Prepare a cloud-init Metadata File

• The metadata file is a plain-text file formatted as YAML or JSON.
• The maximum file size is 512KB.
• All standard v1 keys are accepted, such as:
  • distro
  • local_hostname
  • platform
  • public_ssh_keys
• The instance-id key is required. All other keys are optional.
• For network configuration, both v1 and v2 keys are accepted.

This example shows a metadata file in YAML format that includes a minimal network configuration:

instance-id: cloud-vm-example-1
local hostname: cloud-vm
network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    nics:
      match:
        name: eth*
      dhcp4: yes

This example shows a metadata file in JSON format that specifies a fixed IP network configuration:

{
  "instance-id": "cloud-vm-example-2",
  "local-hostname": "cloud-vm",
  "cloud-name": "vSphere",
  "distro": "ubuntu",
  "distro-version": "20.04",
  "distro-release": "focal",
  "network": {
    "version": 2,
    "ethernets": {
      "nics": {
        "match": {
          "name": "eth*"
        },
        "nameservers": {
          "addresses": ["203.0.113.1"],
          "search": ["www.example.com", "example.com"]
        },
        "gateway4": "192.0.2.253",
        "dhcp4": false,
        "addresses": [ "192.0.2.0/24" ]
      }
    }
  }
}