so they wait for the network before mounting.

Swap

Swap File Path Leave blank to skip swap config

Swap Size

Max Swap Size Bytes — caps auto-size

Write Files

Create or overwrite files on the instance during cloud-init. Runs before runcmd.

Boot Commands (bootcmd)

Commands that run on every boot very early, before cloud-init modules. Must be idempotent.

⚠️ bootcmd runs on EVERY boot — not just the first. Use only for idempotent operations like sysctl settings.

Run Commands (runcmd)

Commands that run once on first boot after all cloud-init modules complete. Use for application setup.

ℹ️ runcmd runs as root. Commands run with /bin/sh -c so shell features like pipes and redirects work.

Systemd Units

Create custom systemd unit files (services, timers, sockets, etc). Cloud-init writes the unit file and runs daemon-reload plus enable/start via runcmd automatically. Service units can be built with a guided form or pasted as raw text — switching back to Guided regenerates the file from the form fields, discarding manual edits.

NTP Configuration

Configure Network Time Protocol servers.

Enable NTP configuration

Let cloud-init configure NTP client

Final Settings

Post-init message and power state action.

Power State After Init

Power State Delay e.g. now, +1, +5

Final Message Written to cloud-init log when complete

Review & Generate

Review your configuration, then generate the cloud-init files.

OCP Console YAML

In the OpenShift console VM wizard: Customize VirtualMachine → Scripts tab → Cloud-init → Script — select Script view (not Form), then paste below.

Cloud-Init Config Generator