Originally posted on Github: https://github.com/k-orc/openstack-resource-controller/issues/591

Summary
I'm trying to use OpenStack Resource Controller (ORC) to create a Server with cloud-init user data provided via a Kubernetes Secret.

When I create a VM manually in Horizon with the same image, flavor, network and the same cloud-init script, cloud-init runs correctly (user is created, commands are executed).
When I create the VM via ORC with spec.resource.userData.secretRef, the instance boots, but cloud-init behaves as if there is no user-data at all (no user created, no commands run, no SSH key injected).

From the instance console log of the ORC-created VM I always see:

ci-info: no authorized SSH keys fingerprints found for user rocky.

On the manually created VM I do not see that line, and my cloud-init script runs as expected.

Environment

ORC version: 2.3.0
Kubernetes version: v1.31.13+k3s1
OpenStack version: 12.5.0
OS / image: Rocky Linux 9 (cloud image with cloud-init 24.4-4.el9.0.1)
Namespace for ORC resources: orc-system

What I'm trying to do
Create a Server via ORC that:

Uses an existing image, flavor, network, subnet and security group default
Uses cloud-init to:

create a user with an SSH key
optionally run some commands (e.g. write a file / install packages)

The same cloud-init YAML works when pasted in Horizon's "Custom Script" during instance creation.

Relevant manifests
1. Secret with cloud-init user-data
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: sample-cloudinit
namespace: orc-system
type: Opaque
stringData:
user-data: |
#cloud-config
users:

• name: appuser
  gecos: Application User
  groups: [sudo]
  shell: /bin/bash
  sudo: ["ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"]
  lock_passwd: true
  ssh_authorized_keys:
• <REDACTED_PUBLIC_SSH_KEY>

runcmd:

• [ sh, -c, "echo 'hello from ORC cloud-init' > /root/hello-orc.txt" ]

#####2. Server manifest

apiVersion: openstack.k-orc.cloud/v1alpha1
kind: Server
metadata:
name: test-2
namespace: orc-system
spec:
managementPolicy: managed
cloudCredentialsRef:
secretName: az-clouds-rm1
cloudName: openstack
resource:
name: test-2
imageRef: os-rocky-linux9-x86-64-uefi
flavorRef: g3-24-rm1
ports:

• portRef: port-test
  userData:
  secretRef: sample-cloudinit