Allow Architecture configuration in the VMWARE-ISO Builder for arm64/aarch64

[MarkProminic]

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Description

When the ESXI-Arm fling came out I was giddy with excitement about where this could lead. In my process of trying to get OctoPi installed on my freshly install ESXI 7 Raspberry Pi v4. I found that it wasn't super easy to convert everything over. So In their source, they include instructions for Vagrant, but since the Vagrant image uses debian\buster64 (arm64) and is only build for Virtualbox. I thought, how hard can it be to get Packer to build for ESXI on Raspberry Pi if I can get it to work on ESXI x86.

Well, after some trial an error creating a Packer json build file for it, I found that there is one setting left that I can't change in the builder variables. That is the Architecture in the VMX file:

architecture = "arm64"

is the variable in the VMX that I need to adjust, and I have confirmed that after adjusting this variable, I was able to get the invalid VMX configuration to change to valid an the VM would boot up.

I've searched the Github repo and I can see that there was a Architecture flag added for AWS/AMI instances. Would it be possible to get this flag added to the VMWare-ISO Module?

Use Case(s)

The ability to build and protoype different OS's rapidly on ESXI-Arm.

Working Configuration

.encoding = "UTF-8"
RemoteDisplay.maxConnections = "-1"
architecture = "arm64"
bios.bootorder = "hdd,cdrom"
cleanshutdown = "TRUE"
config.version = "8"
displayname = "DebianBuster641"
ehci.pcislotnumber = "34"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.bsdname = "en0"
ethernet0.connectiontype = "nat"
ethernet0.displayname = "Ethernet"
ethernet0.linkstatepropagation.enable = "FALSE"
ethernet0.pcislotnumber = "33"
extendedconfigfile = "DebianBuster641.vmxf"
firmware = "efi"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
guestos = "debian10-64"
gui.fullscreenatpoweron = "FALSE"
gui.viewmodeatpoweron = "windowed"
hgfs.linkrootshare = "TRUE"
hgfs.maprootshare = "TRUE"
isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"
memsize = "4096"
msg.autoanswer = "true"
numvcpus = "2"
nvme0.present = "FALSE"
nvram = "DebianBuster641.nvram"
parallel0.autodetect = "FALSE"
parallel0.filename = ""
parallel0.present = "FALSE"
parallel0.startconnected = "FALSE"
pcibridge0.pcislotnumber = "17"
pcibridge0.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge4.functions = "8"
pcibridge4.pcislotnumber = "21"
pcibridge4.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge4.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
pcibridge5.functions = "8"
pcibridge5.pcislotnumber = "22"
pcibridge5.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge5.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
pcibridge6.functions = "8"
pcibridge6.pcislotnumber = "23"
pcibridge6.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge6.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
pcibridge7.functions = "8"
pcibridge7.pcislotnumber = "24"
pcibridge7.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge7.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
powertype.poweron = "soft"
powertype.suspend = "soft"
proxyapps.publishtohost = "FALSE"
replay.supported = "FALSE"
sched.cpu.affinity = "all"
sched.cpu.latencySensitivity = "normal"
sched.cpu.min = "0"
sched.cpu.shares = "normal"
sched.cpu.units = "mhz"
sched.mem.min = "0"
sched.mem.minSize = "0"
sched.mem.shares = "normal"
sched.scsi0:0.shares = "normal"
sched.scsi0:0.throughputCap = "off"
scsi0.pcislotnumber = "16"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualdev = "pvscsi"
scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:0.filename = "disk.vmdk"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.autodetect = "FALSE"
serial0.filename = ""
serial0.filetype = ""
serial0.pipe.endpoint = ""
serial0.present = "FALSE"
serial0.startconnected = "FALSE"
serial0.trynorxloss = ""
serial0.yieldonmsrread = ""
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.present = "FALSE"
sound.startconnected = "FALSE"
svga.autodetect = "TRUE"
toolScripts.afterPowerOn = "TRUE"
toolScripts.afterResume = "TRUE"
toolScripts.beforePowerOff = "TRUE"
toolScripts.beforeSuspend = "TRUE"
tools.guest.desktop.autolock = "FALSE"
tools.synctime = "FALSE"
tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"
usb.pcislotnumber = "32"
usb.present = "FALSE"
uuid.action = "create"
virtualhw.productcompatibility = "hosted"
virtualhw.version = "17"
vmci0.id = "1861462627"
vmci0.pcislotnumber = "35"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
vmotion.checkpointfbsize = "65536000"

Currently Generated Packer Configuration:

.encoding = "UTF-8"
RemoteDisplay.maxConnections = "-1"
bios.bootorder = "hdd,cdrom"
cleanshutdown = "TRUE"
config.version = "8"
displayname = "DebianBuster641"
ehci.pcislotnumber = "34"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.bsdname = "en0"
ethernet0.connectiontype = "nat"
ethernet0.displayname = "Ethernet"
ethernet0.linkstatepropagation.enable = "FALSE"
ethernet0.pcislotnumber = "33"
extendedconfigfile = "DebianBuster641.vmxf"
firmware = "efi"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
guestos = "debian10-64"
gui.fullscreenatpoweron = "FALSE"
gui.viewmodeatpoweron = "windowed"
hgfs.linkrootshare = "TRUE"
hgfs.maprootshare = "TRUE"
isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"
memsize = "4096"
msg.autoanswer = "true"
numvcpus = "2"
nvme0.present = "FALSE"
nvram = "DebianBuster641.nvram"
parallel0.autodetect = "FALSE"
parallel0.filename = ""
parallel0.present = "FALSE"
parallel0.startconnected = "FALSE"
pcibridge0.pcislotnumber = "17"
pcibridge0.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge4.functions = "8"
pcibridge4.pcislotnumber = "21"
pcibridge4.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge4.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
pcibridge5.functions = "8"
pcibridge5.pcislotnumber = "22"
pcibridge5.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge5.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
pcibridge6.functions = "8"
pcibridge6.pcislotnumber = "23"
pcibridge6.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge6.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
pcibridge7.functions = "8"
pcibridge7.pcislotnumber = "24"
pcibridge7.present = "TRUE"
pcibridge7.virtualdev = "pcieRootPort"
powertype.poweron = "soft"
powertype.suspend = "soft"
proxyapps.publishtohost = "FALSE"
replay.supported = "FALSE"
sched.cpu.affinity = "all"
sched.cpu.latencySensitivity = "normal"
sched.cpu.min = "0"
sched.cpu.shares = "normal"
sched.cpu.units = "mhz"
sched.mem.min = "0"
sched.mem.minSize = "0"
sched.mem.shares = "normal"
sched.scsi0:0.shares = "normal"
sched.scsi0:0.throughputCap = "off"
scsi0.pcislotnumber = "16"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualdev = "pvscsi"
scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:0.filename = "disk.vmdk"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.autodetect = "FALSE"
serial0.filename = ""
serial0.filetype = ""
serial0.pipe.endpoint = ""
serial0.present = "FALSE"
serial0.startconnected = "FALSE"
serial0.trynorxloss = ""
serial0.yieldonmsrread = ""
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.present = "FALSE"
sound.startconnected = "FALSE"
svga.autodetect = "TRUE"
toolScripts.afterPowerOn = "TRUE"
toolScripts.afterResume = "TRUE"
toolScripts.beforePowerOff = "TRUE"
toolScripts.beforeSuspend = "TRUE"
tools.guest.desktop.autolock = "FALSE"
tools.synctime = "FALSE"
tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"
usb.pcislotnumber = "32"
usb.present = "FALSE"
uuid.action = "create"
virtualhw.productcompatibility = "hosted"
virtualhw.version = "17"
vmci0.id = "1861462627"
vmci0.pcislotnumber = "35"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
vmotion.checkpointfbsize = "65536000"

Current JSON Build File

{
    "builders": [
      {
        "name": "DebianBuster641",
        "type": "vmware-iso",
        "vm_name": "DebianBuster641",
        "network": "lan",
        "guest_os_type": "debian11-64",
        "tools_upload_flavor": "linux",
        "headless": true,
        "vnc_over_websocket": true,
        "insecure_connection": true,
  
        "iso_urls": ["iso/ubuntu-18.04.5-server-amd64.iso",
        "http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/18.04/release/ubuntu-18.04.5-server-amd64.iso"
        ],
        "iso_checksum": "8c5fc24894394035402f66f3824beb7234b757dd2b5531379cb310cedfdf0996",
  
        "cpus": 2,
        "memory": 4096,
        "disk_size": 20140,
        "disk_type_id": "thin",
  
        "boot_wait": "10s",
        "boot_command": [
          "<esc><wait>",
          "<esc><wait>",
          "<enter><wait>",
          "/install/vmlinuz",
          " initrd=/install/initrd.gz ",
          "auto=true ",
          "url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/G0nz0uk/22afe85abc8a1b008602f79b381ea262/raw/ef166effdbdc12b6dc00e40fe5e194181a6b06d4/preseed1.cfg ",
          "fb=false ",
          "auto=true ",
          "language=en ",
          "locale=en_GB ",
          "priority=critical ",
          "keymap=uk ",
          "netcfg/get_hostname={{ .Name }} ",
          "netcfg/get_domain=vm ",
          "debconf/frontend=noninteractive ",
          "debian-installer/country=US ",
          "console-setup/ask_detect=false ",
          "console-keymaps-US/keymap=us ",
          "DEBCONF_DEBUG=5 ",
          "<enter>"
        ],
  
        "ssh_username": "vagrant",
        "ssh_password": "vagrant",
        "ssh_port": 22,
        "ssh_wait_timeout": "20m",
        "shutdown_command": "sudo systemctl poweroff",
  
        "vnc_disable_password": true,
        "format": "vmx",
        "remote_type": "esx5",
		"version": 17,
        "remote_host": "{{user `esxi_host`}}",
        "remote_datastore": "{{user `esxi_datastore`}}",
        "remote_username": "{{user `esxi_username`}}",
        "remote_password": "{{user `esxi_password`}}",
        "keep_registered": true,
        "skip_export": true
        ,
        "vmx_data": {
        "ethernet0.networkName": "lan"
        }
      }
    ],
    
  "provisioners": [
      {
        "type": "shell",
        "execute_command": "echo '{{user `ssh_password`}}' | {{ .Vars }} sudo -E -S sh '{{ .Path }}'",
        "inline": [
          "apt-get update",
          "apt-get install -y",
          "echo '%sudo    ALL=(ALL)  NOPASSWD:ALL' >> /etc/sudoers"
        ]  
      }         
   ]
}
 

References to get me this far

https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2020/10/how-to-run-raspberry-pi-os-as-a-vm-on-esxi-arm.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/lemdr4/trying_to_use_packer_with_single_esxi_host_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/lfbzw9/packer_almost_working_with_my_esxi_host_lab_just/

[github-actions]

This issue has been migrated to hashicorp/packer-plugin-vmware#45 due to the Packer Plugin split.

Please follow the new issue for updates.

[github-actions]

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