.. _index: cloud-init Documentation ######################## Cloud-init is the *industry standard* multi-distribution method for cross-platform cloud instance initialization. It is supported across all major public cloud providers, provisioning systems for private cloud infrastructure, and bare-metal installations. Cloud instances are initialized from a disk image and instance data: - Cloud metadata - User data (optional) - Vendor data (optional) Cloud-init will identify the cloud it is running on during boot, read any provided metadata from the cloud and initialize the system accordingly. This may involve setting up the network and storage devices to configuring SSH access key and many other aspects of a system. Later on the cloud-init will also parse and process any optional user or vendor data that was passed to the instance. Getting help ************ Having trouble? We would like to help! - Try the :ref:`FAQ` – its got answers to some common questions - Ask a question in the ``#cloud-init`` IRC channel on Freenode - Join and ask questions on the `cloud-init mailing list `_ - Find a bug? `Report bugs on Launchpad `_ .. toctree:: :hidden: :titlesonly: :caption: Getting Started topics/availability.rst topics/boot.rst topics/cli.rst topics/faq.rst topics/bugs.rst .. toctree:: :hidden: :titlesonly: :caption: User Data topics/format.rst topics/examples.rst topics/modules.rst topics/merging.rst .. toctree:: :hidden: :titlesonly: :caption: Instance Data topics/instancedata.rst topics/datasources.rst topics/vendordata.rst topics/network-config.rst .. toctree:: :hidden: :titlesonly: :caption: Development topics/hacking.rst topics/code_review.rst topics/security.rst topics/debugging.rst topics/logging.rst topics/dir_layout.rst topics/analyze.rst topics/docs.rst topics/testing.rst topics/integration_tests.rst topics/cloud_tests.rst .. vi: textwidth=79