HashiCorp Packer and VMware vSphere to Build Private Cloud Machine Images

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Requirements
3. Configuration
4. Build
5. Troubleshoot
6. Credits

Introduction

This repository provides infrastructure-as-code examples to automate the creation of virtual machine images and their guest operating systems on VMware vSphere using HashiCorp Packer and the Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere (vsphere-iso). All examples are authored in the HashiCorp Configuration Language ("HCL2").

Use of this project is mentioned in the VMware Validated Solution: Private Cloud Automation for VMware Cloud Foundation authored by the maintainer. Learn more about this solution at vmware.com/go/vvs.

By default, the machine image artifacts are transferred to a vSphere Content Library as an OVF template and the temporary machine image is destroyed. If an item of the same name exists in the target content library, Packer will update the existing item with the new version of OVF template.

The following builds are available:

Linux Distributions

• VMware Photon OS 4
• Debian 11
• Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS (cloud-init)
• Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS (cloud-init)
• Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Server
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Server
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server
• AlmaLinux OS 9
• AlmaLinux OS 8
• Rocky Linux 9
• Rocky Linux 8
• CentOS Stream 9
• CentOS Stream 8
• CentOS Linux 7
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15

Microsoft Windows - Core and Desktop Experience

• Microsoft Windows Server 2022 - Standard and Datacenter
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 - Standard and Datacenter
• Microsoft Windows 11
• Microsoft Windows 10

Note

• The Microsoft Windows 11 machine image uses a virtual trusted platform module (vTPM). Refer to the VMware vSphere product documenation for requirements and pre-requisites.

• The Microsoft Windows 11 machine image is not transferred to the content library by default. It is not supported to clone an encrypted virtual machine to the content library as an OVF Template. You can adjust the common content library settings to use VM Templates.

Requirements

Operating Systems:

• VMware Photon OS 4

• Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS

• macOS Monterey and Big Sur (Intel)

  Note

  Operating systems and versions tested with the project.

Packer:

• HashiCorp Packer 1.8.2 or higher.

  Note

  Click on the operating system name to display the installation steps.

  • Photon OS

    PACKER_VERSION="1.8.2"
    OS_PACKAGES="wget unzip"
    
    if [[ $(uname -m) == "x86_64" ]]; then
      LINUX_ARCH="amd64"
    elif [[ $(uname -m) == "aarch64" ]]; then
      LINUX_ARCH="arm64"
    fi
    
    tdnf install ${OS_PACKAGES} -y
    
    wget -q https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer/${PACKER_VERSION}/packer_${PACKER_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip
    
    unzip -o -d /usr/local/bin/ packer_${PACKER_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip

  • Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y gnupg software-properties-common curl
    
    curl -fsSL https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
    
    sudo apt-add-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main"
    
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install terraform

  • macOS

    brew tap hashicorp/tap
    
    brew install hashicorp/tap/packer

• HashiCorp Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere (vsphere-iso) 1.0.8 or higher.

• Packer Plugin for Windows Updates 0.14.1 or higher - a community plugin for HashiCorp Packer.

  Note

  Required plugins are automatically downloaded and initialized when using ./build.sh. For dark sites, you may download the plugins and place these same directory as your Packer executable /usr/local/bin or $HOME/.packer.d/plugins.

Additional Software Packages:

The following software packages must be installed on the opearing system running Packer.

Note

Click on the operating system name to display the installation steps.

• Git command-line tools.

  • Photon OS

    tdnf install git

  • Ubuntu

    apt-get install git

  • macOS

    brew install git

• Ansible 2.9 or higher.

  • Photon OS

    tdnf install ansible

  • Ubuntu

    apt-get install ansible

  • macOS

    brew install ansible

• A command-line .iso creator. Packer will use one of the following:

  • Photon OS

    tdnf install xorriso

  • Ubuntu

    apt-get install xorriso

  • macOS

    hdiutil (native)

• mkpasswd

  • Ubuntu

    apt-get install whois

  • macOS

    brew install --cask docker

• Coreutils

  • macOS

    brew install coreutils

• HashiCorp Terraform 1.2.7 or higher.

  • Photon OS

    TERRAFORM_VERSION="1.2.7"
    OS_PACKAGES="wget unzip"
    
    if [[ $(uname -m) == "x86_64" ]]; then
      LINUX_ARCH="amd64"
    elif [[ $(uname -m) == "aarch64" ]]; then
      LINUX_ARCH="arm64"
    fi
    
    tdnf install ${OS_PACKAGES} -y
    
    wget -q https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/${TERRAFORM_VERSION}/terraform_${TERRAFORM_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip
    
    unzip -o -d /usr/local/bin/ terraform_${TERRAFORM_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip

  • Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install terraform

  • macOS

    brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform

• Gomplate 3.11.2 or higher.

  • Ubuntu

    GOMPLATE_VERSION="3.11.2"
    
    sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/gomplate -sSL https://github.com/hairyhenderson/gomplate/releases/download/v${GOMPLATE_VERSION}/gomplate_linux-${LINUX_ARCH}
    
    sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/gomplate

  • macOS

    brew install gomplate

Platform:

• VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 3D or higher

Configuration

Step 1 - Download the Release

Download the latest release.

You may also clone main for the latest prerelease updates.

Example:

git clone https://github.com/vmware-samples/packer-examples-for-vsphere.git

The directory structure of the repository.

├── build.sh
├── config.sh
├── set-envvars.sh
├── LICENSE
├── NOTICE
├── README.md
├── ansible
│   ├── roles
│   │   └── <role>
│   │       └── *.yml
│   ├── ansible.cfg
│   └── main.yml
├── artifacts
├── builds
│   ├── ansible.pkvars.hcl.example
│   ├── build.pkvars.hcl.example
│   ├── common.pkvars.hcl.example
│   ├── proxy.pkvars.hcl.example
│   ├── rhsm.pkvars.hcl.example
|   |── scc.pkvars.hcl.example
│   ├── vsphere.pkvars.hcl.example
│   ├── linux
│   │   └── <distribution>
│   │       └── <version>
│   │           ├── *.pkr.hcl
│   │           ├── *.auto.pkrvars.hcl
│   │           └── data
│   │               └── ks.pkrtpl.hcl
│   └── windows
│       └── <distribution>
│           └── <version>
│               ├── *.pkr.hcl
│               ├── *.auto.pkrvars.hcl
│               └── data
│                   └── autounattend.pkrtpl.hcl
├── manifests
├── scripts
│   └── windows
│       └── *.ps1
└── terraform
    │── vsphere-role
    └── vsphere-virtual-machine

The files are distributed in the following directories.

• ansible - contains the Ansible roles to prepare Linux machine image builds.
• artifacts - contains the OVF artifacts exported by the builds, if enabled.
• builds - contains the templates, variables, and configuration files for the machine image builds.
• scripts - contains the scripts to initialize and prepare Windows machine image builds.
• manifests - manifests created after the completion of the machine image builds.
• terraform - contains example Terraform plans to create a custom role and test machine image builds.

Warning

When forking the project for upstream contribution, please be mindful not to make changes that may expose your sensitive information, such as passwords, keys, certificates, etc.

Step 2 - Guest Operating Systems ISOs

The project supports configuring the ISO from either a datastore or URL source. By default, the project uses the datastore source.

Follow the steps below to configure either option.

Using a Datastore Source

If you are using a datastore to store your guest operating system .iso files, you must download and upload these to a datastore path.

1. Download the x64 guest operating system .iso files.

   Linux Distributions:

   • VMware Photon OS 4
     • Download the 4.0 Rev2 release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g. photon-4.0-xxxxxxxxx.iso)
   • Debian 11
     • Download the latest netinst release .iso image. (e.g. debian-11.x.0-amd64-netinst.iso)
   • Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
     • Download the latest LIVE release .iso image. (e.g., ubuntu-22.04.x-live-server-amd64.iso)
   • Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS
     • Download the latest LIVE release .iso image. (e.g., ubuntu-20.04.x-live-server-amd64.iso)
   • Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS
     • Download the latest legacy NON-LIVE release .iso image. (e.g., ubuntu-18.04.x-server-amd64.iso)
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Server
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., rhel-baseos-9.x-x86_64-dvd.iso)
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Server
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., rhel-8.x-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., rhel-server-7.x-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • AlmaLinux OS 9
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., AlmaLinux-9.x-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • AlmaLinux OS 8
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., AlmaLinux-8.x-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • Rocky Linux 9
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., Rocky-9.x-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • Rocky Linux 8
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., Rocky-8.x-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • CentOS Stream 9
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., CentOS-Stream-9-latest-x86_64-dvd1.iso)
   • CentOS Stream 8
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., CentOS-Stream-8-x86_64-latest-dvd1.iso)
   • CentOS Linux 7
     • Download the latest release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD.iso)
   • SUSE Linux Enterprise 15
     • Download the latest 15.3 release of the FULL .iso image. (e.g., SLE-15-SP3-Full-x86_64-GM-Media1.iso)

   Microsoft Windows:

   • Microsoft Windows Server 2022
   • Microsoft Windows Server 2019
   • Microsoft Windows 11
   • Microsoft Windows 10

2. Obtain the checksum type (e.g., sha256, md5, etc.) and checksum value for each guest operating system .iso from the vendor. This will be use in the build input variables.

3. Upload or your guest operating system .iso files to the datastore and update the configuration variables, leaving the iso_url variable as null.

   Example: config/common.pkvars.hcl

   common_iso_datastore = "sfo-w01-cl01-ds-nfs01"

   Example: builds/<type>/<build>/*.auto.pkvars.hcl

   iso_url            = null
   iso_path           = "iso/linux/photon"
   iso_file           = "photon-4.0-xxxxxxxxx.iso"
   iso_checksum_type  = "md5"
   iso_checksum_value = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Using a URL Source

If you are using a URL source to obtain your guest operating system .iso files, you must update the input variables to use the URL source.

Update the iso_url variable to download the .iso from a URL. The iso_url variable takes presedence over any other iso_* variables.

Example: builds/<type>/<build>/*.auto.pkvars.hcl

iso_url = "https://artifactory.rainpole.io/iso/linux/photon/4.0/x86_64/photon-4.0-xxxxxxxxx.iso"

Step 3 - Configure Service Account Privileges in vSphere

Create a custom vSphere role with the required privileges to integrate HashiCorp Packer with VMware vSphere. A service account can be added to the role to ensure that Packer has least privilege access to the infrastructure. Clone the default Read-Only vSphere role and add the following privileges:

Category	Privilege	Reference
Content Library	Add library item	ContentLibrary.AddLibraryItem
...	Update Library Item	ContentLibrary.UpdateLibraryItem
Datastore	Allocate space	Datastore.AllocateSpace
...	Browse datastore	Datastore.Browse
...	Low level file operations	Datastore.Browse
Network	Assign network	Network.Assign
Resource	Assign virtual machine to resource pool	Resource.AssignVMToPool
vApp	Export	vApp.Export
Virtual Machine	Configuration > Add new disk	VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk
...	Configuration > Add or remove device	VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
...	Configuration > Advanced configuration	VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
...	Configuration > Change CPU count	VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
...	Configuration > Change memory	VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
...	Configuration > Change settings	VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
...	Configuration > Change Resource	VirtualMachine.Config.Resource
...	Configuration > Set annotation	VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
...	Edit Inventory > Create from existing	VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
...	Edit Inventory > Create new	VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create
...	Edit Inventory > Remove	VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
...	Interaction > Configure CD media	VirtualMachine.Interact.SetCDMedia
...	Interaction > Configure floppy media	VirtualMachine.Interact.SetFloppyMedia
...	Interaction > Connect devices	VirtualMachine.Interact.DeviceConnection
...	Interaction > Inject USB HID scan codes	VirtualMachine.Interact.PutUsbScanCodes
...	Interaction > Power off	VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
...	Interaction > Power on	VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
...	Provisioning > Create template from virtual machine	VirtualMachine.Provisioning.CreateTemplateFromVM
...	Provisioning > Mark as template	VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsTemplate
...	Provisioning > Mark as virtual machine	VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsVM
...	State > Create snapshot	VirtualMachine.State.CreateSnapshot

If you would like to automate the creation of the custom vSphere role, a Terraform example is included in the project.

1. Navigate to the directory for the example.

   cd terraform/vsphere-role

2. Duplicate the terraform.tfvars.example file to terraform.tfvars in the directory.

   cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

3. Open the terraform.tfvars file and update the variables according to your environment.

4. Initialize the current directory and the required Terraform provider for VMware vSphere.

   terraform init

5. Create a Terraform plan and save the output to a file.

   terraform plan -out=tfplan

6. Apply the Terraform plan.

   terraform apply tfplan

Once the custom vSphere role is created, assign Global Permissions in vSphere for the service account used for the HashiCorp Packer to VMware vSphere integration. Global permissions are required for the content library. For example:

1. Log in to the vCenter Server at <management_vcenter_server_fqdn>/ui as administrator@vsphere.local.
2. Select Menu > Administration.
3. In the left pane, select Access control > Global permissions and click the Add permissions icon.
4. In the Add permissions dialog box, enter the service account (e.g., svc-packer-vsphere@rainpole.io), select the custom role (e.g., Packer to vSphere Integration Role) and the Propagate to children check box, and click OK.

In an environment with many vCenter Server instances, such as management and workload domains, you may wish to further reduce the scope of access across the infrastructure in vSphere for the service account. For example, if you do not want Packer to have access to your management domain, but only allow access to workload domains:

1. From the Hosts and clusters inventory, select management domain vCenter Server to restrict scope, and click the Permissions tab.

2. Select the service account with the custom role assigned and click the Change role icon.

3. In the Change role dialog box, from the Role drop-down menu, select No Access, select the Propagate to children check box, and click OK.

Step 4 - Configure the Variables

The variables are defined in .pkvars.hcl files.

Copy the Example Variables

Run the config script ./config.sh to copy the .pkvars.hcl.example files to the config directory.

The config folder is the default folder, You may override the default by passing an alternate value as the first argument.

./config.sh foo
./build.sh foo

For example, this is useful for the purposes of running machine image builds for different environment.

San Francisco: us-west-1

./config.sh config/us-west-1
./build.sh config/us-west-1

Los Angeles: us-west-2

./config.sh config/us-west-2
./build.sh config/us-west-2

Build Variables

Edit the config/build.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following:

• Credentials for the default account on machine images.

Example: config/build.pkvars.hcl

build_username           = "rainpole"
build_password           = "<plaintext_password>"
build_password_encrypted = "<sha512_encrypted_password>"
build_key                = "<public_key>"

You can also override the build_key value with contents of a file, if required.

For example:

build_key = file("${path.root}/config/ssh/build_id_ecdsa.pub")

Generate a SHA-512 encrypted password for the build_password_encrypted using tools like mkpasswd.

Example: mkpasswd using Docker on Photon:

rainpole@photon> sudo systemctl start docker
rainpole@photon> sudo docker run -it --rm alpine:latest
mkpasswd -m sha512
Password: ***************
[password hash]
rainpole@photon> sudo systemctl stop docker

Example: mkpasswd using Docker on macOS:

rainpole@macos> docker run -it --rm alpine:latest
mkpasswd -m sha512
Password: ***************
[password hash]

Example: mkpasswd on Ubuntu:

rainpole@ubuntu> mkpasswd -m sha-512
Password: ***************
[password hash]

Generate a public key for the build_key for public key authentication.

Example: macOS and Linux.

rainpole@macos> cd .ssh/
rainpole@macos ~/.ssh> ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521 -C "code@rainpole.io"
Generating public/private ecdsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/rainpole/.ssh/id_ecdsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): **************
Enter same passphrase again: **************
Your identification has been saved in /Users/rainpole/.ssh/id_ecdsa.
Your public key has been saved in /Users/rainpole/.ssh/id_ecdsa.pub.

The content of the public key, build_key, is added the key to the .ssh/authorized_keys file of the build_username on the guest operating system.

Warning

Replace the default public keys and passwords.

By default, both Public Key Authentication and Password Authentication are enabled for Linux distributions. If you wish to disable Password Authentication and only use Public Key Authentication, comment or remove the portion of the associated Ansible configure role.

Ansible Variables

Edit the config/ansible.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following:

• Credentials for the Ansible account on Linux machine images.

Example: config/ansible.pkvars.hcl

ansible_username = "ansible"
ansible_key      = "<public_key>"

Note

A random password is generated for the Ansible user.

You can also override the ansible_key value with contents of a file, if required.

For example:

ansible_key = file("${path.root}/config/ssh/ansible_id_ecdsa.pub")

Common Variables

Edit the config/common.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following common variables:

• Virtual Machine Settings
• Template and Content Library Settings
• OVF Export Settings
• Removable Media Settings
• Boot and Provisioning Settings

Example: config/common.pkvars.hcl

// Virtual Machine Settings
common_vm_version           = 19
common_tools_upgrade_policy = true
common_remove_cdrom         = true

// Template and Content Library Settings
common_template_conversion     = false
common_content_library_name    = "sfo-w01-lib01"
common_content_library_ovf     = true
common_content_library_destroy = true

// OVF Export Settings
common_ovf_export_enabled   = false
common_ovf_export_overwrite = true

// Removable Media Settings
common_iso_datastore = "sfo-w01-cl01-ds-nfs01"

// Boot and Provisioning Settings
common_data_source      = "http"
common_http_ip          = null
common_http_port_min    = 8000
common_http_port_max    = 8099
common_ip_wait_timeout  = "20m"
common_shutdown_timeout = "15m"

Data Source Options

http is the default provisioning data source for Linux machine image builds.

If iptables is enabled on your Packer host, you will need to open common_http_port_min through common_http_port_max ports.

Example: Open a port range in iptables.

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --match multiport --dports 8000:8099 -j ACCEPT`

You can change the common_data_source from http to disk to build supported Linux machine images without the need to use Packer's HTTP server. This is useful for environments that may not be able to route back to the system from which Packer is running.

The cd_content option is used when selecting disk unless the distribution does not support a secondary CD-ROM. For distributions that do not support a secondary CD-ROM the floppy_content option is used.

common_data_source = "disk"

HTTP Binding (Optional)

If you need to define a specific IPv4 address from your host for Packer's HTTP Server, modify the common_http_ip variable from null to a string value that matches an IP address on your Packer host. For example:

common_http_ip = "172.16.11.254"

Proxy Variables (Optional)

Edit the config/proxy.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following:

• SOCKS proxy settings used for connecting to Linux machine images.
• Credentials for the proxy server.

Example: config/proxy.pkvars.hcl

communicator_proxy_host     = "proxy.rainpole.io"
communicator_proxy_port     = 8080
communicator_proxy_username = "rainpole"
communicator_proxy_password = "<plaintext_password>"

Red Hat Subscription Manager Variables

Edit the config/redhat.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following:

• Credentials for your Red Hat Subscription Manager account.

Example: config/redhat.pkvars.hcl

rhsm_username = "rainpole"
rhsm_password = "<plaintext_password>"

These variables are only used if you are performing a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server build and are used to register the image with Red Hat Subscription Manager during the build for system updates and package installation. Before the build completes, the machine image is unregistered from Red Hat Subscription Manager.

SUSE Customer Connect Variables

Edit the config/scc.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following:

• Credentials for your SUSE Customer Connect account.

Example: config/scc.pkvars.hcl

scc_email = "hello@rainpole.io"
scc_code = "<plaintext_code>"

These variables are only used if you are performing a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server build and are used to register the image with SUSE Customer Connect during the build for system updates and package installation. Before the build completes, the machine image is unregistered from SUSE Customer Connect.

vSphere Variables

Edit the builds/vsphere.pkvars.hcl file to configure the following:

• vSphere Endpoint and Credentials
• vSphere Settings

Example: config/vsphere.pkvars.hcl

vsphere_endpoint             = "sfo-w01-vc01.sfo.rainpole.io"
vsphere_username             = "svc-packer-vsphere@rainpole.io"
vsphere_password             = "<plaintext_password>"
vsphere_insecure_connection  = true
vsphere_datacenter           = "sfo-w01-dc01"
vsphere_cluster              = "sfo-w01-cl01"
vsphere_datastore            = "sfo-w01-cl01-ds-vsan01"
vsphere_network              = "sfo-w01-seg-dhcp"
vsphere_folder               = "sfo-w01-fd-templates"

Using Environment Variables

If you prefer not to save sensitive potentially information in cleartext files, you add the variables to environmental variables using the included set-envvars.sh script:

rainpole@macos> . ./set-envvars.sh

Note

You need to run the script as source or the shorthand ".".

Machine Image Variables (Optional)

Edit the *.auto.pkvars.hcl file in each builds/<type>/<build> folder to configure the following virtual machine hardware settings, as required:

• CPU Sockets (int)

• CPU Cores (int)

• Memory in MB (int)

• Primary Disk in MB (int)

• .iso Path (string)

• .iso File (string)

• .iso Checksum Type (string)

• .iso Checksum Value (string)

  Note

  All variables.auto.pkvars.hcl default to using the VMware Paravirtual SCSI controller and the VMXNET 3 network card device types.

Step 5 - Modify the Configurations (Optional)

If required, modify the configuration files for the Linux distributions and Microsoft Windows.

Linux Distribution Kickstart and Ansible Roles

Username and password variables are passed into the kickstart or cloud-init files for each Linux distribution as Packer template files (.pkrtpl.hcl) to generate these on-demand. Ansible roles are then used to configure the Linux machine image builds.

Microsoft Windows Unattended amd Scripts

Variables are passed into the Microsoft Windows unattend files (autounattend.xml) as Packer template files (autounattend.pkrtpl.hcl) to generate these on-demand. By default, each unattended file is set to use the KMS client setup keys as the Product Key.

PowerShell scripts are used to configure the Windows machine image builds.

Need help customizing the configuration files?

• VMware Photon OS - Read the Photon OS Kickstart Documentation.

• Ubuntu Server - Install and run system-config-kickstart on a Ubuntu desktop.

  sudo apt-get install system-config-kickstart
  ssh -X rainpole@ubuntu
  sudo system-config-kickstart

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (as well as CentOS Linux/Stream, AlmaLinux OS, and Rocky Linux) - Use the Red Hat Kickstart Generator.

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server - Use the SUSE Configuration Management System.

• Microsoft Windows - Use the Microsoft Windows Answer File Generator if you need to customize the provided examples further.

Build

Build with Variables Files

Start a build by running the build script (./build.sh). The script presents a menu the which simply calls Packer and the respective build(s).

You can also start a build based on a specific source for some of the virtual machine images.

For example, if you simply want to build a Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Standard Core, run the following:

Initialize the plugins:

rainpole@macos> packer init builds/windows/server/2022/.

Build a specific machine image:

rainpole@macos> packer build -force \
      --only vsphere-iso.windows-server-standard-core \
      -var-file="config/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl" \
      -var-file="config/build.pkrvars.hcl" \
      -var-file="config/common.pkrvars.hcl" \
      builds/windows/server/2022

Build with Environmental Variables

You can set your environment variables if you would prefer not to save sensitive information in cleartext files.

You can add these to environmental variables using the included set-envvars.sh script.

rainpole@macos> . ./set-envvars.sh

Note

You need to run the script as source or the shorthand ".".

Initialize the plugins:

rainpole@macos> packer init builds/windows/server/2022/.

Build a specific machine image using environmental variables:

rainpole@macos> packer build -force \
      --only vsphere-iso.windows-server-standard-core \
      builds/windows/server/2022

Generate a Custom Build Script

The build script (./build.sh) can be generated using a template (./build.tmpl) and a configuration file in YAML (./build.yaml).

Generate a custom build script:

rainpole@macos> gomplate -c build.yaml -f build.tmpl -o build.sh

Happy building!!!

Troubleshoot

• Read Debugging Packer Builds.

Credits

• Owen Reynolds @OVDamn

  VMware Tools for Windows installation PowerShell script.