30 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
layout: "intro"
|
|
page_title: "Introduction"
|
|
prev_url: "#"
|
|
next_url: "/intro/why.html"
|
|
next_title: "Why Use Packer?"
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
# Introduction to Packer
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the world of Packer! This introduction guide will show you what
|
|
Packer is, explain why it exists, the benefits it has to offer, and how
|
|
you can get started with it. If you're already familiar with Packer, the
|
|
[documentation](/docs) provides more of a reference for all available features.
|
|
|
|
## What is Packer?
|
|
|
|
Packer is an open source tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms
|
|
from a single source configuration. Packer is lightweight, runs on every major
|
|
operating system, and is highly performant, creating machine images for
|
|
multiple platforms in parallel. Packer does not replace configuration management
|
|
like Chef or Puppet. In fact, when building images, Packer is able to use tools
|
|
like Chef or Puppet to install software onto the image.
|
|
|
|
A _machine image_ is a single static unit that contains a pre-configured operating
|
|
system and installed software which is used to quickly create new running machines.
|
|
Machine image formats change for each platform. Some examples include
|
|
[AMIs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Machine_Image) for EC2,
|
|
VMDK/VMX files for VMware, OVF exports for VirtualBox, etc.
|