Custom Terraform Templates
Cloud Manager supports creating VDI/DaaS models using custom Terraform templates in addition to the built-in blueprints.
Custom Terraform Templates apply to VDI/DaaS Models.
When to Use Terraform vs. Built-in Blueprint
The choice depends on two factors: whether your provider has a built-in blueprint at all, and whether the built-in covers your infrastructure needs.
Our Cloud Manager ships built-in blueprints for Oracle Cloud (OCI), AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IONOS Cloud, VMware (ESXi / Horizon), Microsoft Hyper-V, and Proxmox VE. Oracle KVM (oVirt / OLVM) and Verge.IO use custom Terraform exclusively.
For providers that do have a built-in:
| Scenario | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Standard cloud VM with default networking | Built-in Blueprint — faster setup, no IaC required |
| Custom networking (VPC, subnets, NSGs, routing) | Terraform — full control over network topology |
| Multi-resource deployments (VM + NIC + disk + public IP) | Terraform — declare all resources in a single template |
| Shared infrastructure across multiple instances | Terraform — use a Shared Template for common resources |
| Existing Terraform module library in your organization | Terraform — reuse and extend existing modules |
| Team prefers a guided wizard over hand-authored HCL | Built-in Blueprint — no IaC knowledge required |
Both approaches produce the same end result: a deployable VDI/DaaS model. Built-in blueprints are themselves Terraform templates — choosing one over the other does not change the underlying provisioning mechanism, only how the configuration is authored.
In This Section
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Terraform Overview | Core concepts: VM Template, instance naming, and Shared Template |
| Create a Model Using a Custom Terraform Template | Step-by-step walkthrough for uploading template files and configuring the model |
| schema.json and uischema.json Reference | Reference for the JSON schema files that define the Parameters step in the wizard |
See Also