I’ve been recently working on using packer to create vagrant .box files rather than manually creating them as I documented in a previous post. For this post I will be using fusion and the vagrant vmware provider, each of which have an associated cost, but I will cover a free alternative using packer and CentOS in a future post.
Several github projects by gosddc have helped me in getting packer up and running on my Macbook:
gosddc/packer-post-processor-vagrant-vmware-ovf. This repo contains a packer post processor that leverages VMware OVF Tool to create a vmware_ovf Vagrant box that is compatible with vagrant-vcloud, vagrant-vcenter and vagrant-vcloudair vagrant providers. It is only compatible with the packer VMware builder.
gosddc/packer-templates. This repo contains Packer templates for boxes available at https://vagrantcloud.com/gosddc, they only work with VMware and require the packer-post-processor-vagrant-vmware-ovf post-processor to work. These templates are a good starting point for generating pakcer templates on VMware products.
1. Let’s get started by installing packer.
- Download packer from the following link:
https://www.packer.io/downloads.html
Unzip the downloaded files to /usr/local/packer_7.5:
Add /usr/local/packer_7.5 to your path by running the following command.
sdorsett-mbp:~ sdorsett$ export PATH="/usr/local/packer_7.5:$PATH"- Add the export command we just ran into ~/.bash_profile to ensure this path change persists after reboots.
sdorsett-mbp:~ sdorsett$ cat ~/.bash_profile
export PATH="/usr/local/packer_7.5:$PATH"
sdorsett-mbp:~ sdorsett$2. Next we need to download and install VMware ovftool, since the vagrant-vmware-ovf requires it.
Download and install the latest version of the VMware OVF tool. VMware-ovftool-3.5.0-1274719-mac.x64.dmg is what I used.
Verify ovftool is succesfully added to your path by running “ovftool -v”. This command should output the version of ovftool we installed.
sdorsett-mbp:~ sdorsett$ ovftool -v
VMware ovftool 3.5.0 (build-1274719)3. Now we can download and install the gosddc packer components we will need.
- Download the most recent version of the compiled packer-processor-vagrant-vmware-ovf binary from the following link:
https://github.com/gosddc/packer-post-processor-vagrant-vmware-ovf/releases
Unzip packer-post-processor-vagrant-vmware-ovf and copy it to “usr/local/packer_7.5”. Ensure the permissions of this file match the other files in this directory.
Create a directory to contain the packer templates:
sdorsett-mbp:~ sdorsett$ mkdir ~/Documents/packer
sdorsett-mbp:~ sdorsett$ cd ~/Documents/packer/- Clone the gosddc packer-templates repository:
sdorsett-mbp:packer sdorsett$ git clone https://github.com/gosddc/packer-templates.git
sdorsett-mbp:packer sdorsett$ cd packer-templates4. Now we need to download the ESXi 5.5 .iso and copy it into the proper directory location.
- Create an “iso” directory for storing the ESXi iso files:
sdorsett-mbp:packer-templates sdorsett$ mkdir ~/Documents/packer/packer-templates/iso- Download and copy the “VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0-1331820.x86_64.iso” ESXi 5.5 installer to the iso directory.
5. Finally we will need to modify, validate and build the packer esxi.json packer template we will be using.
- Modify ~/Documents/packer/packer-templates/templates/esxi.json to look like the following:
sdorsett-mbp:packer-templates sdorsett$ cat templates/esxi.json
{
"variables": {
"version": "1.0"
},
"builders": [
{
"name": "esxi55",
"vm_name": "esxi55",
"vmdk_name": "esxi55-disk0",
"type": "vmware-iso",
"headless": true,
"disk_size": 4096,
"guest_os_type": "vmkernel5",
"iso_url": "./iso/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0-1331820.x86_64.iso",
"iso_checksum": "ef599dc7e647177027684c0eee346ccdbc8704f2",
"iso_checksum_type": "sha1",
"ssh_username": "root",
"ssh_password": "vagrant",
"ssh_wait_timeout": "60m",
"shutdown_command": "esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -t 0 ; esxcli system shutdown poweroff -d 10 -r 'Packer Shutdown' ; esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false -t 0",
"http_directory": ".",
"boot_wait": "5s",
"vmx_data": {
"memsize": "4096",
"numvcpus": "2",
"vhv.enable": "TRUE"
},
"boot_command": [
"<enter><wait>O<wait> ks=http://{% raw %}{{ .HTTPIP }}{% endraw %}:{% raw %}{{ .HTTPPort }}{% endraw %}/scripts/esxi-5-kickstart.cfg<enter>"
]
}
],
"provisioners": [
{
"type": "file",
"source": "puppet/modules/vagrantbaseconfig/files/vagrant.pub",
"destination": "/etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys"
},
{
"type": "shell",
"script": "scripts/esxi-vmware-tools_install.sh"
},
{
"type": "shell",
"script": "scripts/esxi-cloning_configuration.sh"
}
],
"post-processors": [
{
"type": "vagrant-vmware-ovf",
"compression_level": 9,
"output": "{% raw %}{{.BuildName}}{% endraw %}-{% raw %}{{.Provider}}{% endraw %}-{% raw %}{{user `version`}}{% endraw %}.box"
}
]
}There are several things I would like to point out in the esxi.json file we just created.
- builder - this section specifies that we will be using the “vmware-iso” builder, with VMware fusion, to create our packer template. We can modify attributes of our template virtual machine in this section:
- disk size ( disk_size)
- memory ( memsize )
- vCPU count ( numvcpus )
- provisioners - this section specifies we will be using multiple provisioners to modify our template after it has been created:
- a file provisioner that will copy the vagrant public ssh key into our ESXi template
- a shell script to install the vmware tools VIB for nested ESXi
- a shell script to make necessary MAC address changes in our nested ESXi template.
- post-processors - this final section will convert the virtual machine artifact generated in VMware fusion into a vmware-ovf .box file we can use with vagrant
- Validate the packer esxi.json file is ready for building by running the following command:
sdorsett-mbp:packer-templates sdorsett$ packer validate templates/esxi.json
Template validated successfully.- Start the build by running:
sdorsett-mbp:packer-templates sdorsett$ packer build templates/esxi.json esxi55 output will be in this color. ==> esxi55: Downloading or copying ISO esxi55: Downloading or copying: file:///Users/sdorsett/Documents/packer/packer-templates/iso/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0-1331820.x86_64.iso ==> esxi55: Creating virtual machine disk ==> esxi55: Building and writing VMX file ==> esxi55: Starting HTTP server on port 8351 ==> esxi55: Starting virtual machine... esxi55: The VM will be run headless, without a GUI. If you want to esxi55: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to esxi55: 127.0.0.1:5986 ==> esxi55: Waiting 5s for boot... ==> esxi55: Connecting to VM via VNC ==> esxi55: Typing the boot command over VNC... ==> esxi55: Waiting for SSH to become available... ==> esxi55: Connected to SSH! ==> esxi55: Uploading puppet/modules/vagrantbaseconfig/files/vagrant.pub => /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys ==> esxi55: Provisioning with shell script: scripts/esxi-vmware-tools_install.sh esxi55: Installation Result esxi55: Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective. esxi55: Reboot Required: true esxi55: VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_esx-tools-for-esxi_9.7.0-0.0.00000 esxi55: VIBs Removed: esxi55: VIBs Skipped: ==> esxi55: Provisioning with shell script: scripts/esxi-cloning_configuration.sh esxi55: diff: can't stat '/tmp/auto-backup.35216//etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys': No such file or directory esxi55: Saving current state in /bootbank esxi55: Clock updated. esxi55: Time: 02:09:44 Date: 12/30/2014 UTC ==> esxi55: Gracefully halting virtual machine... esxi55: Waiting for VMware to clean up after itself... ==> esxi55: Deleting unnecessary VMware files... esxi55: Deleting: output-esxi55/564d2ab2-395b-a9ba-9c17-2fe36682237c.vmem esxi55: Deleting: output-esxi55/esxi55.plist esxi55: Deleting: output-esxi55/vmware.log ==> esxi55: Cleaning VMX prior to finishing up... esxi55: Unmounting floppy from VMX... esxi55: Detaching ISO from CD-ROM device... ==> esxi55: Compacting the disk image ==> esxi55: Running post-processor: vagrant-vmware-ovf ==> esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Creating Vagrant box for 'vmware_ovf' provider esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Deleting key: ide1:0.filename esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Deleting key: floppy0.present esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Setting key: floppy0.present = FALSE esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Setting key: ide1:0.present = FALSE esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Creating directory: output-esxi55/ovf esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Starting ovftool esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Reading files in output-esxi55/ovf esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Copying: esxi55-disk1.vmdk esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Copying: esxi55.mf esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Copying: esxi55.ovf esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Compressing: Vagrantfile esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Compressing: esxi55-disk1.vmdk esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Compressing: esxi55.mf esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Compressing: esxi55.ovf esxi55 (vagrant-vmware-ovf): Compressing: metadata.json Build 'esxi55' finished. ==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are: --> esxi55: 'vmware_ovf' provider box: esxi55-vmware_ovf-1.0.box sdorsett-mbp:packer-templates sdorsett$
If you want to keep an eye on the build process you can connect a VNC client to the address and port listed during the packer build process. For my build this was what was displayed:
esxi55: The VM will be run headless, without a GUI. If you want to
esxi55: view the screen of the VM, connect via VNC without a password to
esxi55: 127.0.0.1:5986When I connected the “Chicken of the VNC” client installed on my macbook to “127.0.0.1:5986” I could see where the build was at during the install process:
- Once the packer build completes you should end up with a “esxi55-vmware_ovf-1.0.box” file in the same directory you ran the “packer build” command in. This .box file can be used with vagrant and the gosddc vagrant providers to deploy this template to ESXi, vCenter, vCloud Director and vCloud Air.
sdorsett-mbp:packer-templates sdorsett$ ls *.box
esxi55-vmware_ovf-1.0.box