Description

Build and import a pfSense image for usage on AWS using Hashicorp Packer with Virtualbox backend.

Components

Tools used when writing this repo

• Packer 1.4.3
• Terraform v0.11.14
  • provider.aws v2.40.0
  • provider.random v2.2.1
• VirtualBox 6.0.12 r133076 (Qt5.6.3)
• aws-cli/1.16.193 Python/2.7.10 Darwin/18.7.0 botocore/1.12.183

pfsense configuration

pfSense config.xml contains the following modifications in config/config.xml (you can adjust this file before running packer command):

• disabled LAN interface (single NIC mode)
• Webinterface listens on port 8080
• enabled OpenSSH on port 22
• allow Webinterface and OpenSSH traffic on WAN interface from ANY source
• disable HTTP_REFERERCHECK on Webinterface

pfSense iso image

For the build, pfSense-CE-2.4.4-RELEASE-p3-amd64.iso is required. The official pfSense website does not provide a way to download it anymore. However, the working mirror is at https://soft.uclv.edu.cu/pfSense/ where the image can be found.

To verify that the mirror provides a valid image, you can download its sha256sum from pfSense offical repo https://files.pfsense.org/hashes/ and compare with that generated for the image from the mirror.

How to use

• Clone this repo
• Set your AWS cli credential (you can use awsudo)
• run terraform apply in repo root directory
  • get s3 bucket name from bucket_name terraform output
    • e.g : bucket_name = vmimport-input-xxx
• run packer build packer.json
  • Do not manually press keys inside virtualbox console.
• Created images are placed in the output directory.
  • Copy vmdk file from output directory to vmimport s3 bucket
    • e.g : aws s3 sync output s3://vmimport-input-xxx
• Make some adjustment on import.json file
  • BUCKET_PLACEHOLDER should be replaced by s3 bucket name
  • KEY_PLACEHOLDER should be replaced by vmdk file name from output directory
• Run aws ec2 import-snapshot --disk-container file://import.json
  • You will see json output contains import-task-id
  • To view import progress, you can use aws ec2 describe-import-snapshot-tasks --import-task-id import-snap-XXXXX
• DONE. You have successfully import virtualbox vm into aws snapshot.
  • Wait, isn’t this a repo about creating ec2 image, not snapshot?
    • It is indeed. Actually, packer provide Amazon Import Post-Processor that can automatically create ec2 AMI from packer artifact, and I implemented it in 3fffc0d but somehow it gave me "ClientError: No valid partitions. Not a valid volume." and i have no time to debug that part.
• To create AMI from snapshot, please refer to this documentation