Cloud images read their first-boot settings with cloud-init. The panel
served them only over HTTP, which a VM reaches only with the network
and a reverse DNS name for its address. A new VM can now carry them
itself: Cloud-init seed (Advanced) on the create form, or cloud_init in
the API.
The job writes a NoCloud seed, an ISO labelled cidata, into the disk's
directory pool as cidata-<uuid>.iso and puts it in the VM's CD-ROM
drive. Its meta-data holds the VM's UUID as instance-id and its name as
hostname, written as JSON so a VM named 123 or yes keeps a string
hostname; its user-data is what the HTTP datasource serves, with the
creating user's SSH keys. The ISO is built with pycdlib and written
through a libvirt stream, as the NVRAM copy is, now one helper for both.
A seed needs a CD-ROM bus and a directory pool, else the create is
refused. A failed create deletes the seed with the new disk, recovery
names one left behind, and deleting the VM with its disks deletes its
seed, found in the pools by name even when ejected. A clone's drive is
left empty: the seed is the source VM's identity.