Cloud-init only creating default user

Question

Very new to cloud-init but from what I can tell from the docs and examples I should be able to add a new user, add it to sudo and have it create a home directory but my user is never made and I/m not finding any errors.

Here's my config. It's mostly just the default

users:
  - default
  - name: susan
    gecos: Susan
    lock_passwd: True
    groups: [adm, audio, cdrom, dialout, dip, floppy, lxd, netdev, plugdev, sudo, video]
    sudo: ["ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"]
    shell: /bin/bas

disable_root: true

preserve_hostname: false

cloud_init_modules:
  - migrator
  - seed_random
  - bootcmd
  - write-files
  - growpart
  - resizefs
  - disk_setup
  - mounts
  - set_hostname
  - update_hostname
  - update_etc_hosts
  - ca-certs
  - rsyslog
  - users-groups
  - ssh

cloud_config_modules:
  - emit_upstart
  - snap
  - ssh-import-id
  - locale
  - set-passwords
  - grub-dpkg
  - apt-pipelining
  - apt-configure
  - ubuntu-advantage
  - ntp
  - timezone
  - disable-ec2-metadata
  - runcmd
  - byobu

cloud_final_modules:
  - package-update-upgrade-install
  - fan
  - landscape
  - lxd
  - ubuntu-drivers
  - write-files-deferred
  - puppet
  - chef
  - mcollective
  - salt-minion
  - reset_rmc
  - refresh_rmc_and_interface
  - rightscale_userdata
  - scripts-vendor
  - scripts-per-once
  - scripts-per-boot
  - scripts-per-instance
  - scripts-user
  - ssh-authkey-fingerprints
  - keys-to-console
  - install-hotplug
  - phone-home
  - final-message
  - power-state-change

system_info:
  distro: ubuntu
  default_user:
    name: ubuntu
    lock_passwd: True
    gecos: Ubuntu
    groups: [adm, audio, cdrom, dialout, dip, floppy, lxd, netdev, plugdev, sudo, video]
    sudo: ["ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"]
    shell: /bin/bash
  network:
    renderers: ['netplan', 'eni', 'sysconfig']
  ntp_client: auto
  paths:
    cloud_dir: /var/lib/cloud/
    templates_dir: /etc/cloud/templates/
    upstart_dir: /etc/init/
  package_mirrors:
    - arches: [i386, amd64]
      failsafe:
        primary: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
        security: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
      search:
        primary:
          - http://%(ec2_region)s.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
          - http://%(availability_zone)s.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
          - http://%(region)s.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
        security: []
    - arches: [arm64, armel, armhf]
      failsafe:
        primary: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports
        security: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports
      search:
        primary:
          - http://%(ec2_region)s.ec2.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/
          - http://%(availability_zone)s.clouds.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/
          - http://%(region)s.clouds.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/
        security: []
    - arches: [default]
      failsafe:
        primary: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports
        security: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports
  ssh_svcname: ssh

runcmdt:
  - sudo mkdir /home/susan/.susan
  - sudo ansible-pull -C main -d '/home/susan/.susan/vm' -U https://***:***@github.com/***/susan-vm.git

Here's a gist of my cloud-init.log - gist

Everything seems fine except the Susan user doesn't exist.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Try to remove or rename /var/lib/cloud/ on the problem host and then reboot

rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/
reboot

Cloud-init is a very secretive program in my opinion. The logs are full of debug, but they do not contain information about what decisions cloud-init makes and for what reasons

Moreover, cloud-init caches some (?) decisions (?) in /var/lib/cloud/instances/ . And if an error was once made in the user-data or network-config, then without changing the instance in the meta-data, cloud-init will not even accept (silently, argh :/ ) the corrected config

In such cases, I have to delete /var/lib/cloud after fix errors

Sometimes, to kick cloud-init, just run the following commands:

sudo DI_LOG=stderr /usr/lib/cloud-init/ds-identify --force
sudo cloud-init clean --logs
sudo cloud-init init --local
sudo cloud-init init