To work with first-boot automation, create a VM by selecting a template with automation configured. Your administrator may have already added a default bootstrap script and variables.
To connect to your VM in public cloud, you must have your SSH public key in your user account. To add an SSH public key, see Edit your user account details.
To configure your VM for first boot automation:
Go to General
Enter the VM Name. Some hypervisors require unique VM names, so the platform may rename your VM if the name already exists
Optionally, before you deploy, enter a Fully qualified domain name (FQDN). If you don’t enter one, the platform may define one based on the configuration options
Go to Variables. Optionally, enter or edit Keys and/or Values.
If you are using cloud-init or similar, you can enter a startup script or configuration. Go to Bootstrap script. Enter a configuration definition for cloud-init or another compatible script. It can use the VM Variables. The following example is adapted from: https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/examples.html
Click Save
The platform saves the bootstrap script configuration and variables in the VM metadata.
You can also manage cloud-init metadata using the Abiquo API. See Manage virtual machine metadata via API
When you deploy the VM, the template's cloud-init process will run and it will configure the VM according to your guest setup options and definition.