Cloud-init is a widely utilized industry-standard method for initializing cloud instances. Cloud providers use Cloud-init to customize instances with network configuration, instance information, and even user-provided configuration directives. It is also a great tool to use in your “private cloud at home” to add a little automation to the initial setup and configuration of your homelab’s virtual and physical machines—and to learn more about how large cloud providers work.

Admittedly, Cloud-init is more useful for a cloud provider provisioning machines for many different clients than for a homelab run by a single sysadmin, and much of what Cloud-init solves might be a little superfluous for a homelab. However, getting it set up and learning how it works is a great way to learn more about this cloud technology, not to mention that it’s a great way to configure your devices on first boot.

This tutorial uses Cloud-init’s “NoCloud” datasource, which allows Cloud-init to be used outside a traditional cloud provider setting. This article will show you how to install Cloud-init on a client device and set up a container running a web service to respond to the client’s requests. You will also learn to investigate what the client is requesting from the web service and modify the web service’s container to serve a basic, static Cloud-init service.

#cloud-init #node #cloud #raspberry pi