Packer Vmware Template

Contents

• Introduction
• Requirements
• Installation
• Configuration

INTRODUCTION

Packer templates for building VMware Images from Ubuntu ISOs

WHAT IT DOES

• Download the Ubuntu ISO.
• Creates a Vmware virtual machine.
• Builds the image with packer using automated installs (preseed file).
• Converts VM to template and stores is specified folder.

Requirements

The build script is designed to run in a vcenter environment using vcenter APIs. The following prerequisites should be installed on the control host with access to VCenter server url.

• Install packer
• Install j2cli
• Install ansible
• Install inspec

Installation

1. Clone the repo
2. edit the build.conf fle and add variables for the packer config file
3. Run build.sh deploy

Configuration

Configurable parameters

• ssh_username
• vcenter_server
• datastore
• folder
• cluster
• resource_pool
• network

ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES

Enter passwords when prompted or provide them via ENV Variables

export vcenter_username=candycorn
export vcenter_password=candyworm
export ssh_username=candybear
export ssh_password=candyfrog

OTHERS

The create-env script creates a python virtual environment where you can run the deployment. The dockerfile creates a docker image with ansible, packer and inspect for dockerized deployments.