diff --git a/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/files/create_vm b/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/files/create_vm
index 4b83d01..4702bb6 100644
--- a/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/files/create_vm
+++ b/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/files/create_vm
@@ -1,11 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 set -e
 
-# The base VM was downloaded using the following commands:
-# mkdir /var/lib/libvirt/images/base
-# curl -o http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/focal/release/ubuntu-20.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk-kvm.img /var/lib/libvirt/images/base/ubuntu-20.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk-kvm.qcow2
-# chown -R libvirt-qemu:root /var/lib/libvirt/images/base
-
 if [[ $# -eq 0 ]] ; then
     echo 'USAGE: create_vm VMNAME'
     exit 1
diff --git a/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/recipes/default.rb b/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/recipes/default.rb
index 971ab49..c5e5901 100644
--- a/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/recipes/default.rb
+++ b/site-cookbooks/kosmos_kvm/recipes/default.rb
@@ -26,6 +26,21 @@
 
 package %w(virtinst libvirt-daemon-system)
 
+directory "/var/lib/libvirt/images/base" do
+  recursive true
+  owner "libvirt-qemu"
+  group "root"
+  mode "0750"
+end
+
+# Base Ubuntu 20.04 image
+remote_file "/var/lib/libvirt/images/base/ubuntu-20.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk-kvm.qcow2" do
+  source "http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/focal/release/ubuntu-20.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk-kvm.img"
+  owner "libvirt-qemu"
+  group "root"
+  mode "0640"
+end
+
 cookbook_file "/usr/local/sbin/create_vm" do
   source "create_vm"
   mode "0750"