Packer vSphere Cloud-Init

This repo contains templates that are specifically configured to be built with HashiCorp Packer and utilize Cloud-Init as the customization engine on VMware vSphere

Requirements

• HashiCorp Packer 1.78
• mkpasswd
  • Ubuntu - apt install whois
• Internet Connection - Packer will download the Ubuntu ISO from the internet

Usage/Examples

Build Credentials

1. Generate your SSH keys by running create-ssh-keys.sh
2. Copy the contents of the packer.pub file
3. Paste the contents on line 12 of templates/build.pkrvars.hcl
4. Edit the build_username on line 9 of templates/build.pkrvars.hcl
5. Edit the build_password on line 10 of templates/build.pkrvars.hcl
6. In a linux terminal run mkpasswd -m sha-512 and enter your desired password
7. Copy the output and edit the build_password_encrypted on line 11 of templates/build.pkrvars.hcl

vSphere Credentials

1. Edit the vsphere_endpoint variable on line 8 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl
2. Edit the vsphere_username variable on line 9 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl
3. Edit the vsphere_password variable on line 10 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl

vSphere Settings

1. Edit the vsphere_datacenter variable on line 14 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl
2. Edit the vsphere_cluster variable on line 15 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl
3. Edit the vsphere_datastore variable on line 16 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl
4. Edit the vsphere_network variable on line 17 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl
5. Edit the vsphere_folder variable on line 18 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl If these folders don't exist, Packer will create them.

Virtual Machine Settings

1. Edit the vsphere_vm_version variable on line 22 of templates/vsphere.pkrvars.hcl to match the version your environment supports

Run

1. Run build-ubuntu-20.sh

FAQ

I'm getting an error when Packer runs saying it can't find the ISO

• This Packer setup downloads the Ubuntu Server ISO from a pre-determined URL located in templates/ubuntu/20/linux-ubuntu-server.auto.pkrvars.hcl
• You can change the URL to something else or a newer release and re-run Packer
• Packer may throw an error for a checksum mismatch and if it does you can copy the new value output via the terminal to the config file so that they match

Acknowledgements

• Rainpole Packer Templates for vSphere
• Grant Orchard's Blog

Roadmap

• Add dynamic fetching of public ssh key during build instead of manually requiring variable changes in build.hcl

• Add additional distro's

  • CentOS