Create a basic template
Creat VM
- On Create: Virtual Machine wizard - General Tab
Enter desired VM ID: exampaple - 5000
Enter a name: exaple linux-base-template
Everything else at defaults for this tab
- On the OS Tab
Select Do not use any media
Guest OS: make sure it is set to Linux
- On the System Tab
Leave enverything at the defaults
Can set the QEMU Agent on
- On the Disks tab
Delete the disk
- On the CPU tab
Enter the desired CPU cores, can adjust to this later if needed
- On the Memory tab
Enter the desired memory, can adjust later if needed
- On the Network tab
leave at defaults
- On the Confirm tab
Make sure everything looks ok, go back and adjust as needed, do not select Start after created
- Select the VM you created
select the hardware Tab
Select Add - CloudInit Drive
Select the storage that you want this on, then OK
Select CloudInit tab and enter the info you need there (an SSH key is very helpfull) add username and password. Also helpfull to select DHCP on the IP Config area
Right clock on the VM and select Convert to Template
Right click on the selected template and select clone
Enter the desired info
Mode: use Full Clone (can use linked clone if desired)
Select the target storage and format
Go to the desired cloud image you want for the base template
debian can be found here
https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/
go to the latest version (bookworm is now)
go to the latest page and find the one that verion of qcow2 that is needed for your system, amd64 is what I am using.
this is the current one now
https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-generic-amd64.qcow2
Right click on the file and select copy link
Select the PVE node the VM is on and open the shell
at the command prompt enter wget https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-generic-amd64.qcow2
it will dowload the file to the system.
then enter
1
qm importdisk 9001 debian-12-generic-amd64.qcow2 local --format qcow2
adjust to your system setup
It should transfer the file to the VM and at the end show; example - Successfully imported disk as ‘unused0:local:104/vm-104-disk-0.qcow2’
Select the VM
Select the hardware tab
select the Unused Disk 0 then select Edit
change the setting to what you need
Select Add
Start the VM
Select the Console tab and login
enter ip a to get the IP addresses the VM is set to use
Try to log in with SSH to make sure yor key is working