Fully in favor of this. Actually I recently started replacing this image for testing with an Alpine Linux image for Linstor integration tests. The faster booting and shutdown brought down the Linstor test runtime by 2-3x.
On Mon, Oct 12, 2026 at 11:15 AM Kiran Chavala <[email protected]> wrote: > > Subject: [DISCUSS] Replacing the default built-in CentOS template in > CloudStack > > Hi all, > > I'd like to start a discussion on replacing the default built-in template > that ships with every CloudStack installation. > > The original GitHub discussion is here, and you're welcome to comment there > as well: > https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/discussions/13797 > > Today, the built-in templates registered for each hypervisor are quite > outdated: > > - KVM: CentOS 5.5 (64-bit) no GUI > > http://download.cloudstack.org/releases/2.2.0/eec2209b-9875-3c8d-92be-c001bd8a0faf.qcow2.bz2 > - XenServer: CentOS 5.6 (64-bit) no GUI > http://download.cloudstack.org/templates/builtin/centos56-x86_64.vhd.bz2 > - vSphere: CentOS 5.3 (64-bit) no GUI > http://download.cloudstack.org/releases/2.2.0/CentOS5.3-x86_64.ova > > These templates are no longer practical, even for basic testing: > > 1. The VM deploys, but the SSH service doesn't work, so it's of little use > for validating a fresh installation. > 2. They're starting to break outright on newer hypervisors. On ACS 4.22 > with XenServer 8.4, deploying a VM from the default CentOS template fails > with "Cannot find Template CentOS 7 on XenServer host", because XenServer > 8.4 has deprecated the CentOS 7 guest template (tracked in > https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/issues/13798). > > What I'd like to see is a new default template that is: > > - current, and in line with what users actually run today > - small in footprint, so it downloads quickly and can be used for quick > testing right after installation > - functional for the core guest features: root password reset, SSH keys, > user data, and cloud-init > > Candidates I've looked at: > > - macchinina (https://github.com/NuxRo/macchinina) > - Alpine Linux cloud images (https://alpinelinux.org/cloud/) > - CirrOS (https://github.com/cirros-dev/cirros) > - Debian cloud images (https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/) > - Ubuntu minimal cloud images ( > https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/minimal/releases/) > - AlmaLinux Generic Cloud ( > https://wiki.almalinux.org/cloud/Generic-cloud.html) > - Rocky Linux (https://wiki.rockylinux.org/rocky/image/) > - Fedora Cloud (https://fedoraproject.org/cloud/download/) > > My personal preference is between two options: > > 1. macchinina: built for CloudStack testing, but it needs a refresh and > someone to maintain it going forward. > 2. Alpine cloud image: very small and well maintained upstream. We'd need > to run tests to confirm password, SSH key, and user-data behaviour across > hypervisors. > > Most of the mainstream distro cloud images are in the 500-600 MB range, > which goes against the "quick test after install" goal. > > I'd love to hear the community's views on: > > - which image (or images) you'd prefer as the default > - any hypervisor-specific concerns (KVM / XenServer-XCP-ng / VMware) > > > If there's rough consensus, I'm happy to follow up with a PR and testing > across hypervisors. > > Thanks, > Kiran Chavala
