Provision Ubuntu VMs with NoCloud on Proxmox

Creatingrepeatable and secure VM templatesin Proxmox has been a game-changer in refining and scaling my homelab environment. In this post, I’ll show you how to: Use the NoCloud datasource with Ubuntu Cloud Images Inject SSH keys from your admin box Enable and verify the Proxmox guest agent Clone pre-configured VMs using Proxmox CLI Let’s walk through the whole process—from image preparation to SSH-ready VM deployment. For the latest Ubuntu Cloud images, you can checkUbuntu Cloud Images. Step 1: Download the Ubuntu Cloud Image From yourProxmox server, download the latest Ubuntu 24.04 cloud image: wget -P /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ \ https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/daily/server/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img wget -P /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ \ https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/daily/server/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img Then verify: ls /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ | grep -i ubuntu- ls /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ | grep -i ubuntu- You