I am attempting to run a VM with a cloud-init script, but can't seem to get the syntax working for the python ovirtsdk4 library. We are running ovirt 4. My cloud init script never appears to work and the users option does not work either. If I use root_password and user_name for types.Initialization (as in the example below) it will generate the correct users, but if I put in the types.CloudInit piece it will break it. types.Initialization( user_name=cloud_init_username, root_password=cloud_init_password, regenerate_ssh_keys=True, host_name="testingcloudinit", nic_configurations=[ types.NicConfiguration( boot_protocol=types.BootProtocol.DHCP, name='ens3', on_boot=True ) ], custom_script=cloud_init_script ) What I currently have is below. cloud_init_script is the script I want to run as a string. Looking at the REST API documentation it shows that I need to upload the file as a CDATA entry, but I am unsure of how I can ensure that in python. Is there potentially a way I could get the full XML call in python to ensure API compliance? vm_service.start( use_cloud_init=True, vm=types.Vm( initialization=types.Initialization( nic_configurations=[types.NicConfiguration( boot_protocol=types.BootProtocol.DHCP, name="ens3", on_boot=True )], cloud_init=types.CloudInit( files=[types.File( name="initialrunner", content=cloud_init_script, type="plaintext" ), ], users=[types.User( user_name=cloud_init_username, password=cloud_init_password )] ) ) ) ) Documentation that I have been using: http://www.ovirt.org/develop/release-management/features/ cloud/cloud-init-integration/ (seems old and for a earlier ovirtsdk version) http://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/examples. html#run-commands-on-first-boot (official cloud init documentation) https://www.mail-archive.com/users@ovirt.org/msg35549.html (message board conversation about this REST API) http://lists.ovirt.org/pipermail/users/2014-September/027198.html (about the cloud-init script specifically) http://lists.ovirt.org/pipermail/users/2014-November/028878.html (for a old version of ovirtsdk it appears) http://www.ovirt.org/develop/api/rest-api/rest-api/#How_ can_I_run_a_custom_script_using_cloud-init.3F (appears to be up to date but just documents the REST API)