.. _datasources:

Datasources
***********

Datasources are sources of configuration data for ``cloud-init`` that typically
come from the user (i.e., user data) or come from the cloud that created the
configuration drive (i.e., metadata). Typical user data includes files,
YAML, and shell scripts whereas typical metadata includes server name,
instance id, display name, and other cloud specific details.

Any metadata processed by ``cloud-init``'s datasources is persisted as
:file:`/run/cloud-init/instance-data.json`. ``Cloud-init`` provides tooling to
quickly introspect some of that data. See :ref:`instance_metadata` for more
information.

How to configure which datasource to use
========================================

By default ``cloud-init`` should automatically determine which datasource it is
running on. Therefore, in most cases, users of ``cloud-init`` should not
have to configure ``cloud-init`` to specify which datasource cloud-init is
running on; ``cloud-init`` should "figure it out".

There are exceptions, however, when the :ref:`datasource does not
identify<datasource_ironic>` itself to ``cloud-init``. For these
exceptions, one can override datasource detection either by configuring a
single datasource in the :ref:`datasource_list<base_config_datasource_list>`,
or by using :ref:`kernel commandline arguments<kernel_datasource_override>`.

.. _datasources_supported:

Datasources:
============

The following is a list of documentation for each supported datasource:

.. toctree::
   :titlesonly:

   datasources/aliyun.rst
   datasources/altcloud.rst
   datasources/ec2.rst
   datasources/azure.rst
   datasources/cloudsigma.rst
   datasources/cloudstack.rst
   datasources/configdrive.rst
   datasources/digitalocean.rst
   datasources/e24cloud.rst
   datasources/exoscale.rst
   datasources/fallback.rst
   datasources/gce.rst
   datasources/lxd.rst
   datasources/maas.rst
   datasources/nocloud.rst
   datasources/nwcs.rst
   datasources/opennebula.rst
   datasources/openstack.rst
   datasources/oracle.rst
   datasources/ovf.rst
   datasources/rbxcloud.rst
   datasources/smartos.rst
   datasources/upcloud.rst
   datasources/vmware.rst
   datasources/vultr.rst
   datasources/zstack.rst