[pve-devel] Feature Request - Move the hostname and fqdn assignments out of the cloudinit userdata section

[pve-devel] Feature Request - Move the hostname and fqdn assignments out of the cloudinit userdata section

[austin hunt via pve-devel]

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From: austin hunt <hausteen25@outlook.com>
To: "pve-devel@lists.proxmox.com" <pve-devel@lists.proxmox.com>
Subject: Feature Request - Move the hostname and fqdn assignments out of the cloudinit userdata section
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2025 19:49:46 +0000
Message-ID: <CH3PR22MB55128FC7986BBB245D08751ACEFEA@CH3PR22MB5512.namprd22.prod.outlook.com>

Hi PVE team,
Thank you for your continual work. I really like working with Proxmox and it has been great overall. I want to make a feature request to adjust the logic used in the cloud init portion of the codebase.
Topic: Cloud-Init Hostname and FQDN assignments in the userdata section.
Request: Move these into the VENDOR data section or META data section; preferrably the VENDOR data section.
Why: As it currently is, users can't create their own userdata file to pass to cloud init, without having major problems with device hostnames and fqdn settings. When a user passes a custom userdata file, that file takes precedence and the automatic config doesn't get generated. This includes the hostname and fqdn not being generated automatically. Users can statically set the hostname in their custom userdata file, but now that single hostname is set for ALL their machines that use that custom userdata snippet file. The problem compounds when I have dozens or hundreds of VMs. I need a way to pass my own cloud init custom file and NOT mess with the dynamic hostname generation. That is why I'm asking for you to move the hostname and fqdns setting to the vendor data portion of cloud init. The vendor data section is a good place for the hostname and fqdn setting, because the vendor data file is meant for the hypervisor / hosting platform. The userdata section is meant for the user's config and the user config can override the vendordata as needed / desired. I can then create all the custom userdata code I need.
Rebuttal: The most common thing I have seen on the internet regarding this topic is that people put all their code in the vendor data section and pray it works. That or they create a whole bunch of meta data files and they put the hostnames there which is still static and now we have a whole lot of files to manage and create. Neither of these options are how cloud init is meant to be used as I understand.
The file and function that need adjustment is this one -> https://github.com/proxmox/qemu-server/blob/master/src/PVE/QemuServer/Cloudinit.pm#L127
Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know if you need anything from me.

Thank you,
Austin Hunt

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