Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – cloud-init stalls and first boot never completes

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Provisioning hangs and instance remains unavailable after initial launch.

Environment & Reproduction

Occurs with invalid datasource settings or unreachable metadata endpoints.

Root Cause Analysis

cloud-init waits for datasource or script steps that cannot complete.

Quick Triage

Check cloud-init status and identify blocked module stage.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Inspect cloud-init logs and datasource detection results.

Solution – Primary Fix

Correct datasource configuration, re-run cloud-init stages, and reboot.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Disable cloud-init on static templates where metadata is not required.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

cloud-init reports done status and instance services are fully operational.

Rollback Plan

Revert template or user-data changes and redeploy known-good image.

Prevention & Hardening

Validate user-data and datasource settings in pre-production images.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

cloud-init status waiting, datasource not found, and timeout on metadata.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

View all Ubuntu 20.04 LTS tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

cloud-init module stages, datasource docs, and Ubuntu cloud images.