packer

Packer Project :

Builders :

There are many builder plugins - this project will look only at virtualbox and vmware

• virtualbox see

• vmware see

• This project uses templates written in hcl2 format

Environment

• Windows 10 Home Edition
• Windows Services for Linux 2 1.1.3.0
  • Oracle Linux 8.5

  $echo "alias 'packer=/mnt/c/HashiCorp/Packer/bin/packer.exe'" >> ~/.bashrc

• Packer AMD64 1.8.6
• VMware Workstation 16 Player 16.2.5
• Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager 7.0.6

Project

cd packer

$packer validate templates/rhel8/gold.pkr.hcl

$packer fmt templates/rhel8/gold.pkr.hcl

$update-gold-md5 (Get the ISO md5)

$packer build templates/rhel8/gold.pkr.hcl

$revert-md5-placeholder (Remove the ISO md5)

Usage

For convenience - added small noddy script to clean up the info.json and gold.pkr.hcl before and after builds

$create-packer-iso <format|validate|build|force>

Running packer build will create a build folder containing both an OVF and a VMDK and also output a Vagrant BOX file.

Right click on the OVF and Open-With either Virtualbox or VMware Workstation Player to import and create new VMs

Edit any settings cush as the VM name then select ‘Finish’ and wait for the ‘Importing appliance …’ process to complete which will build a new VM in a powered off state.

Even though this Packer template has not yet created a vmware image - we can still import the OVF into VMware Workstation Player - you will be prompted to set a name and the location. When ready hit the ‘Import’ button and wait. Unlike VirtualBox these VMs will be created in a powered on state.

You may see this prompt - just hit ‘Retry’ and the image will be imported and VMs created.

Example

This is what the packer build process looks like…

$packer build templates/rhel8/gold.pkr.hcl

Using the BOX with Vagrant

You may now ADD the Vagrant BOX and procede as per Vagrant instructions.

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