Using Snappy OVA Images when you don’t have a Cloud Fabric

But since OVA is a virtualization appliance format, users have expressed some confusion as how they can use it on Virtualbox or VMware Fusion/Workstation.

Option 1: Create a Cloud-Config ISO/VMDK

In order to use the OVA images you need to prepare a Cloud-Config ISO. On Ubuntu the steps are:

# Create the cloud-config
$ cat >> user-data <<"EOF
#cloud-config
snappy: 
    ssh_enabled: true
password: passw0rd
chpasswd: { expire: False }
ssh_pwauth: True
EOF
# Create the meta-data
$ cat >> meta-data << EOM
instance-id: $(uuidgen)
local-hostname: ubuntu-snappy
EOF
# To make the cloud-config big enough...Otherwise VMware
# won't respect the VMDK
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=bloat_file bs=1M count=10
# Generate the ISO image
$ genisoimage \
    -output seed.iso \
    -volid cidata \
    -joliet -rock \
     user-data meta-data bloat_file
# Convert the ISO to a VMDK (if you want)
$ qemu-img convert -O vmdk seed.iso seed.vmdk

After importing the OVA image using a VMware, Citrix or Virtualbox platform, attach the VMDK or ISO image. Cloud-init will find the CDROM and read the values. At that point you can login as “ubuntu” with the password you have set.

Option 2: Cheat with the Vagrant images

In addition to the OVA images, we publish Vagrant Images. These images are targeted at the VirtualBox/Vagrant community but are easily re-purposed by the mischevious.

Technically speaking, the Vagrant images are nothing more than an OVA that have been pre-configured using insecure and well-known SSH keys with an attached cloud-config. In fact, the Vagrant Snappy images use an attached “cloud-config” drive created similiar to the steps in Option 1.

These images are _NOT_ production quality. If you don’t care about security and will only be using this on localhost network then you can simply:

Fetch the most current image:, i.e.

$ wget -O cheating.ova http://goo.gl/DO7a9W
Import "cheating.ova" using your Virtualization platform
Boot up the image
Login as "ubuntu" with a password of "ubuntu"