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layout page_title
docs Parallels Builder (from an ISO)

Parallels Builder (from an ISO)

Type: parallels-iso

The Parallels builder is able to create Parallels Desktop for Mac virtual machines and export them in the PVM format, starting from an ISO image.

The builder builds a virtual machine by creating a new virtual machine from scratch, booting it, installing an OS, provisioning software within the OS, then shutting it down. The result of the Parallels builder is a directory containing all the files necessary to run the virtual machine portably.

Basic Example

Here is a basic example. This example is not functional. It will start the OS installer but then fail because we don't provide the preseed file for Ubuntu to self-install. Still, the example serves to show the basic configuration:

{
  "type": "parallels-iso",
  "guest_os_type": "ubuntu",
  "iso_url": "http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-12.04.3-server-amd64.iso",
  "iso_checksum": "2cbe868812a871242cdcdd8f2fd6feb9",
  "iso_checksum_type": "md5",
  "parallels_tools_flavor": "lin"
  "ssh_username": "packer",
  "ssh_password": "packer",
  "ssh_wait_timeout": "30s",
  "shutdown_command": "echo 'packer' | sudo -S shutdown -P now"
}

It is important to add a shutdown_command. By default Packer halts the virtual machine and the file system may not be sync'd. Thus, changes made in a provisioner might not be saved.

Configuration Reference

There are many configuration options available for the Parallels builder. They are organized below into two categories: required and optional. Within each category, the available options are alphabetized and described.

Required:

  • iso_checksum (string) - The checksum for the OS ISO file. Because ISO files are so large, this is required and Packer will verify it prior to booting a virtual machine with the ISO attached. The type of the checksum is specified with iso_checksum_type, documented below.

  • iso_checksum_type (string) - The type of the checksum specified in iso_checksum. Valid values are "none", "md5", "sha1", "sha256", or "sha512" currently. While "none" will skip checksumming, this is not recommended since ISO files are generally large and corruption does happen from time to time.

  • iso_url (string) - A URL to the ISO containing the installation image. This URL can be either an HTTP URL or a file URL (or path to a file). If this is an HTTP URL, Packer will download it and cache it between runs.

  • ssh_username (string) - The username to use to SSH into the machine once the OS is installed.

  • parallels_tools_flavor (string) - The flavor of the Parallels Tools ISO to install into the VM. Valid values are "win", "lin", "mac", "os2" and "other". This can be ommited only if parallels_tools_mode is "disable".

Optional:

  • boot_command (array of strings) - This is an array of commands to type when the virtual machine is first booted. The goal of these commands should be to type just enough to initialize the operating system installer. Special keys can be typed as well, and are covered in the section below on the boot command. If this is not specified, it is assumed the installer will start itself.

  • boot_wait (string) - The time to wait after booting the initial virtual machine before typing the boot_command. The value of this should be a duration. Examples are "5s" and "1m30s" which will cause Packer to wait five seconds and one minute 30 seconds, respectively. If this isn't specified, the default is 10 seconds.

  • disk_size (integer) - The size, in megabytes, of the hard disk to create for the VM. By default, this is 40000 (about 40 GB).

  • floppy_files (array of strings) - A list of files to place onto a floppy disk that is attached when the VM is booted. This is most useful for unattended Windows installs, which look for an Autounattend.xml file on removable media. By default, no floppy will be attached. All files listed in this setting get placed into the root directory of the floppy and the floppy is attached as the first floppy device. Currently, no support exists for creating sub-directories on the floppy. Wildcard characters (*, ?, and []) are allowed. Directory names are also allowed, which will add all the files found in the directory to the floppy.

  • guest_os_type (string) - The guest OS type being installed. By default this is "other", but you can get dramatic performance improvements by setting this to the proper value. To view all available values for this run prlctl create x --distribution list. Setting the correct value hints to Parallels Desktop how to optimize the virtual hardware to work best with that operating system.

  • hard_drive_interface (string) - The type of controller that the hard drives are attached to, defaults to "sata". Valid options are "sata", "ide", and "scsi".

  • host_interfaces (array of strings) - A list of which interfaces on the host should be searched for a IP address. The first IP address found on one of these will be used as {{ .HTTPIP }} in the boot_command. Defaults to ["en0", "en1", "en2", "en3", "en4", "en5", "en6", "en7", "en8", "en9", "ppp0", "ppp1", "ppp2"].

  • http_directory (string) - Path to a directory to serve using an HTTP server. The files in this directory will be available over HTTP that will be requestable from the virtual machine. This is useful for hosting kickstart files and so on. By default this is "", which means no HTTP server will be started. The address and port of the HTTP server will be available as variables in boot_command. This is covered in more detail below.

  • http_port_min and http_port_max (integer) - These are the minimum and maximum port to use for the HTTP server started to serve the http_directory. Because Packer often runs in parallel, Packer will choose a randomly available port in this range to run the HTTP server. If you want to force the HTTP server to be on one port, make this minimum and maximum port the same. By default the values are 8000 and 9000, respectively.

  • iso_urls (array of strings) - Multiple URLs for the ISO to download. Packer will try these in order. If anything goes wrong attempting to download or while downloading a single URL, it will move on to the next. All URLs must point to the same file (same checksum). By default this is empty and iso_url is used. Only one of iso_url or iso_urls can be specified.

  • output_directory (string) - This is the path to the directory where the resulting virtual machine will be created. This may be relative or absolute. If relative, the path is relative to the working directory when packer is executed. This directory must not exist or be empty prior to running the builder. By default this is "output-BUILDNAME" where "BUILDNAME" is the name of the build.

  • parallels_tools_guest_path (string) - The path in the VM to upload Parallels Tools. This only takes effect if parallels_tools_mode is not "disable". This is a configuration template that has a single valid variable: Flavor, which will be the value of parallels_tools_flavor. By default the upload path is set to prl-tools-{{.Flavor}}.iso.

  • parallels_tools_mode (string) - The method by which Parallels Tools are made available to the guest for installation. Valid options are "upload", "attach", or "disable". The functions of each of these should be self-explanatory. The default value is "upload".

  • prlctl (array of array of strings) - Custom prlctl commands to execute in order to further customize the virtual machine being created. The value of this is an array of commands to execute. The commands are executed in the order defined in the template. For each command, the command is defined itself as an array of strings, where each string represents a single argument on the command-line to prlctl (but excluding prlctl itself). Each arg is treated as a configuration template, where the Name variable is replaced with the VM name. More details on how to use prlctl are below.

  • prlctl_version_file (string) - The path within the virtual machine to upload a file that contains the prlctl version that was used to create the machine. This information can be useful for provisioning. By default this is ".prlctl_version", which will generally upload it into the home directory.

  • shutdown_command (string) - The command to use to gracefully shut down the machine once all the provisioning is done. By default this is an empty string, which tells Packer to just forcefully shut down the machine.

  • shutdown_timeout (string) - The amount of time to wait after executing the shutdown_command for the virtual machine to actually shut down. If it doesn't shut down in this time, it is an error. By default, the timeout is "5m", or five minutes.

  • ssh_key_path (string) - Path to a private key to use for authenticating with SSH. By default this is not set (key-based auth won't be used). The associated public key is expected to already be configured on the VM being prepared by some other process (kickstart, etc.).

  • ssh_password (string) - The password for ssh_username to use to authenticate with SSH. By default this is the empty string.

  • ssh_port (integer) - The port that SSH will be listening on in the guest virtual machine. By default this is 22.

  • ssh_wait_timeout (string) - The duration to wait for SSH to become available. By default this is "20m", or 20 minutes. Note that this should be quite long since the timer begins as soon as the virtual machine is booted.

  • vm_name (string) - This is the name of the PVM directory for the new virtual machine, without the file extension. By default this is "packer-BUILDNAME", where "BUILDNAME" is the name of the build.

Boot Command

The boot_command configuration is very important: it specifies the keys to type when the virtual machine is first booted in order to start the OS installer. This command is typed after boot_wait, which gives the virtual machine some time to actually load the ISO.

As documented above, the boot_command is an array of strings. The strings are all typed in sequence. It is an array only to improve readability within the template.

The boot command is "typed" character for character (using the Parallels Virtualization SDK, see Parallels Builder) simulating a human actually typing the keyboard. There are a set of special keys available. If these are in your boot command, they will be replaced by the proper key:

  • <bs> - Backspace

  • <del> - Delete

  • <enter> and <return> - Simulates an actual "enter" or "return" keypress.

  • <esc> - Simulates pressing the escape key.

  • <tab> - Simulates pressing the tab key.

  • <f1> - <f12> - Simulates pressing a function key.

  • <up> <down> <left> <right> - Simulates pressing an arrow key.

  • <spacebar> - Simulates pressing the spacebar.

  • <insert> - Simulates pressing the insert key.

  • <home> <end> - Simulates pressing the home and end keys.

  • <pageUp> <pageDown> - Simulates pressing the page up and page down keys.

  • <wait> <wait5> <wait10> - Adds a 1, 5 or 10 second pause before sending any additional keys. This is useful if you have to generally wait for the UI to update before typing more.

In addition to the special keys, each command to type is treated as a configuration template. The available variables are:

  • HTTPIP and HTTPPort - The IP and port, respectively of an HTTP server that is started serving the directory specified by the http_directory configuration parameter. If http_directory isn't specified, these will be blank!

Example boot command. This is actually a working boot command used to start an Ubuntu 12.04 installer:

[
  "<esc><esc><enter><wait>",
  "/install/vmlinuz noapic ",
  "preseed/url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/preseed.cfg ",
  "debian-installer=en_US auto locale=en_US kbd-chooser/method=us ",
  "hostname={{ .Name }} ",
  "fb=false debconf/frontend=noninteractive ",
  "keyboard-configuration/modelcode=SKIP keyboard-configuration/layout=USA ",
  "keyboard-configuration/variant=USA console-setup/ask_detect=false ",
  "initrd=/install/initrd.gz -- <enter>"
]

prlctl Commands

In order to perform extra customization of the virtual machine, a template can define extra calls to prlctl to perform. prlctl is the command-line interface to Parallels Desktop. It can be used to configure the virtual machine, such as set RAM, CPUs, etc.

Extra prlctl commands are defined in the template in the prlctl section. An example is shown below that sets the memory and number of CPUs within the virtual machine:

{
  "prlctl": [
    ["set", "{{.Name}}", "--memsize", "1024"],
    ["set", "{{.Name}}", "--cpus", "2"]
  ]
}

The value of prlctl is an array of commands to execute. These commands are executed in the order defined. So in the above example, the memory will be set followed by the CPUs.

Each command itself is an array of strings, where each string is an argument to prlctl. Each argument is treated as a configuration template. The only available variable is Name which is replaced with the unique name of the VM, which is required for many prlctl calls.