A custom “user-data” file is required for an unattended installation of Ubuntu. We will create this template file for use in our Ansible playbook to Generate Custom Unattended Ubuntu Install ISO.

The file below is in development

user-data.j2

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  ssh:
    install-server: true
    # option "allow-pw" defaults to `true` if authorized_keys is empty, `false` otherwise.
    allow-pw: false
  storage:
    layout:
      name: lvm
      match:
        size: largest
  user-data:
    diable_root: true
    timezone: America/New_York
    package_upgrade: true
    packages:
    - network-manager
    - lldpd
    - git
    - python3-pip
    - ansible
    - arp-scan
    users:
      - name: {{ Global.username }}
        primary_group: users
        groups: sudo
        lock_passwd: true
        # passwd: "$5$IWwNqL9VUSDoc4Jv$DEUGR.cZQcbz/QvdCOmU13fX5ZW0rANg8LqkAtX3nBA" # changeme
        shell: /bin/bash
        ssh_authorized_keys:
          - "{{ Global.ssh_key }}"
        sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
  ansible:
    install_method: pip
    package_name: ansible
    #run_user: ansible
    galaxy:
      actions:
        - ["ansible-galaxy", "collection", "install", "community.general"]
  late-commands:
    # randomly generate the hostname & show the IP at boot
    - echo "{{ Global.system_name_prefix }}-$(openssl rand -hex 3)" > /target/etc/hostname
    # dump the IP out at login screen
    - echo "Ubuntu 22.04 LTS \nIP - $(hostname -I)\n" > /target/etc/issue

You now ready to generate a customer unattended Ubuntu server install ISO file

Or back to Install Oracle VirtualBox using Ansible