Create VM template

Following chapters describe how to create a VM template from Ubuntu cloud-images. This template is used to clone actual VM's from to create eg. Kubernetes cluster

Create a VM

On the PVE (Proxmox-VE), create a new VM
Give it a high number on the ID, eg. 900
Give it a name eg. “ubuntu-2204-template”
On the OS tab, click ‘Do not use any media’
On System tab, check the ‘Qemu Agent’ box
On the Disks, remove the existing scsi disk
On the CPU tab, keep unchanged
On the Memory tab, keep unchanged
On the Network tab, keep unchanged
Confirm to create VM

Change VM parameters

Select the new VM in the server view
Select the Hardware tab
Add a ‘Cloudinit Drive’
Select 'IDE-0' as a device and ‘local-lvm’ as the storage option and finish
Select the Cloud-Init tab
Specify the “User” and “Password” details
Specify the SSH keys

Select IP Config and select “DHCP” on both IPV4 and IPV6
Click “Regenerate Image” in the menu

Attach cloud image

SSH into the Proxmox server
Decide which cloud image to use, eg. Ubuntu Jammy (22.04)

wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
qm set <VMID> -—serial0 socket -—vga serial0
# (IMPORTANT: Check if ‘local-lvm’ is the local storage on proxmox server)
qm disk import <VMID> /root/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img local-lvm

Switch back to GUI
Select the VM and tab “Hardware”
Double-click the line “Unused Disk 0”
If underlying disk is SSD, check the 'SSD emulation' and ‘Discard’ option
Click "Add"
Select the tab “Options” and the line “Boot order”
Check the newly added disk and drag it to e.g. the second position
Check the ‘Start at Boot’ option (optionally)
Right-click on the VM and select “Convert to template”

Last modified: 18 December 2023