The Problem: I had been manually creating Ubuntu Virtual Machines within my Proxmox Home Lab. This included looking through the UI, uploading the Cloud Image, re-typing the same SSH keys multiple times, etc. The process was time consuming, and prone to human error and it was impossible to automate or replicate. Each Virtual Machine I created was a "15-minute job".
The Constraints: My goal was to create an entirely Infrastructure as Code-based workflow that would have no dependency upon PXE boot or any large orchestration tools. Only one node on my Proxmox was to be used, and I wanted each VM to be fully configured (hostname, user, sshkey and packages) upon their initial start; I also wanted to configure the VMs without ever having to log into the console.
The Solution: I am using Terraform with the Telmate Proxmox provider, in addition to cloud-init templates. Once I create my template, I can create a fully functioning VM in under a minute. Within this guide, I will describe the exact configurations I have used, the mistakes that I made which resulted in losing many hours of my time, and the checks I have established to ensure that a similar situation does not happen again.
Quick Summary
