Packer Builder for VMware vSphere

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

• VMware Player is not required
• Builds are incremental, VMs are not created from scratch but cloned from base templates - similar to amazon-ebs builder
• Official vCenter API is used, no ESXi host modification is required

Usage

• Download the plugin from Releases page
• Install the plugin, or simply put it into the same directory with configuration files

Minimal Example

{
  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "vsphere",

      "vcenter_server": "vcenter.domain.com",
      "username": "root",
      "password": "secret",

      "template": "ubuntu",
      "vm_name":  "vm-1",
      "host":     "esxi-1.domain.com",

      "ssh_username": "root",
      "ssh_password": "secret"
    }
  ],
  "provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "shell",
      "inline": [ "echo hello" ]
    }
  ]
}

Parameters

Connection:

• vcenter_server - [mandatory] vCenter server hostname.
• username - [mandatory] vSphere username.
• password - [mandatory] vSphere password.
• insecure_connection - do not validate server's TLS certificate. false by default.
• datacenter - required if there are several datacenters.

Location:

• template - [mandatory] name of source VM. Path is optional.
• vm_name - [mandatory] name of target VM.
• folder - VM folder where target VM is created.
• host - [mandatory] vSphere host or cluster where target VM is created. If hosts are groupped into folders, full path should be specified: folder/host.
• resource_pool - by default a root of vSphere host.
• datastore - required if target is a cluster, or a host with multiple datastores.
• linked_clone - create VM as a linked clone from latest snapshot. false by default.

Hardware customization:

• CPUs - number of CPU sockets. Inherited from source VM by default.
• CPU_reservation - Amount of reserved CPU resources in MHz. Inherited from source VM by default.
• CPU_limit - Upper limit of available CPU resources in MHz. Inherited from source VM by default, set to -1 for reset.
• RAM - Amount of RAM in megabytes. Inherited from source VM by default.
• RAM_reservation - Amount of reserved RAM in MB. Inherited from source VM by default.
• RAM_reserve_all - Reserve all available RAM (bool). false by default. Cannot be used together with RAM_reservation.

Provisioning:

• ssh_username - [mandatory] username in guest OS.
• ssh_password or ssh_private_key_file - [mandatory] password or SSH-key filename to access a guest OS.

Post-processing:

• shutdown_command - VMware guest tools are used by default.
• shutdown_timeout - Duration how long to wait for a graceful shutdown. 5 minutes by default.
• create_snapshot - add a snapshot, so VM can be used as a base for linked clones. false by default.
• convert_to_template - convert VM to a template. false by default.

Complete Example

{
  "variables": {
    "vsphere_password": "secret",
    "guest_password": "secret"
  },

  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "vsphere",

      "vcenter_server": "vcenter.domain.com",
      "username": "root",
      "password": "{{user `vsphere_password`}}",
      "insecure_connection": true,
      "datacenter": "dc1",

      "template": "folder/ubuntu",
      "vm_name": "vm-1",
      "folder": "folder1/folder2",
      "host": "folder/esxi-1.domain.com",
      "resource_pool": "pool1/pool2",
      "datastore": "datastore1",
      "linked_clone": true,

      "CPUs": 2,
      "CPU_reservation": 1000,
      "CPU_limit": 2000,
      "RAM": 8192,
      "RAM_reservation": 2048,

      "ssh_username": "root",
      "ssh_password": "{{user `guest_password`}}",

      "shutdown_command": "echo '{{user `guest_password`}}' | sudo -S shutdown -P now",
      "shutdown_timeout": "5m",
      "create_snapshot": true,
      "convert_to_template": true
    }
  ],

  "provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "shell",
      "environment_vars": [
        "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive"
      ],
      "execute_command": "echo '{{user `guest_password`}}' | {{.Vars}} sudo -ES bash -eux '{{.Path}}'",
      "inline": [
        "apt-get install -y zip"
      ]
    }
  ]
}