I think I found the cause.

This is message I am seeing at login, it is part of the MOTD:
| !!!!! IMPORTANT: An error occurred when initializing this installation !!!!!
│ Please check the initialization logs to get more information:
│ sudo cat /var/log/cloud-init-output.log
│ Please try and re-create this installation. If that does not fix your issue,
│ open a Bitnami support ticket at https://github.com/bitnami/vms/issues

And I found this message in the /var/log/cloud-init-output.log:

Starting mariadb in background
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:17:07.33 ^[[0m^[[38;5;1mERROR^[[0m ==> MySQL failed to start
xargs: bash: exited with status 255; aborting
^[[38;5;6m ^[[38;5;5m20:17:07.36 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Appending error message to motd banner
xargs: bash: exited with status 255; aborting
2024-10-01 20:17:07,382 - cc_scripts_user.py[WARNING]: Failed to run module scripts-user (scripts in /var/lib/cloud/instance/scripts)

So why did MySQL fail to start? Is there anything I need to check?

It looks like mysql is working:

root@lampstack# mariadb --version
mariadb from 11.3.2-MariaDB, client 15.2 for Linux (x86_64) using readline 5.1

root@lampstack:~# mysqlcheck -c -u root -p --all-databases
Enter password:
mysql.column_stats OK
mysql.columns_priv OK

more of the /var/log/cloud-init-output.log here...
Cloud-init v. 22.4.2 running 'modules:config' at Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:06:52 +0000. Up 14.30 seconds.
Cloud-init v. 22.4.2 running 'modules:final' at Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:07:04 +0000. Up 26.10 seconds.
^[[38;5;6m ^[[38;5;5m20:07:04.87 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Enabling all services
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/bitnami.service.wants/bitnami.varnish.service → /etc/systemd/system/bitnami.varnish.service.
^[[38;5;6m ^[[38;5;5m20:07:05.38 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Parsing environment variables specified within the user-data
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.24 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Validating settings in MYSQL_/MARIADB_ env vars
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.28 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Initializing mariadb database
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.32 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Updating 'my.cnf' with custom configuration
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.34 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Setting bind_address option
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.38 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Setting slow_query_log option
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.39 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Setting long_query_time option
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.40 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Using persisted data
/opt/bitnami/mariadb/bin/mysql: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/opt/bitnami/mariadb/bin/mariadb' instead
/opt/bitnami/mariadb/bin/mysql: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/opt/bitnami/mariadb/bin/mariadb' instead
/opt/bitnami/mariadb/bin/mysql: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/opt/bitnami/mariadb/bin/mariadb' instead
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.49 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Running mysql_upgrade
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:07:06.50 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Starting mariadb in background
^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:17:07.33 ^[[0m^[[38;5;1mERROR^[[0m ==> MySQL failed to start
xargs: bash: exited with status 255; aborting
^[[38;5;6m ^[[38;5;5m20:17:07.36 ^[[0m^[[38;5;2mINFO ^[[0m ==> Appending error message to motd banner
xargs: bash: exited with status 255; aborting
2024-10-01 20:17:07,382 - cc_scripts_user.py[WARNING]: Failed to run module scripts-user (scripts in /var/lib/cloud/instance/scripts)
2024-10-01 20:17:07,382 - util.py[WARNING]: Running module scripts-user (<module 'cloudinit.config.cc_scripts_user' from '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/config/cc_scripts_user.py'>) failed
Cloud-init v. 22.4.2 finished at Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:17:07 +0000. Datasource DataSourceGCELocal. Up 628.83 seconds
Cloud-init v. 22.4.2 running 'init-local' at Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:31:08 +0000. Up 4.87 seconds.
Cloud-init v. 22.4.2 running 'init' at Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:31:12 +0000. Up 8.80 seconds.

So what is causing this error when creating a new VM bitnami instance from a machine image and how would I avoid it:

^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:17:07.33 ^[[0m^[[38;5;1mERROR^[[0m ==> MySQL failed to start
xargs: bash: exited with status 255; aborting

I am sure anyone can duplicate this error by creating a new bitnami VM instance from a existing bitnami VM machine image.

In a nutshell:
It does not matter if a bitnami VM was created directly from the Google Marketplace or from a existing bitnami machine image...we always see the "WARNING]: Invalid cloud-config provided - schema error" in the /var/log/cloud-init-output.log after stop/start of the VM.
We only see the "MySQL failed to start" error if the instance was created from a bitnami machine image.

1. What is causing the "WARNING]: Invalid cloud-config provided - schema error" when a new bitnami VM is created from Google Marketplace?

2. More importantly: What is causing the "MySQL failed to start" error when a bitnami VM is created from a existing bitnami machine image?

I would feel more confident using a VM created from a machine image that did not have any errors during creation.

The warning messages shouldn't make the deployment fail. However, it seems that the database is not initialized correctly

^[[38;5;6mmariadb ^[[38;5;5m20:17:07.33 ^[[0m^[[38;5;1mERROR^[[0m ==> MySQL failed to start

I do not know which app you are deploying, but can you ensure that it has enough resources? Please note that some apps require high memory requirements to work.

Hi jotamartos 
I have broken this ticket into two separate issues which are:

1. What is causing the "[WARNING]: Invalid cloud-config provided - schema error" when a new bitnami-lamp VM is created from Google Marketplace?

2. More importantly: What is causing the "MySQL failed to start" error when a bitnami-lamp VM is created from an existing bitnami-lamp machine image?

Let's look at issue 1:
WARNING invalid cloud-config provided - schema error Found in /var/log/cloud-init-output.log log file.

As I stated this warning appears in the cloud-init  log with a brand new freshly created bitnami-lamp VM from the google Marketplace. I have not changed anything in the VM.
I would think that a new bitnami-lamp VM would not have any warnings from the get go. Can you explain what is causing this warning? Up until now we have been ignoring it.
You can easily recreate this warning by going to the Google Marketplace and creating a new BITNAMI PACKAGE FOR LAMP VM at: https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/product/bitnami-launchpad/lampstack

This is my VM info: 
 Location: us-central1-c   
 MachineType: n1-standard-1  (vCPU=1 Memory=3.75g)
 Architecture: x86/64
 Boot-Disk: 20g - SSD persistent disk

Issue 2: 
MySQL failed to start  Found in /var/log/cloud-init-output.log log file.

As I stated this warning occurs when a bitnami VM is created from an existing bitnami-lamp machine image.
You can recreate this warning by creating a brand new bitnami-lamp VM as described above, then create a machine image of this VM, then use that machine image to create a new bitnami-lmap VM. During the creation of this new VM from the image you will see the MySQL FAILED to start error in the log.

I would think that a new bitnami-lamp VM created from a bitnami-lamp machine image would not have any warnings from the get go. Can you explain this MySQL warning?

Also a basic check of MySQL appears that it's working: 
root@lampstack:~# mysqlcheck -c -u root -p --all-databases
  mysql.column_stats OK

You said: "I do not know which app you are deploying, but can you ensure that it has enough resources? Please note that some apps require high memory requirements to work."

We have not deployed any apps on the VM and you can see my VM size info above in issue1.

Hi @tacoma50,

I just tried to reproduce the issue and launched a Bitnami WordPress and LAMP solutions. I know you didn't launch WordPress, but another user mentioned this issue as well in #1690.

However, my deployments worked as expected, there is no error in the console and the different components were launched without problems

Please ensure you launch a VM with enough resources to run the deployment process. Could you please try to launch the VM again?

Thanks