Custom PowerVC cloud-init modules

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You can enable and configure cloud-init custom modules and control the way cloud-init sets your host name by modifying the cloud.cfg file as described in this topic.

The cloud.cfg is available here: /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg .

You can use these modules to customize cloud-init:

set_hostname_from_dns module

To change the host name after deployment, remove - update_hostname from the list of cloud_init_modules. If you do not remove - update_hostname from the list of modules, when the system is restarted, cloud-init resets the host name to the original value from when the virtual machine was captured. You can specify to set the host name from DNS or you can specify that cloud-init sets the host name:

  • Set host name from DNS: The set_hostname_from_dns module allows you to set your virtual machine's host name by using the host name value that you have configured in your DNS server.
    To enable this module, perform the following steps:
    • Remove these lines from the cloud_init_modules section of the cloud.cfg file:
      - set_hostname
- update_hostname
    • Add these lines in the cloud_final_modules section of the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg file:
      - set_hostname_from_dns

    Changing these lines instructs cloud-init to use the IPv4 or IPv6 address of the first network interface (eth0) to do a reverse DNS lookup and set the fully qualified domain name as the host name. If the reverse lookup fails, the module uses the virtual machine name to set the host name. This is the same way the host name is set as when the module is not enabled.

    The module's behavior can be further configured with the following options. These options can be set in cloud.cfg outside of any modules sections. They can also be passed in as cloud-config activation input during a deployment.

    The set_hostname_from_dns module must be added after adding reset_rmc module.

reset-rmc module

This module automatically resets RMC. It is enabled by default.

restore non-rootVG volume groups

If you want to restore non rootVG volume groups from the captured virtual machine on AIX®, run the following script on the virtual machine before each capture: /opt/freeware/lib/cloud-init/create_pvid_to_vg_mappings.sh The cloud-init restore-volume-groups module will then run during deploy. This module is enabled by default.

set multipath hcheck interval

To use AIX cloud-init to set the multipath hcheck interval, the module 'set-multipath-hcheck-interval' is enabled by default. The default value (in seconds) for hcheck interval is 60. To set a different interval, pass the following value as user data when deploying an image. You can specify this on the PowerVC user interface Deploy page under Activation Input > Configuration script: #cloud-config multipath_hcheck_interval : n, where n is the number of seconds for the interval.

update-bootlist module

This module removes the temporary virtual optical device, which is used to send configuration information to the virtual machine, from the virtual machine's bootlist. This is enabled by default.