53 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
53 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
---
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description: |
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Communicators are the mechanism Packer uses to upload files, execute scripts,
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etc. with the machine being created.
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layout: docs
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page_title: Communicators - Templates
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sidebar_title: Communicators
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---
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# Template Communicators
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Communicators are the mechanism Packer uses to upload files, execute scripts,
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etc. with the machine being created.
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Communicators are configured within the
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[builder](/docs/templates/builders) section.
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All communicators have the following options:
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@include 'helper/communicator/Config-not-required.mdx'
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## Getting Ready to Use the Communicator
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Depending on your builder, your communicator may not have all it needs in order
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to work "out of the box".
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If you are building from a cloud image (for example, building on Amazon), there
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is a good chance that your cloud provider has already preconfigured SSH on the
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image for you, meaning that all you have to do is configure the communicator in
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the Packer template.
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However, if you are building from a brand-new and unconfigured operating system
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image, you will almost always have to perform some extra work to configure SSH
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on the guest machine. For most operating system distributions, this work will
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be performed by a [boot_command](/docs/builders/vmware/iso#boot-configuration) that references a file which
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provides answers to the normally-interactive questions you get asked when
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installing an operating system. The name of this file varies by operating
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system; some common examples are the "preseed" file required by Debian, the
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"kickstart" file required by CentOS or the "answer file", also known as the
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Autounattend.xml file, required by Windows. For simplicity's sake, we'll refer
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to this file as the "preseed" file in the rest of the documentation.
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If you are unfamiliar with how to use a preseed file for automatic
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bootstrapping of an image, please either take a look at our quick guides to
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image bootstrapping, or research automatic configuration for your specific
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guest operating system. Knowing how to automatically initalize your operating
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system is critical for being able to successfully use Packer.
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## Communicator-Specific Options
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For more details on how to use each communicator, visit the
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[communicators](/docs/communicators) page.
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