This script creates an Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) template for quick creation of virtual machines in Proxmox VE.
https://proxmox.com/en/ < Get Promox VE from here.
https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/ < Get Ubuntu Cloud Init images from here.
https://forum.proxmox.com/ < Proxmox Community Forum.
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SSH into the Proxmox VE server and run as root or a user with admin permissions.
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Clone the script from this repo.
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Modify the variables section to your needs as per the instructions below.
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The script installs libguestfs-tools and uses
virt-customizeto bake package updates into the image. -
Give the script execute permissions
chmod +x create-ubuntu-template.sh -
Set the Tailscale auth key at runtime (recommended) via
TAILSCALE_AUTH_KEY=tskey-... ./create-ubuntu-template.sh, or enter it when prompted. The key is not stored in the repo. -
Finally run the script
./create-ubuntu-template.sh
A copy of the script being run on my pve host is located at the bottom of this page for information.
imageURL="https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/20260108/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
imageName="noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
volumeName="local-zfs"
vmIdMin="9000"
vmIdMax="9500"
templateName="ubuntu-24.04-noble-server-20260108-tpl"
tmp_cores="2"
tmp_memory="2048"
defaultDiskSize="10G"
cpuTypeRequired="host"
snippetStorage="local"
cloudInitUser="ubuntu"
cloudInitHostname=""
enableDynamicHostname="true"
hookscriptName="cloudinit-hostname-hook.sh"
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The variable
imageURLis the url from which to download the cloud init image from Ubuntu. Should you wish to change to a different image please visit https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/ Then download the .img suitable for your proxmox host/cpu needs. -
imageName="noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"Use this variable to give the image you downloaded from www.cloud-images.ubuntu.com a name for use during the script. -
The variable
volumeName="local-zfs"should match the name of your storage in Proxmox for VM disks (e.g. ZFS). See Image below:
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vmIdMin="9000"andvmIdMax="9500"define the random VM ID range. The script picks a free ID in this range. -
templateName="ubuntu-24.04-noble-server-20260108-tpl"This variable is used to set the name of the template as it appears in the datacentre > pve > list in the column on the left side of the proxmox web ui as you can see in the image above. -
tmp_cores="2"Use of this variable configures the number of cpu cores you wish to add to your vm template. -
tmp_memory="2048"Set the amount of memory in the vm template via this variable. -
defaultDiskSize="10G"grows the imported disk so new templates start with a 10G disk instead of the base image size. -
I set the ethernet adapter of the vm to dhcp during setup via the command -
qm set $virtualMachineId --ipconfig0 ip=dhcp -
Should you wish to set the ethernet adapter to static modify the command quoted above inside the script to use a valid ip/subnet and gateway for example
qm set $virtualMachineId --ipconfig0 ip=10.10.10.222/24,gw=10.10.10.1 -
The cpu type is set to host as this allows passthrough of cpu properties eg AES-NI MMX etc if you wish to change please modify the variable
cpuTypeRequired="host"Examples includecpuTypeRequired="kvm64"cpuTypeRequired="qemu64"etc. -
cloudInitHostname=""optionally sets the guest hostname in the cloud-init user-data. If left blank, cloud-init will only use the Proxmox Cloud-Init “Hostname” field (not the VM name) when that field is set. -
enableDynamicHostname="true"installs a Proxmox hookscript that runs on VM pre-start to set the cloud-init hostname based on the VM name. This makes the guest hostname match the Proxmox VM name on first boot. -
hookscriptName="cloudinit-hostname-hook.sh"is the filename for the hookscript stored in your snippets directory. -
Once this script finishes - on the left column in Proxmox you will see your template (e.g. ubuntu-24.04-noble-server-20260108-tpl) - right click and select clone.
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On the popup box that appears - select mode = full clone, give the vm a name and select where you want to store the new vm you are creating - see image below:
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Once the new vm appears in the left column - start the vm and open the console - please be aware that you may only see a single line of output at the top of the console on initial boot.
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This will last for about 30 seconds whilst it builds and boots the vm, once booted you will see the login prompt - use the
ubuntuuser created by cloud-init and your configured SSH key or password (if enabled in your snippet).
root@pve:~# ./create-ubuntu-template.sh
Hit:1 http://security.debian.org bullseye-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian bullseye InRelease
Hit:3 http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bullseye InRelease
Hit:4 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
libguestfs-tools is already the newest version (1:1.44.0-2).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
--2023-05-06 17:25:21-- https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/20230504/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
Resolving cloud-images.ubuntu.com (cloud-images.ubuntu.com)... 185.125.190.40, 185.125.190.37, 2620:2d:4000:1::17, ...
Connecting to cloud-images.ubuntu.com (cloud-images.ubuntu.com)|185.125.190.40|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 689176576 (657M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img’
jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img 100%[====================================================================================>] 657.25M 71.6MB/s in 9.5s
2023-05-06 17:25:31 (69.0 MB/s) - ‘jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img’ saved [689176576/689176576]
Logical volume "vm-9000-cloudinit" successfully removed
Logical volume "base-9000-disk-0" successfully removed
[ 0.0] Examining the guest ...
[ 3.9] Setting a random seed
virt-customize: warning: random seed could not be set for this type of
guest
[ 3.9] Setting the machine ID in /etc/machine-id
[ 3.9] Installing packages: qemu-guest-agent
[ 17.6] Finishing off
[ 0.0] Examining the guest ...
[ 3.6] Setting a random seed
virt-customize: warning: random seed could not be set for this type of
guest
[ 3.7] Setting passwords
[ 4.6] Finishing off
importing disk 'jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img' to VM 9000 ...
Logical volume "vm-9000-disk-0" created.
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Successfully imported disk as 'unused0:local-lvm:vm-9000-disk-0'
update VM 9000: -scsi0 local-lvm:vm-9000-disk-0 -scsihw virtio-scsi-pci
update VM 9000: -boot c -bootdisk scsi0
update VM 9000: -ide2 local-lvm:cloudinit
Logical volume "vm-9000-cloudinit" created.
ide2: successfully created disk 'local-lvm:vm-9000-cloudinit,media=cdrom'
generating cloud-init ISO
update VM 9000: -serial0 socket -vga serial0
update VM 9000: -ipconfig0 ip=dhcp
update VM 9000: -cpu cputype=host
Renamed "vm-9000-disk-0" to "base-9000-disk-0" in volume group "pve"
Logical volume pve/base-9000-disk-0 changed.