# Creating a Stand-Alone Photon Machine With cloud-init Cloud-init can customize a Photon OS virtual machine by using the `nocloud` data source. The `nocloud` data source bundles the `cloud-init` metadata and user data into an ISO that acts as a seed when you boot the machine. The `seed.iso` delivers the metadata and the user data without requiring a network connection. **Procedure** 1. Create the metadata file with the following lines in the [YAML](http://www.yaml.org/start.html) format and name it `meta-data`: ``` instance-id: iid-local01 local-hostname: cloudimg ``` 1. Create the user data file with the following lines in YAML and name it user-data: ``` #cloud-config hostname: testhost packages: - vim ``` 3. Generate the ISO that will serve as the seed. The ISO must have the volume ID set to `cidata`. In the following example, the ISO is generated on an Ubuntu 14.04 computer containing the files named `meta-data` and `user-data` in the local directory: ``` genisoimage -output seed.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data ``` The ISO now appears in the current directory: ``` steve@ubuntu:~$ ls meta-data seed.iso user-data ``` 1. Optionally, check the ISO that you generated on Ubuntu by transferring the ISO to the root directory of your Photon OS machine and then running the following command: ``` cloud-init --file seed.iso --debug init ``` After running the `cloud-init` command above, check the `cloud-init` log file: ``` more /var/log/cloud-init.log ``` 1. Attach the ISO to the Photon OS virtual machine as a CD-ROM and reboot it so that the changes specified by seed.iso take effect. In this case, `cloud-init` sets the `hostname` and adds the `vim` package.