2.2. Datasource types of cloud-init

Datasources are the sources of configuration data for cloud-init in the form of user data and metadata. Metadata has the configuration drive created by certified cloud service provider (CCSP). cloud-init uses the user data and metadata for configuration of datasource, and optionally vendor data. In case if you need to verify vendor data is available or not:

# grep -i "vendor data" /var/log/cloud-init.log

For datasources, there are three types of configuration data: user data, metadata, and vendor data.

By default, cloud-init automatically identifies the existing datasource. cloud-init attempts to identify the cloud platform using the script ds-identify. The script runs on the first boot of an instance. Adding a custom datasource directive can save time when cloud-init runs. You would add the directive in the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg file or in the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d directory. After cloud-init runs, you can view a log file (run/cloud-init/ds-identify.log) that provides detailed information about the platform. For details on datasource_list, check custom datasources.

For details on configuring datasources for CCSP, see: