How to customise a cloud Ubuntu Pro image with FIPS updates#

Launch an Ubuntu Pro instance on your cloud#

See the following links for up to date information for each supported cloud:

https://ubuntu.com/aws/pro
https://ubuntu.com/azure/pro
https://ubuntu.com/gcp/pro

Enable FIPS updates#

Wait for the standard Ubuntu Pro services to be set up:

sudo pro status --wait

Use the enable command to set up FIPS updates.

sudo pro enable fips-updates --assume-yes

Now, reboot the instance:

sudo reboot

And verify that fips-updates is enabled in the output of pro status:

sudo pro status

Also remove the machine-id so that it is regenerated for each instance launched from the snapshot.

sudo rm /etc/machine-id

Snapshot the instance as a Cloud image#

Cloud-specific instructions are here:

Launch your custom image#

Use your specific cloud to launch a new instance from the custom image.

Note

For versions of the Ubuntu Pro Client prior to 27.11, you will need to re-enable fips-updates on each instance launched from the custom image.

This won’t require a reboot and is only necessary to ensure the instance gets updates to FIPS packages when they become available.

sudo pro enable fips-updates --assume-yes

This can be scripted using cloud-init user data at launch time:

#cloud-config
# Enable fips-updates after pro auto-attach and reboot after cloud-init completes
runcmd:
  - 'pro status --wait'
  - 'pro enable fips-updates --assume-yes'