Cloud-init and autoinstall interaction

While cloud-init may provide the autoinstall configuration to the Ubuntu installer, it does not process the autoinstall directives itself.

Cloud-init runs in both the ephemeral system (during installation) and in the target system during first boot. Cloud-init then becomes inert for every subsequent reboot.

To modify the ephemeral system with cloud-init, any #cloud-config module schema keys can be provided. If instead cloud-init directives are intended to modify the system being installed, they must appear under a user-data section under autoinstall:.

#cloud-config
# cloud-init directives may optionally be specified here.
# These directives affect the ephemeral system performing the installation.

autoinstall:
    # autoinstall directives must be specified here, not directly at the
    # top level.  These directives are processed by the Ubuntu Installer,
    # and configure the target system to be installed.

    user-data:
        # cloud-init directives may also be optionally be specified here.
        # These directives also affect the target system to be installed,
        # and are processed on first boot.

For an overview of the methods used to provide the autoinstall configuration to the Ubuntu installer, go to Providing autoinstall configuration.