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packer-build

Why does this exist?

Because.

What does this do?

These Packer templates and associated files may be used to build fresh virtual machine images for Vagrant, VirtualBox and QEMU.

The resulting virtual machine image files may be used as bootable systems on real machines and the provided preseed files may also be used to install identical systems on bare metal as well.

Who needs this?

Everyone.

How does this work?

Magic.

What dependencies does this have?

These templates are tested regularly on Linux (Debian Jessie 8.x) and Mac OS X (El Capitan 10.11.x) using recent versions of Packer and Vagrant. All testing is currently done on systems that have amd64/x86_64-family processors.

The QEMU and VirtualBox versions used for Linux testing are always the "stock" ones provided by the official Debian repositories.

  • QEMU (qemu-kvm)
    • 2.1.2 (Debian 1:2.1+dfsg-12+deb8u5a) on Debian Jessie 8.x

Currently, Vagrant does not support QEMU as an official provider but there are 3rd party plugins that add this functionality.

Using Packer Templates

Usage:

./vbox.sh [PACKER_OPTIONS] PACKER_TEMPLATE
./qemu.sh [PACKER_OPTIONS] PACKER_TEMPLATE

Examples:

./vbox.sh ubuntu/trusty/base-trusty64.json
./vbox.sh -var vm_name=test debian/jessie/base-jessie64.json
./qemu.sh -var version=2.0.0 debian/stretch/base-stretch32.json

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=foo AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=bar packer build \
    -only=aws debian/jessie/base-jessie64.json

packer build -var aws_access_key=foo -var aws_secret_key=bar \
    -only=aws debian/jessie/base-jessie64.json

packer build -var-file=my_vars.json \
    -only=aws debian/jessie/base-jessie64.json

Contents of example file my_vars.json used above:

{
  "aws_access_key": "foo",
  "aws_secret_key": "bar"
}

To verify your templates, force them to be re-sorted and/or to upgrade your templates whenever the version of Packer changes:

./generate_templates.sh

Using Vagrant Box Files

A Vagrant box file is actually a regular gzippped tar archive containing...

  • box.ovf - Open Virtualization Format XML descriptor file
  • nameofmachine-disk1.vmdk - a virtual hard drive image file
  • Vagrantfile - derived from 'Vagrantfile.template'
  • metadata.json - containing just '{ "provider": "virtualbox" }'

An OVA file is actually a regular tar archive containing identical copies of the first 2 files that you would normally see in a Vagrant box file (but the OVF file may be named nameofmachine.ovf and it must be the first file or VirtualBox will get confused).

To create and use a Vagrant box file without a dedicated Vagrantfile:

packer build -only=vbox -var version=1.0.0 debian/jessie/base-jessie64.json
vagrant box add myname/jessie64 build/2015-06-31-12-34/base-jessie64-1.0.0.virtualbox.box
vagrant init myname/jessie64
vagrant up
vagrant ssh
...
vagrant destroy

In order to version things and self-host the box files, you will need to create a JSON file containing the following:

{
  "name": "base-jessie64",
  "description": "Base box for 64-bit x86 Debian Jessie 8.x",
  "versions": [
    {
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "providers": [
        {
          "name": "virtualbox",
          "url": "http://server/vm/base-jessie64/base-jessie64-1.0.0-virtualbox.box",
          "checksum_type": "sha256",
          "checksum": "THESHA256SUMOFTHEBOXFILE"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Then, simply make sure you point your Vagrantfile at this version payload:

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "base-jessie64"
  config.vm.box_url = "http://server/vm/base-jessie64/base-jessie64.json"

  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true
end

Making Bootable Drives

For best results, you should use the Packer QEMU "kvm" builder when trying to create bootable images to be used on real hardware. This allows the use of the "raw" block device format which is ideal for writing directly directly to USB and SATA drives. Alternately, you may use "qemu-img convert" or "vbox-img convert" to convert an exiting image in another format to raw mode:

packer build -only=qemu debian/jessie/base-64.json
zcat build/2015-06-31-12-34/base-jessie-64.raw.gz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
grub-install /dev/sdb

... Or, if you just want to "boot" it:

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 512 build/2015-06-31-12-34/base-jessie-64.raw

Overriding Local ISO Cache Location

You may override the default directory used instead of 'packer_cache' by specifying it with the environment variable 'PACKER_CACHE_DIR':

PACKER_CACHE_DIR=/tmp packer build -only=vbox debian/jessie/base-64.json

Disabling Hashicorp Checkpoint Version Checks

Both Packer and Vagrant will contact Hashicorp with some anonymous information each time it is being run for the purposes of announcing new versions and other alerts. If you would prefer to disable this feature, simply add the following environment variables:

CHECKPOINT_DISABLE=1
VAGRANT_CHECKPOINT_DISABLE=1

UEFI Booting on VirtualBox

It isn't necessary to perform this step when running on real hardware, however, VirtualBox (4.3.28) seems to have a problem if you don't perform this step.

To examine the actual contents of the file after editing it:

hexdump /boot/efi/startup.nsh

Using the EFI Shell Editor

To enter the UEFI shell text editor from the UEFI prompt:

edit startup.nsh

Type in the stuff to add to the file (the path to the UEFI blob):

FS0:\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi

To exit the UEFI shell text editor:

^S
^Q

Hex Result:

0000000 feff 0046 0053 0030 003a 005c 0045 0046
0000010 0049 005c 0064 0065 0062 0069 0061 006e
0000020 005c 0067 0072 0075 0062 0078 0036 0034
0000030 002e 0065 0066 0069
0000038

Using Any Old 'nix' Text Editor

To populate the file in a similar manner to the UEFI Shell method above:

echo 'FS0:\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi' > /boot/efi/startup.nsh

Hex Result:

0000000 5346 3a30 455c 4946 645c 6265 6169 5c6e
0000010 7267 6275 3678 2e34 6665 0a69
000001c

Serving Local Files via HTTP

./sow.py

Caching Debian/Ubuntu Packages

If you wish to speed up fetching lots of Debian and/or Ubuntu packages, you should probably install "apt-cacher-ng" on a machine and then add the following to each machine that should use the new cache:

echo "Acquire::http::Proxy 'http://localhost:3142';" >>\
    /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99apt-cacher-ng

You must re-run "apt-cache update" each time you add or remove a proxy. If you populate the "d-i http/proxy string" value in your preseed file, all this stuff will have been done for you already.

Preseed Documentation

Other

Why did you use the Ubuntu Server installer to create desktop systems?

Offical ISO Files

Debian

Ubuntu

Distro Release Names

Debian

  • Buster (10.x); released on 20??-??-??, supported until 20??-??
  • Stretch (9.x); released on 20??-??-??, supported until 20??-??
  • Jessie (8.x); released on 2015-04-25, supported until 2020-0[45]
  • Wheezy (7.x); released on 2013-05-04, supported until 2018-05

Ubuntu

  • Y? Y? (16.10); released on 2016-10-??, supported until 20??-??
  • Xenial Xerus (16.04 LTS); released on 2016-04-21, supported until 2021-04
  • Wily Werewolf (15.10); released on 2015-10-22, supported until 2016-07
  • Trusty Tahr (14.04 LTS); released on 2014-04-17, supported until 2019-04
  • Precise Pangolin (12.04 LTS); released on 2012-04-26, supported until 2017-04-26

About

Packer Automated VM Image and Vagrant Box Builds

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Readme

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GPL-3.0 license
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