packer-builder-vsphere

Installation instructions

1. It is supposed that you already have Go(and Packer), Docker-compose and Glide set.

2. Download the sourcces from github.com/LizaTretyakova/packer-builder-vsphere

3. cd to $GOPATH/go/src/github.com/LizaTretyakova/packer-builder-vsphere (or wherever it was downloaded)

4. Get the dependencies

$ glide install

5. Build the binaries

$ docker-compose run build

6. The template for this builder is like following:

{
    "variables": {
            "url": "{{env `YOUR_VSPHERE_URL`}}",
            "username": "{{env `YOUR_VSPHERE_USERNAME`}}",
            "password": "{{env `YOUR_VSPHERE_PASSWORD`}}",
            "ssh_username": "{{env `TEMPLATE_VM_SSH_USERNAME`}}",
            "ssh_password": "{{env `TEMPLATE_VM_SSH_PASSWORD`}}",
            "dc_name": "{{env `TEMPLATE_VM_DATACENTER`}}",
            "template": "{{env `TEMPLATE_VM_NAME`}}",
            "host": "{{env `TARGET_HOST`}}"
    },
    "builders": [
        {
            "type": "vsphere",
            "url": "{{user `url`}}",
            "username": "{{user `username`}}",
            "password": "{{user `password`}}",
            "ssh_username": "{{user `ssh_username`}}",
            "ssh_password": "{{user `ssh_password`}}",
            "dc_name": "{{user `dc_name`}}",
            "template": "{{user `template`}}",
            "vm_name": "new_vm_name",
            "host": "{{user `host`}}",
            "resource_pool": "your_target_resource_pool",
            "datastore": "your_target_datastore",
            "RAM": "1024",
            "cpus": "2",
            "shutdown_command": "echo '{{user `ssh_password`}}' | sudo -S shutdown -P now"
        } 
    ],
    "provisioners": [
        {
              "type": "shell",
              "inline": ["echo foo"]
        }
    ]
}

where vm_name, RAM, cpus and shutdown_command are parameters of the new VM. Parameters ssh_*, dc_name (datacenter name) and template (the name of the base VM) are for the base VM, on which you are creating the new one (note that VMWare Tools should be already installed on this template machine). vm_name and host (describe the name of the new VM and the name of the host where we want to create it) are required parameters; you can also specify resource_pool (if you don't, the builder will try to detect the default one) and datastore (important: if your target host differs from the initial one, you have to specify datastore; in case you stay within the same host, this parameter can be omitted). url, username and password are your vSphere parameters. You need to set the appropriate values in the variables section before proceeding.

7. Now you can go to the bin/ directory

$ cd ./bin

and try the builder

$ packer build template.json

Builder parameters

I will repeat myself here a bit just to make the things clearer.

Required parameters:

• username
• password
• template
• vm_name
• host

Optional parameters:

• Destination parameters:
  • resource_pool
  • datastore (but is required if you move between hosts)
• Hardware configuration:
  • cpus
  • ram
  • shutdown_command
• ssh_username
• ssh_password
• dc_name (source datacenter)

Progress bar

You can find it here as well.

• hardware customization of the new VM (cpu, ram)
• clone from template (not only from VM)
• clone to alternate host, resource pool and datastore
• enable linked clones
• support Windows guest systems
• enable VM-to-template conversion
• tests
• add a shutdown timeout
• further hardware customization:
  • resize disks
  • ram reservation
  • cpu reservation