Cloud-init NoCloud datasource timeout when network interface is down

I’m trying to automate VM deployment by using Foreman with vCenter, using a template with cloud-init installed.

I finally got it working (used the foreman-userdata plugin, along with the provided provisioning templates, including the cloudinit one), but now I’m facing a nuisance during the first boot.

fter cloning the template, the network interface gets disconnected and it’s brought up only after the custom spec is done. The problem is that, with no network access to the datasource provider, cloud-init hangs at boot until it times out 11 tries, which takes about 6 minutes.

I was wondering if there’s a way to make cloud-init not run if it detects the interface is down, or if it’s possible to configure a different timeout or # of tries for the NoCloud datasource.