106 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
# Packer
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* Website: http://www.packer.io
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* IRC: `#packer-tool` on Freenode
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* Mailing list: [Google Groups](http://groups.google.com/group/packer-tool)
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Packer is a tool for building identical machine images for multiple platforms
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from a single source configuration.
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Packer is lightweight, runs on every major operating system, and is highly
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performant, creating machine images for multiple platforms in parallel.
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Packer comes out of the box with support for creating AMIs (EC2), VMware
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images, and VirtualBox images. Support for more platforms can be added via
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plugins.
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The images that Packer creates can easily be turned into
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[Vagrant](http://www.vagrantup.com) boxes.
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## Quick Start
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**Note:** There is a great
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[introduction and getting started guide](http://www.packer.io/intro)
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for those with a bit more patience. Otherwise, the quick start below
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will get you up and running quickly, at the sacrifice of not explaining some
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key points.
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First, [download a pre-built Packer binary](http://www.packer.io/downloads.html)
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for your operating system or [compile Packer yourself](#developing-packer).
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After Packer is installed, create your first template, which tells Packer
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what platforms to build images for and how you want to build them. In our
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case, we'll create a simple AMI that has Redis pre-installed. Save this
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file as `quick-start.json`. Be sure to replace any credentials with your
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own.
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```json
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{
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"builders": [{
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"type": "amazon-ebs",
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"access_key": "YOUR KEY HERE",
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"secret_key": "YOUR SECRET KEY HERE",
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"region": "us-east-1",
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"source_ami": "ami-de0d9eb7",
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"instance_type": "t1.micro",
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"ssh_username": "ubuntu",
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"ami_name": "packer-example {{timestamp}}"
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}]
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}
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```
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Next, tell Packer to build the image:
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```
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$ packer build quick-start.json
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...
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```
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Packer will build an AMI according to the "quick-start" template. The AMI
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will be available in your AWS account. To delete the AMI, you must manually
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delete it using the [AWS console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/). Packer
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builds your images, it does not manage their lifecycle. Where they go, how
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they're run, etc. is up to you.
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## Documentation
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Full, comprehensive documentation is viewable on the Packer website:
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http://www.packer.io/docs
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## Developing Packer
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If you wish to work on Packer itself, you'll first need [Go](http://golang.org)
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installed (version 1.2+ is _required_). Make sure you have Go properly installed,
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including setting up your [GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH).
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For some additional dependencies, Go needs [Mercurial](http://mercurial.selenic.com/)
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and [Bazaar](http://bazaar.canonical.com/en/) to be installed.
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Packer itself doesn't require these, but a dependency of a dependency does.
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You'll also need [`gox`](https://github.com/mitchellh/gox)
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to compile packer. You can install that with:
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```
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$ go get -u github.com/mitchellh/gox
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```
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Next, clone this repository into `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer` and
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then just type `make`. In a few moments, you'll have a working `packer` executable:
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```
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$ make
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...
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$ bin/packer
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...
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```
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You can run tests by typing `make test`.
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This will run tests for Packer core along with all the core builders and commands and such that come with Packer.
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If you make any changes to the code, run `make format` in order to automatically
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format the code according to Go standards.
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When new dependencies are added to packer you can use `make updatedeps` to
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get the latest and subsequently use `make` to compile and generate the `packer` binary.
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