proxmox

Deploy a VM to Proxmox with Terraform

Deploy your Infrastructure as Code via Terraform & Cloud-Init

Requirements

• Cloud Init enabled VM Template on Proxmox

Create Cloud-Init VM Template

Refer to Ansible-Playbooks

Create user and password for Terraform

Connect to Proxmox via SSH and create terraform@pve user with necessary rights:

• Add TerraformDeploy with assigned rights:

pveum role add TerraformDeploy -privs "VM.Allocate VM.Clone VM.Config.CDROM VM.Config.CPU VM.Config.Cloudinit VM.Config.Disk VM.Config.HWType VM.Config.Memory VM.Config.Network VM.Config.Options VM.Monitor VM.Audit VM.PowerMgmt Datastore.AllocateSpace Datastore.Audit"

• Generate a random password

pw_terraform="$(pwgen -1 -n 32)"
echo "the password for terraform usrer is: $pw_terraform"

• Create terraform PVE user

pveum user add terraform@pve --password "${pw_terraform}" --comment "For deployment only"

• Assign TerraformDeploy role to user

pveum aclmod / --user terraform@pve --role TerraformDeploy

SSH Connection to Proxmox VE

Terraform need to copy cloud-init config file to Proxmox via SSH.

Define full path of your SSH private key to pm_private_key variable. If your private key is protected by a password comment private_key argument and use agent instead.
Edit infra.tf:

resource "null_resource" "push_cloud_init" {
  count    = var.vm_count
  connection {
    ...
    #private_key = file("${var.pm_private_key}")
    agent       = true
  }

Then import your key in interactive mode in terminal:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_privkey

Cloud-Init

Generate Cloud-Init user password

mkpasswd --method=SHA-512 --rounds=4096

Assign it to variable vm_cipass in terraform.tfvars

Variable Values

Declaring Variable

All variables, they descriptions and some default values are declared in variables.tf. There is no place to define variables, it just declare that the variable exists!

Variable Definitions

Copy terraform.tfvars.example to terraform.tfvars and define your values. If you leave empty any variable Terraform will prompt you in interactive mode.

Override variables on the Command Line

Argument -var has a higher priority than var-file and will override pre-defined variable

terraform apply -var-file=terraform.tfvars \
-var="vm_name=debian-11-test" \
-var="vm_template=ci-debian-11-tpl"

VM Network Settings

DHCP

By default variable vm_subnet is set to value dhcp and Virtual Machine will be created with enabled DHCP.

Static IP

For static IP set following variables:

• vm_subnet = "172.16.0.0" - Subnet address (Requird)
• vm_prefix = "24" - Subnet prefix in CIDR (Requird)
• vm_hostnum = "10" - Host number in subnet (Requird)
• vm_gateway = "172.16.0.254" - Network gateway
• vm_dns1 = "172.16.0.254" - 1st DNS Nameserver
• vm_searchdomain = "network.lan" - DNS Search domain

In the example above the first VM will have IP address: 172.16.0.10/24

Multiple VM with static IP

By setting IP of first VM, cidrhost function will increment IP of other VMs

terraform plan -var-file=terraform.tfvars \
-var="vm_name=docker-worker" \
-var="vm_template=ci-debian-11-tpl" \
-var="vm_count=3" \
-var="vm_subnet=172.16.0.0" \
-var="vm_prefix=24" \
-var="vm_hostnum=100" \
-var="vm_gateway=172.16.0.254"

Terraform will create 3 VMs with static IP:

• docker-worker-01: 172.16.0.100/24
• docker-worker-02: 172.16.0.101/24
• docker-worker-03: 172.16.0.102/24

For more information, visit:

• cidrhost Function
• IP Calculator

Deployment

• Initialize a working directory

terraform init

• Validate config

terraform validate

• See working plan

terraform plan -var-file=terraform.tfvars

• Deploy VM

terraform apply -var-file=terraform.tfvars 

⚠️ Caution: Terraform will propose the plan to you and prompt you to approve it before taking the described actions, unless you waive that prompt by using the -auto-approve option. Use it with caution!

⚠️ Post Deployment

If you do not plan to change the configuration of machines via Terraform in the future and use it only for one-time deployment, delete the state file immediately after completion. Otherwise, when you create a new machine, you will simply overwrite the previously created one.

• Delete all states:

terraform state list | cut -f 1 -d '[' | xargs -L 1 terraform state rm