Does cloud init work on Windows servers?

Smith_Weason

There seems to be an endless supply of initial configuration scripts, bash, shell etc, available for Linux but what are my options on Windows when it comes to automated scripts. Does cloud init work? and what kind of scripts can I use?

The_Moose

Technically cloud-init is the installation service and the "cloud-init script" is the so called user data which is basically a configuration file that will be used when detected by cloud init. The cloud init service are installed by default on most Linux images created before 2017 and is not available on Windows images.

The cloud-init feature seems to be deprecated in most regions, and we are therefore actively researching alternative solutions to support automated installations of any system.

Josef

Should also be mentioned that you need to encode the user data as base64 when passing it to the API, and escape all the characters that could invalidate the JSON body. Took me a while to realize this because different sources gives various information on the encoding. Luckily the API now gives a straight forward error message on invalid JSON body input.

Orson_Deforest

Josef Does that also apply to the graphical box in control panel or will it encode the script for me?

Smith_Weason

Thanks for your replies! Greatly appreciated.

Orson_Deforest I think you have to base encode that as well, not sure about the new panel tho but I guess we'll find out once it's released.

Orson_Deforest

Smith_Weason Nvm, I'm just gonna use the new script_url flag in the API. It works great, and no need for base64 encoding. https://api.99stack.com/docs/#operation/CreateReadyServer

Tommi_Nyman

Works for me on both 2012 and 2016, I think you just need to use the right syntax.

Allan_Virtanen

Orson_Deforest Runs fine on Windows servers too with .bat scripts but can it handle power shell?

Tommi_Nyman

Allan_Virtanen I don't think Windows is very common on this platform seeing the constant lack of licenses. But I'll try it out and let you know if I ever manage to come across a Windows license. 🤔

Kauko_Laaksonen

Tommi_Nyman There seems to be a new agreement with Microsoft in place, license price varies from cheap on the smaller servers to more expensive on the bigger plans. Maybe it's restocked 👍️