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Disabling cloud-init on an Azure VM can have several impacts, especially if you rely on custom configurations:
Provisioning and Configuration: Cloud-init is used to customize and configure Linux VMs during the initial boot process. It handles tasks such as setting hostnames, configuring network interfaces, and running custom scripts. By disabling it, you lose these automated provisioning capabilities, which means you'll need to manually configure these settings.
Network Configuration: Since cloud-init is responsible for setting up network configurations, disabling it means you must manually manage network settings. This can be beneficial if you have specific custom network requirements that cloud-init might override.
Azure Extensions: Cloud-init does not process Azure extensions, so the Azure Linux Agent (WALA) is still required for handling extensions. Disabling cloud-init does not affect the Azure Linux Agent's ability to manage extensions.
Custom Data: If you use the Azure CLI --custom-data switch during VM provisioning, cloud-init processes this data. Without cloud-init, you need alternative methods to apply custom configurations.
For more detailed information, you can refer to the cloud-init support for virtual machines in Azure documentation.
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