Packer Builder for VMware vSphere

This a plugin for HashiCorp Packer. It uses native vSphere API, and creates virtual machines remotely.

vsphere-iso builder creates new VMs from scratch. vsphere-clone builder clones VMs from existing templates.

• VMware Player is not required.
• Official vCenter API is used, no ESXi host modification is required.

Installation

• Download binaries from the releases page.
• Install the plugins, or simply put them into the same directory with JSON templates. On Linux and macOS run chmod +x on the files.

Build

Install Go and dep, run build.sh.

Or build inside a container by Docker Compose:

docker-compose run build

The binaries will be in bin/ directory.

Artifacts can be also downloaded from TeamCity builds.

Examples

See complete Ubuntu, Windows, and macOS templates in the examples folder.

Parameter Reference

Connection

• vcenter_server(string) - vCenter server hostname.
• username(string) - vSphere username.
• password(string) - vSphere password.
• insecure_connection(boolean) - Do not validate vCenter server's TLS certificate. Defaults to false.
• datacenter(string) - VMware datacenter name. Required if there is more than one datacenter in vCenter.

VM Location

• vm_name(string) - Name of the new VM to create.
• folder(string) - VM folder to create the VM in.
• host(string) - ESXi host where target VM is created. A full path must be specified if the host is in a folder. For example folder/host. See the Specifying Clusters and Hosts section above for more details.
• cluster(string) - ESXi cluster where target VM is created. See Working with Clusters section.
• resource_pool(string) - VMWare resource pool. Defaults to the root resource pool of the host or cluster.
• datastore(string) - VMWare datastore. Required if host is a cluster, or if host has multiple datastores.

VM Location (vsphere-clone only)

• template(string) - Name of source VM. Path is optional.
• linked_clone(boolean) - Create VM as a linked clone from latest snapshot. Defaults to false.

Hardware

• CPUs(number) - Number of CPU sockets.
• CPU_limit(number) - Upper limit of available CPU resources in MHz.
• CPU_reservation(number) - Amount of reserved CPU resources in MHz.
• CPU_hot_plug(boolean) - Enable CPU hot plug setting for virtual machine. Defaults to false.
• RAM(number) - Amount of RAM in MB.
• RAM_reservation(number) - Amount of reserved RAM in MB.
• RAM_reserve_all(boolean) - Reserve all available RAM. Defaults to false. Cannot be used together with RAM_reservation.
• RAM_hot_plug(boolean) - Enable RAM hot plug setting for virtual machine. Defaults to false.
• disk_size(number) - The size of the disk in MB.
• NestedHV(boolean) - Enable nested hardware virtualization for VM. Defaults to false.
• configuration_parameters(map) - Custom parameters.
• boot_order(string) - Priority of boot devices. Defaults to disk,cdrom

Hardware (vsphere-iso only)

• vm_version(number) - Set VM hardware version. Defaults to the most current VM hardware version supported by vCenter. See VMWare article 1003746 for the full list of supported VM hardware versions.
• guest_os_type(string) - Set VM OS type. Defaults to otherGuest. See here for a full list of possible values.
• disk_controller_type(string) - Set VM disk controller type. Example pvscsi.
• disk_thin_provisioned(boolean) - Enable VMDK thin provisioning for VM. Defaults to false.
• network(string) - Set network VM will be connected to.
• network_card(string) - Set VM network card type. Example vmxnet3.
• usb_controller(boolean) - Create USB controller for virtual machine. Defaults to false.
• firmware(string) - Set the Firmware at machine creation. Example efi. Defaults to bios

Boot (vsphere-iso only)

• boot_wait(string) Amount of time to wait for the VM to boot. Examples 45s and 10m. Defaults to 10 seconds. See the Go Lang ParseDuration documentation for full details.
• boot_command(array of strings) - List of commands to type when the VM is first booted. Used to initalize the operating system installer.
• floppy_dirs(array of strings) - Seems to not do anything useful yet. Not implemented.
• floppy_files(array of strings) - List of local files to be mounted to the VM floppy drive. Can be used to make Debian preseed or RHEL kickstart files available to the VM.
• floppy_img_path(string) - Data store path to a floppy image that will be mounted to the VM. Cannot be used with floppy_files or floppy_dir options. Example [datastore1] ISO/VMware Tools/10.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp.
• iso_paths(array of strings) - List of data store paths to ISO files that will be mounted to the VM. Example "[datastore1] ISO/ubuntu-16.04.3-server-amd64.iso".

Provision

• communicator - ssh (default), winrm, or none (create/clone, customize hardware, but do not boot).

• ssh_username(string) - Username in guest OS.

• ssh_password(string) - Password to access guest OS. Only specify ssh_password or ssh_private_key_file, but not both.

• ssh_private_key_file(string) - Path to the SSH private key file to access guest OS. Only specify ssh_password or ssh_private_key_file, but not both.

• winrm_username(string) - Username in guest OS.

• winrm_password(string) - Password to access guest OS.

• shutdown_command(string) - Specify a VM guest shutdown command. VMware guest tools are used by default.

• shutdown_timeout(string) - Amount of time to wait for graceful VM shutdown. Examples 45s and 10m. Defaults to 5m(5 minutes). See the Go Lang ParseDuration documentation for full details.

Postprocessing

• create_snapshot(boolean) - Create a snapshot when set to true, so the VM can be used as a base for linked clones. Defaults to false.
• convert_to_template(boolean) - Convert VM to a template. Defaults to false.

Working with Clusters

Standalone Hosts

Only use the host option. Optionally specify a resource_pool:

"host": "esxi-1.vsphere65.test",
"resource_pool": "pool1",

Clusters Without DRS

Use the cluster and host parameters:

"cluster": "cluster1",
"host": "esxi-2.vsphere65.test",

Clusters With DRS

Only use the cluster option. Optionally specify a resource_pool:

"cluster": "cluster2",
"resource_pool": "pool1",

Required vSphere Permissions

Read only (without propagation) is required for:

vcenter -> datacenter -> cluster
vcenter -> datacenter -> distributed switch

Required for any: resource pool, folder, distributed port group, datastore or storage cluster (with propagation) used in the builder:

Datastore ->Allocate space
Datastore ->Browse datastore
Datastore ->Low level file operations
Datastore ->Remove file
Datastore ->Update virtual machine files
Datastore ->Update virtual machine metadata
Network -> Assign network
Resource -> Assign virtual machine to resource pool
Virtual machine -> Change Configuration
Virtual machine -> Edit Inventory
Virtual machine -> Guest operations
Virtual machine -> Interaction
Virtual machine -> Provisioning
Virtual machine -> Service configuration
Virtual machine -> Snapshot management