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Packer Integrations
VMware vSphere

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The vSphere plugin is able to create vSphere virtual machines for use with any VMware product.

  • Official
  • HCP Ready

Updated 8 months ago

vSphere Clone

Type: vsphere-clone Artifact BuilderId: jetbrains.vsphere

This builder clones VMs from existing templates.

  • VMware Player is not required.
  • It uses the official vCenter Server API, and does not require ESXi host modification
  • The builder supports versions following the VMware Product Lifecycle Matrix from General Availability to End of General Support. Builds on versions that are end of support may work, but configuration options may throw errors if they do not exist in the vSphere API for those versions.

Examples

See example templates in the examples folder.

Configuration Reference

There are many configuration options available for this builder. In addition to the items listed here, you will want to look at the general configuration references for Hardware, Output, Boot, Run, Shutdown, Communicator, Export, configuration references, which are necessary for this build to succeed and can be found further down the page.

  • create_snapshot (bool) - Specifies to create a snapshot of the virtual machine to use as a base for linked clones. Defaults to false.

  • snapshot_name (string) - Specifies the name of the snapshot when create_snapshot is true. Defaults to Created By Packer.

  • convert_to_template (bool) - Specifies to convert the cloned virtual machine to a template after the build is complete. Defaults to false. If set to true, the virtual machine can not be imported to a content library.

  • export (*common.ExportConfig) - Specifies the configuration for exporting the virtual machine to an OVF. The virtual machine is not exported if export configuration is not specified.

  • content_library_destination (*common.ContentLibraryDestinationConfig) - Specifies the configuration for importing a VM template or OVF template to a content library. The template will not be imported if no content library import configuration is specified. If set, convert_to_template must be set to false.

  • customize (*CustomizeConfig) - Specifies the customization options for the virtual machine. Refer to the customization options section for more information.

Clone Configuration

  • template (string) - Specifies the name of the source virtual machine to clone.

  • disk_size (int64) - Specifies the size of the primary disk in MiB. Cannot be used with linked_clone.

  • linked_clone (bool) - Specifies that the virtual machine is created as a linked clone from the latest snapshot. Defaults to false. Cannot be used with disk_size.`

  • network (string) - Specifies the network to which the virtual machine will connect. If no network is specified, provide 'host' to allow Packer to search for an available network. For networks placed within a network folder vCenter Server, provider the object path to the network. For example, network = "/<DatacenterName>/<FolderName>/<NetworkName>".

  • mac_address (string) - Specifies the network card MAC address. For example 00:50:56:00:00:00. If set, the network must be also specified.

  • notes (string) - Specifies the annotations for the virtual machine.

  • destroy (bool) - Specifies whether to destroy the virtual machine after the build is complete.

  • vapp (vAppConfig) - Specifies the vApp Options for the virtual machine. For more information, refer to the vApp Options Configuration section.

Storage Configuration

When cloning a VM, the storage configuration can be used to add additional storage and disk controllers. The resulting VM will contain the origin VM storage and disk controller plus the new configured ones.

Defines the disk storage for a VM.

Example that will create a 15GB and a 20GB disk on the VM. The second disk will be thin provisioned:

In JSON:


    "storage": [
      {
        "disk_size": 15000
      },
      {
        "disk_size": 20000,
        "disk_thin_provisioned": true
      }
    ],

In HCL2:


    storage {
        disk_size = 15000
    }
    storage {
        disk_size = 20000
        disk_thin_provisioned = true
    }

Example that creates 2 pvscsi controllers and adds 2 disks to each one:

In JSON:


    "disk_controller_type": ["pvscsi", "pvscsi"],
    "storage": [
      {
        "disk_size": 15000,
        "disk_controller_index": 0
      },
      {
        "disk_size": 15000,
        "disk_controller_index": 0
      },
      {
        "disk_size": 15000,
        "disk_controller_index": 1
      },
      {
        "disk_size": 15000,
        "disk_controller_index": 1
      }
    ],

In HCL2:


    disk_controller_type = ["pvscsi", "pvscsi"]
    storage {
       disk_size = 15000,
       disk_controller_index = 0
    }
    storage {
       disk_size = 15000
       disk_controller_index = 0
    }
    storage {
       disk_size = 15000
       disk_controller_index = 1
    }
    storage {
       disk_size = 15000
       disk_controller_index = 1
    }
  • disk_size (int64) - The size of the disk in MiB.

Optional

  • disk_thin_provisioned (bool) - Enable VMDK thin provisioning for VM. Defaults to false.

  • disk_eagerly_scrub (bool) - Enable VMDK eager scrubbing for VM. Defaults to false.

  • disk_controller_index (int) - The assigned disk controller. Defaults to the first one (0).

vApp Options Configuration

  • properties (map[string]string) - Specifies the values for the available vApp properties. These are used to supply configuration parameters to a virtual machine. This machine is cloned from a template that originated from an imported OVF or OVA file.

    Note: The only supported usage path for vApp properties is for existing user-configurable keys. These generally come from an existing template that was created from an imported OVF or OVA file.

    You cannot set values for vApp properties on virtual machines created from scratch, on virtual machines that lack a vApp configuration, or on property keys that do not exist.

Example of usage:

JSON

 "vapp": {
     "properties": {
         "hostname": "{{ user `hostname`}}",
         "user-data": "{{ env `USERDATA`}}"
     }
 }

A user-data field requires the content of a yaml file to be encoded with base64. This can be done via environment variable: export USERDATA=$(gzip -c9 <userdata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; })

HCL2

   vapp {
     properties = {
        hostname  = var.hostname
        user-data = base64encode(var.user_data)
     }
   }

Extra Configuration Parameters

Customization

A cloned virtual machine can be customized to configure host, network, or licensing settings.

To perform virtual machine customization as a part of the clone process, specify the customize block with the respective customization options. Windows guests are customized using Sysprep, which will result in the machine SID being reset. Before using customization, check that your source virtual machine meets the requirements for guest OS customization on vSphere. Refer to the customization example for a usage synopsis.

The settings for guest customization include:

  • linux_options (*LinuxOptions) - Settings for the guest customization of Linux operating systems. Refer to the Linux options section for additional details.

  • windows_options (*WindowsOptions) - Settings for the guest customization of Windows operating systems. Refer to the Windows options section for additional details.

  • windows_sysprep_file (string) - Provide a sysprep.xml file to allow control of the customization process independent of vSphere. This option is deprecated, please use windows_sysprep_text.

  • windows_sysprep_text (string) - Provide the text for the sysprep.xml content to allow control of the customization process independent of vSphere. This option is intended to be used with HCL templates.

    Example usage:

    In HCL2:

    customize {
   windows_sysprep_text = file("<path-to-sysprep.xml>")
}

    customize {
   windows_sysprep_text = templatefile("<path-to-sysprep.xml>", {
      var1="example"
      var2="example-2"
   })
}

  • network_interface (NetworkInterfaces) - Set up network interfaces individually to correspond with the network adapters on the virtual machine. To use DHCP, specify an empty network_interface for each configured adapter. This field is mandatory. Refer to the network interface section for additional details.

Network Interface Settings

  • dns_server_list ([]string) - Specifies the DNS servers for a specific network interface on a Windows guest operating system. Ignored on Linux. Refer to the global DNS settings section for additional details.

  • dns_domain (string) - Specifies the DNS search domain for a specific network interface on a Windows guest operating system. Ignored on Linux. Refer to the global DNS settings section for additional details.

  • ipv4_address (string) - Specifies the IPv4 address assigned to the network adapter. If left blank or not included, DHCP is used.

  • ipv4_netmask (int) - Specifies the IPv4 subnet mask, in bits, for the network adapter. For example, 24 for a /24 subnet.

  • ipv6_address (string) - Specifies the IPv6 address assigned to the network adapter. If left blank or not included, auto-configuration is used.

  • ipv6_netmask (int) - Specifies the IPv6 subnet mask, in bits, for the network adapter. For example, 64 for a /64 subnet.

Global Routing Settings

The settings must match the IP address and subnet mask of at least one network_interface for the customization.

  • ipv4_gateway (string) - Specifies the IPv4 default gateway when using network_interface customization.

  • ipv6_gateway (string) - Specifies the IPv6 default gateway when using network_interface customization.

Global DNS Settings

The following settings configure DNS globally for Linux guest operating systems. For Windows guest operating systems, this is set for each network interface. Refer to the network interface section for additional details.

  • dns_server_list ([]string) - Specifies a list of DNS servers to configure on the guest operating system.

  • dns_suffix_list ([]string) - Specifies a list of DNS search domains to add to the DNS configuration on the guest operating system.

Linux Customization Settings

  • domain (string) - Specifies the domain name for the guest operating system. Used with host_name to construct the fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

  • host_name (string) - Specifies the hostname for the guest operating system. Used with domain to construct the fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

  • hw_clock_utc (boolean) - Specifies whether the hardware clock is set to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Defaults to true.

  • time_zone (string) - Specifies the time zone for the guest operating system.

Customization Example

JSON

 "customize": {
          "linux_options": {
            "host_name": "packer-test",
            "domain": "test.internal"
          },
          "network_interface": {
            "ipv4_address": "10.0.0.10",
            "ipv4_netmask": "24"
          },
          "ipv4_gateway": "10.0.0.1",
          "dns_server_list": ["10.0.0.18"]
 }

HCL2

   customize {
         linux_options {
           host_name = "packer-test"
           domain = "test.internal"
         }

         network_interface {
           ipv4_address = "10.0.0.10"
           ipv4_netmask = "24"
         }

         ipv4_gateway = 10.0.0.1
         dns_server_list = ["10.0.0.18"]
   }

Boot configuration

The boot configuration is very important: boot_command 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 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.

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> <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.

  • <menu> - Simulates pressing the Menu key.

  • <leftAlt> <rightAlt> - Simulates pressing the alt key.

  • <leftCtrl> <rightCtrl> - Simulates pressing the ctrl key.

  • <leftShift> <rightShift> - Simulates pressing the shift key.

  • <leftSuper> <rightSuper> - Simulates pressing the ⌘ or Windows key.

  • <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.

  • <waitXX> - Add an arbitrary pause before sending any additional keys. The format of XX is a sequence of positive decimal numbers, each with optional fraction and a unit suffix, such as 300ms, 1.5h or 2h45m. Valid time units are ns, us (or µs), ms, s, m, h. For example <wait10m> or <wait1m20s>.

  • <XXXOn> <XXXOff> - Any printable keyboard character, and of these "special" expressions, with the exception of the <wait> types, can also be toggled on or off. For example, to simulate ctrl+c, use <leftCtrlOn>c<leftCtrlOff>. Be sure to release them, otherwise they will be held down until the machine reboots. To hold the c key down, you would use <cOn>. Likewise, <cOff> to release.

  • {{ .HTTPIP }} {{ .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!

  • {{ .Name }} - The name of the VM.

Example boot command. This is actually a working boot command used to start an CentOS 6.4 installer:

In JSON:

"boot_command": [

       "<tab><wait>",
       " ks=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/centos6-ks.cfg<enter>"
    ]

In HCL2:

boot_command = [

       "<tab><wait>",
       " ks=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/centos6-ks.cfg<enter>"
    ]

The example shown below is a working boot command used to start an Ubuntu 12.04 installer:

In JSON:

"boot_command": [

    "<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>"

]

In HCL2:

boot_command = [

    "<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>"

]

For more examples of various boot commands, see the sample projects from our community templates page.

Optional:

  • boot_keygroup_interval (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - Time to wait after sending a group of key pressses. 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, a sensible default value is picked depending on the builder type.

  • boot_wait (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - 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 10s or 10 seconds. To set boot_wait to 0s, use a negative number, such as "-1s"

  • boot_command ([]string) - 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.

  • http_ip (string) - The IP address to use for the HTTP server started to serve the http_directory. If unset, Packer will automatically discover and assign an IP.

Http directory configuration

Packer will create an http server serving http_directory when it is set, a random free port will be selected and the architecture of the directory referenced will be available in your builder.

Example usage from a builder:

wget http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/foo/bar/preseed.cfg

Optional:

  • 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 an empty string, 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_content (map[string]string) - Key/Values to serve using an HTTP server. http_content works like and conflicts with http_directory. The keys represent the paths and the values contents, the keys must start with a slash, ex: /path/to/file. http_content is useful for hosting kickstart files and so on. By default this is empty, 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. Example:

      http_content = {
    "/a/b"     = file("http/b")
    "/foo/bar" = templatefile("${path.root}/preseed.cfg", { packages = ["nginx"] })
  }

  • http_port_min (int) - 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.

  • http_port_max (int) - HTTP Port Max

  • http_bind_address (string) - This is the bind address for the HTTP server. Defaults to 0.0.0.0 so that it will work with any network interface.

Floppy configuration

  • floppy_img_path (string) - Datastore path to a floppy image that will be mounted to the VM. Example: [datastore1] ISO/pvscsi-Windows8.flp.

  • floppy_files ([]string) - 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_dirs ([]string) - List of directories to copy files from.

  • floppy_content (map[string]string) - Key/Values to add to the floppy disk. The keys represent the paths, and the values contents. It can be used alongside floppy_files or floppy_dirs, which is useful to add large files without loading them into memory. If any paths are specified by both, the contents in floppy_content will take precedence.

    Usage example (HCL):

    floppy_content = {
  "meta-data" = jsonencode(local.instance_data)
  "user-data" = templatefile("user-data", { packages = ["nginx"] })
}

  • floppy_label (string) - The label to use for the floppy disk that is attached when the VM is booted. This is most useful for cloud-init, Kickstart or other early initialization tools, which can benefit from labelled floppy disks. By default, the floppy label will be 'packer'.

Connection Configuration

  • vcenter_server (string) - vCenter Server hostname.

  • username (string) - vSphere username.

  • password (string) - vSphere password.

  • insecure_connection (bool) - Do not validate the vCenter Server TLS certificate. Defaults to false.

  • datacenter (string) - vSphere datacenter name. Required if there is more than one datacenter in the vSphere inventory.

Hardware Configuration

  • CPUs (int32) - Number of CPU cores.

  • cpu_cores (int32) - Number of CPU cores per socket.

  • CPU_reservation (int64) - Amount of reserved CPU resources in MHz.

  • CPU_limit (int64) - Upper limit of available CPU resources in MHz.

  • CPU_hot_plug (bool) - Enable CPU hot plug setting for virtual machine. Defaults to false.

  • RAM (int64) - Amount of RAM in MB.

  • RAM_reservation (int64) - Amount of reserved RAM in MB.

  • RAM_reserve_all (bool) - Reserve all available RAM. Defaults to false. Cannot be used together with RAM_reservation.

  • RAM_hot_plug (bool) - Enable RAM hot plug setting for virtual machine. Defaults to false.

  • video_ram (int64) - Amount of video memory in KB. See vSphere documentation for supported maximums. Defaults to 4096 KB.

  • displays (int32) - Number of video displays. See vSphere documentation for supported maximums. Defaults to 1.

  • vgpu_profile (string) - vGPU profile for accelerated graphics. See NVIDIA GRID vGPU documentation for examples of profile names. Defaults to none.

  • NestedHV (bool) - Enable nested hardware virtualization for VM. Defaults to false.

  • firmware (string) - Set the Firmware for virtual machine. Supported values: bios, efi or efi-secure. Defaults to bios.

  • force_bios_setup (bool) - During the boot, force entry into the BIOS setup screen. Defaults to false.

  • vTPM (bool) - Add virtual TPM device for virtual machine. Defaults to false.

  • precision_clock (string) - Add a precision clock device for virtual machine. Defaults to none.

Location Configuration

  • vm_name (string) - Name of the virtual machine.

  • folder (string) - VM folder where the virtual machine is created.

  • cluster (string) - vSphere cluster where the virtual machine is created. See the Working With Clusters And Hosts section above for more details.

  • host (string) - ESXi host where the virtual machine is created. A full path must be specified if the host is in a folder. For example folder/host. See the Working With Clusters And Hosts section above for more details.

  • resource_pool (string) - vSphere resource pool where the virtual machine is created. If this is not specified, the root resource pool associated with the host or cluster is used. Note that the full path to the resource pool must be provided. For example, a simple resource pool path might resemble rp-packer and a nested path might resemble 'rp-packer/rp-linux-images'.

  • datastore (string) - vSphere datastore where the virtual machine is created. Required if host is a cluster, or if host has multiple datastores.

  • set_host_for_datastore_uploads (bool) - Specifies that the host is used for uploading files to the datastore. Defaults to false.

Run Configuration

  • boot_order (string) - Priority of boot devices. Defaults to disk,cdrom

Shutdown Configuration

  • shutdown_command (string) - Specify a VM guest shutdown command. This command will be executed using the communicator. Otherwise, the VMware Tools are used to gracefully shutdown the VM.

  • shutdown_timeout (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - Amount of time to wait for graceful VM shutdown. Defaults to 5m or five minutes. This will likely need to be modified if the communicator is 'none'.

  • disable_shutdown (bool) - Packer normally halts the virtual machine after all provisioners have run when no shutdown_command is defined. If this is set to true, Packer will not halt the virtual machine but will assume that you will send the stop signal yourself through a preseed.cfg, a script or the final provisioner. Packer will wait for a default of five minutes until the virtual machine is shutdown. The timeout can be changed using shutdown_timeout option.

Wait Configuration

  • ip_wait_timeout (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - Amount of time to wait for VM's IP, similar to 'ssh_timeout'. Defaults to 30m (30 minutes). See the Golang ParseDuration documentation for full details.

  • ip_settle_timeout (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - Amount of time to wait for VM's IP to settle down, sometimes VM may report incorrect IP initially, then its recommended to set that parameter to apx. 2 minutes. Examples 45s and 10m. Defaults to 5s(5 seconds). See the Golang ParseDuration documentation for full details.

  • ip_wait_address (*string) - Set this to a CIDR address to cause the service to wait for an address that is contained in this network range. Defaults to "0.0.0.0/0" for any ipv4 address. Examples include:

    • empty string ("") - remove all filters
    • 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0/0 - allow only ipv6 addresses
    • 192.168.1.0/24 - only allow ipv4 addresses from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254

CDRom Configuration

An iso (CD) containing custom files can be made available for your build.

By default, no extra CD will be attached. All files listed in this setting get placed into the root directory of the CD and the CD is attached as the second CD device.

This config exists to work around modern operating systems that have no way to mount floppy disks, which was our previous go-to for adding files at boot time.

Optional:

  • cd_files ([]string) - A list of files to place onto a CD that is attached when the VM is booted. This can include either files or directories; any directories will be copied onto the CD recursively, preserving directory structure hierarchy. Symlinks will have the link's target copied into the directory tree on the CD where the symlink was. File globbing is allowed.

    Usage example (JSON):

    "cd_files": ["./somedirectory/meta-data", "./somedirectory/user-data"],
"cd_label": "cidata",

    Usage example (HCL):

    cd_files = ["./somedirectory/meta-data", "./somedirectory/user-data"]
cd_label = "cidata"

    The above will create a CD with two files, user-data and meta-data in the CD root. This specific example is how you would create a CD that can be used for an Ubuntu 20.04 autoinstall.

    Since globbing is also supported,

    cd_files = ["./somedirectory/*"]
cd_label = "cidata"

    Would also be an acceptable way to define the above cd. The difference between providing the directory with or without the glob is whether the directory itself or its contents will be at the CD root.

    Use of this option assumes that you have a command line tool installed that can handle the iso creation. Packer will use one of the following tools:

    • xorriso
    • mkisofs
    • hdiutil (normally found in macOS)
    • oscdimg (normally found in Windows as part of the Windows ADK)

  • cd_content (map[string]string) - Key/Values to add to the CD. The keys represent the paths, and the values contents. It can be used alongside cd_files, which is useful to add large files without loading them into memory. If any paths are specified by both, the contents in cd_content will take precedence.

    Usage example (HCL):

    cd_files = ["vendor-data"]
cd_content = {
  "meta-data" = jsonencode(local.instance_data)
  "user-data" = templatefile("user-data", { packages = ["nginx"] })
}
cd_label = "cidata"

  • cd_label (string) - CD Label

  • cdrom_type (string) - Which controller to use. Example: sata. Defaults to ide.

  • iso_paths ([]string) - A list of paths to ISO files in either a datastore or a content library that will be mounted to the VM.

    Usage example (HCL):

    iso_paths = [
  "[nfs] iso/ubuntu-server-amd64.iso",
  "Packer/ubuntu-server-amd64/ubuntu-server-amd64.iso"
]

    Two ISOs are referenced:

    1. An ISO in the "iso" folder of the "nfs" datastore with the file name of "ubuntu-server-amd64.iso".
    2. An ISO in the "Packer" content library with the item name of "ubuntu-server-amd64".

    Note: All files in a content library have an associated item name. To determine the file name, view the datastore backing the content library or use the govc vSphere CLI.

  • remove_cdrom (bool) - Remove CD-ROM devices from template. Defaults to false.

Communicator configuration

Optional common fields:

  • communicator (string) - Packer currently supports three kinds of communicators:

    • none - No communicator will be used. If this is set, most provisioners also can't be used.

    • ssh - An SSH connection will be established to the machine. This is usually the default.

    • winrm - A WinRM connection will be established.

    In addition to the above, some builders have custom communicators they can use. For example, the Docker builder has a "docker" communicator that uses docker exec and docker cp to execute scripts and copy files.

  • pause_before_connecting (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - We recommend that you enable SSH or WinRM as the very last step in your guest's bootstrap script, but sometimes you may have a race condition where you need Packer to wait before attempting to connect to your guest.

    If you end up in this situation, you can use the template option pause_before_connecting. By default, there is no pause. For example if you set pause_before_connecting to 10m Packer will check whether it can connect, as normal. But once a connection attempt is successful, it will disconnect and then wait 10 minutes before connecting to the guest and beginning provisioning.

Optional SSH fields:

  • ssh_host (string) - The address to SSH to. This usually is automatically configured by the builder.

  • ssh_port (int) - The port to connect to SSH. This defaults to 22.

  • ssh_username (string) - The username to connect to SSH with. Required if using SSH.

  • ssh_password (string) - A plaintext password to use to authenticate with SSH.

  • ssh_ciphers ([]string) - This overrides the value of ciphers supported by default by Golang. The default value is [ "aes128-gcm@openssh.com", "chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com", "aes128-ctr", "aes192-ctr", "aes256-ctr", ]

    Valid options for ciphers include: "aes128-ctr", "aes192-ctr", "aes256-ctr", "aes128-gcm@openssh.com", "chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com", "arcfour256", "arcfour128", "arcfour", "aes128-cbc", "3des-cbc",

  • ssh_clear_authorized_keys (bool) - If true, Packer will attempt to remove its temporary key from ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and /root/.ssh/authorized_keys. This is a mostly cosmetic option, since Packer will delete the temporary private key from the host system regardless of whether this is set to true (unless the user has set the -debug flag). Defaults to "false"; currently only works on guests with sed installed.

  • ssh_key_exchange_algorithms ([]string) - If set, Packer will override the value of key exchange (kex) algorithms supported by default by Golang. Acceptable values include: "curve25519-sha256@libssh.org", "ecdh-sha2-nistp256", "ecdh-sha2-nistp384", "ecdh-sha2-nistp521", "diffie-hellman-group14-sha1", and "diffie-hellman-group1-sha1".

  • ssh_certificate_file (string) - Path to user certificate used to authenticate with SSH. The ~ can be used in path and will be expanded to the home directory of current user.

  • ssh_pty (bool) - If true, a PTY will be requested for the SSH connection. This defaults to false.

  • ssh_timeout (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - The time to wait for SSH to become available. Packer uses this to determine when the machine has booted so this is usually quite long. Example value: 10m. This defaults to 5m, unless ssh_handshake_attempts is set.

  • ssh_disable_agent_forwarding (bool) - If true, SSH agent forwarding will be disabled. Defaults to false.

  • ssh_handshake_attempts (int) - The number of handshakes to attempt with SSH once it can connect. This defaults to 10, unless a ssh_timeout is set.

  • ssh_bastion_host (string) - A bastion host to use for the actual SSH connection.

  • ssh_bastion_port (int) - The port of the bastion host. Defaults to 22.

  • ssh_bastion_agent_auth (bool) - If true, the local SSH agent will be used to authenticate with the bastion host. Defaults to false.

  • ssh_bastion_username (string) - The username to connect to the bastion host.

  • ssh_bastion_password (string) - The password to use to authenticate with the bastion host.

  • ssh_bastion_interactive (bool) - If true, the keyboard-interactive used to authenticate with bastion host.

  • ssh_bastion_private_key_file (string) - Path to a PEM encoded private key file to use to authenticate with the bastion host. The ~ can be used in path and will be expanded to the home directory of current user.

  • ssh_bastion_certificate_file (string) - Path to user certificate used to authenticate with bastion host. The ~ can be used in path and will be expanded to the home directory of current user.

  • ssh_file_transfer_method (string) - scp or sftp - How to transfer files, Secure copy (default) or SSH File Transfer Protocol.

    NOTE: Guests using Windows with Win32-OpenSSH v9.1.0.0p1-Beta, scp (the default protocol for copying data) returns a a non-zero error code since the MOTW cannot be set, which cause any file transfer to fail. As a workaround you can override the transfer protocol with SFTP instead ssh_file_transfer_protocol = "sftp".

  • ssh_proxy_host (string) - A SOCKS proxy host to use for SSH connection

  • ssh_proxy_port (int) - A port of the SOCKS proxy. Defaults to 1080.

  • ssh_proxy_username (string) - The optional username to authenticate with the proxy server.

  • ssh_proxy_password (string) - The optional password to use to authenticate with the proxy server.

  • ssh_keep_alive_interval (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - How often to send "keep alive" messages to the server. Set to a negative value (-1s) to disable. Example value: 10s. Defaults to 5s.

  • ssh_read_write_timeout (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - The amount of time to wait for a remote command to end. This might be useful if, for example, packer hangs on a connection after a reboot. Example: 5m. Disabled by default.

  • ssh_remote_tunnels ([]string) -

  • ssh_local_tunnels ([]string) -

  • temporary_key_pair_type (string) - dsa | ecdsa | ed25519 | rsa ( the default )

    Specifies the type of key to create. The possible values are 'dsa', 'ecdsa', 'ed25519', or 'rsa'.

    NOTE: DSA is deprecated and no longer recognized as secure, please consider other alternatives like RSA or ED25519.

  • temporary_key_pair_bits (int) - Specifies the number of bits in the key to create. For RSA keys, the minimum size is 1024 bits and the default is 4096 bits. Generally, 3072 bits is considered sufficient. DSA keys must be exactly 1024 bits as specified by FIPS 186-2. For ECDSA keys, bits determines the key length by selecting from one of three elliptic curve sizes: 256, 384 or 521 bits. Attempting to use bit lengths other than these three values for ECDSA keys will fail. Ed25519 keys have a fixed length and bits will be ignored.

    NOTE: DSA is deprecated and no longer recognized as secure as specified by FIPS 186-5, please consider other alternatives like RSA or ED25519.

  • ssh_keypair_name (string) - If specified, this is the key that will be used for SSH with the machine. The key must match a key pair name loaded up into the remote. By default, this is blank, and Packer will generate a temporary keypair unless ssh_password is used. ssh_private_key_file or ssh_agent_auth must be specified when ssh_keypair_name is utilized.
  • ssh_private_key_file (string) - Path to a PEM encoded private key file to use to authenticate with SSH. The ~ can be used in path and will be expanded to the home directory of current user.
  • ssh_agent_auth (bool) - If true, the local SSH agent will be used to authenticate connections to the source instance. No temporary keypair will be created, and the values of ssh_password and ssh_private_key_file will be ignored. The environment variable SSH_AUTH_SOCK must be set for this option to work properly.

NOTE: Packer uses vApp Options to inject ssh public keys to the virtual machine. The temporary_key_pair_name will only work if the template being cloned contains the vApp property public-keys. If using ssh_private_key_file, provide the public key via configuration_parameters or vApp Options Configuration whenever the guestinto.userdata is available. See DataSourceVMware in cloud-init 21.3 and later for more information.

Optional WinRM fields:

  • winrm_username (string) - The username to use to connect to WinRM.

  • winrm_password (string) - The password to use to connect to WinRM.

  • winrm_host (string) - The address for WinRM to connect to.

    NOTE: If using an Amazon EBS builder, you can specify the interface WinRM connects to via ssh_interface

  • winrm_no_proxy (bool) - Setting this to true adds the remote host:port to the NO_PROXY environment variable. This has the effect of bypassing any configured proxies when connecting to the remote host. Default to false.

  • winrm_port (int) - The WinRM port to connect to. This defaults to 5985 for plain unencrypted connection and 5986 for SSL when winrm_use_ssl is set to true.

  • winrm_timeout (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - The amount of time to wait for WinRM to become available. This defaults to 30m since setting up a Windows machine generally takes a long time.

  • winrm_use_ssl (bool) - If true, use HTTPS for WinRM.

  • winrm_insecure (bool) - If true, do not check server certificate chain and host name.

  • winrm_use_ntlm (bool) - If true, NTLMv2 authentication (with session security) will be used for WinRM, rather than default (basic authentication), removing the requirement for basic authentication to be enabled within the target guest. Further reading for remote connection authentication can be found here.

Export Configuration

You can export an image in Open Virtualization Format (OVF) to the Packer host.

Example usage:

In JSON:

...

    "vm_name": "example-ubuntu",

...

    "export": {
      "force": true,
      "output_directory": "./output-artifacts"
    },

In HCL2:


    # ...
    vm_name = "example-ubuntu"
    # ...
    export {
      force = true
      output_directory = "./output-artifacts"
    }

The above configuration would create the following files:

./output-artifacts/example-ubuntu-disk-0.vmdk
./output-artifacts/example-ubuntu.mf
./output-artifacts/example-ubuntu.ovf

Optional:

  • name (string) - Name of the exported image in Open Virtualization Format (OVF). The name of the virtual machine with the .ovf extension is used if this option is not specified.

  • force (bool) - Forces the export to overwrite existing files. Defaults to false. If set to false, the export will fail if the files already exists.

  • image_files (bool) - Include additional image files that are that are associated with the virtual machine. Defaults to false. For example, .nvram and .log files.

  • manifest (string) - Generate a manifest file with the specified hash algorithm. Defaults to sha256. Available options include none, sha1, sha256, and sha512. Use none for no manifest.

  • options ([]string) - Advanced image export options. Options can include:

    • mac - MAC address is exported for each Ethernet device.
    • uuid - UUID is exported for the virtual machine.
    • extraconfig - Extra configuration options are exported for the virtual machine.
    • nodevicesubtypes - Resource subtypes for CD/DVD drives, floppy drives, and serial and parallel ports are not exported.

    For example, adding the following export config option outputs the MAC addresses for each Ethernet device in the OVF descriptor:

    In JSON:

    ...
  "export": {
    "options": ["mac"]
  },

    In HCL2:

    ...
  export {
    options = ["mac"]
  }

Output Configuration:

  • output_directory (string) - This setting specifies the directory that artifacts from the build, such as the virtual machine files and disks, will be output to. The path to the directory may be relative or absolute. If relative, the path is relative to the working directory packer is executed from. This directory must not exist or, if created, must be empty prior to running the builder. By default this is "output-BUILDNAME" where "BUILDNAME" is the name of the build.

  • directory_permission (os.FileMode) - The permissions to apply to the "output_directory", and to any parent directories that get created for output_directory. By default this is "0750". You should express the permission as quoted string with a leading zero such as "0755" in JSON file, because JSON does not support octal value. In Unix-like OS, the actual permission may differ from this value because of umask.

Content Library Import Configuration

With this configuration Packer creates a library item in a content library whose content is a VM template or an OVF template created from the just built VM. The template is stored in a existing or newly created library item.

  • library (string) - Name of the library in which the new library item containing the template should be created/updated. The Content Library should be of type Local to allow deploying virtual machines.

  • name (string) - Name of the library item that will be created or updated. For VM templates, the name of the item should be different from vm_name and the default is vm_name + timestamp when not set. VM templates will be always imported to a new library item. For OVF templates, the name defaults to vm_name when not set, and if an item with the same name already exists it will be then updated with the new OVF template, otherwise a new item will be created.

    Note: It's not possible to update existing library items with a new VM template. If updating an existing library item is necessary, use an OVF template instead by setting the ovf option as true.

  • description (string) - Description of the library item that will be created. Defaults to "Packer imported vm_name VM template".

  • cluster (string) - Cluster onto which the virtual machine template should be placed. If cluster and resource_pool are both specified, resource_pool must belong to cluster. If cluster and host are both specified, host must be a member of cluster. This option is not used when importing OVF templates. Defaults to cluster.

  • folder (string) - Virtual machine folder into which the virtual machine template should be placed. This option is not used when importing OVF templates. Defaults to the same folder as the source virtual machine.

  • host (string) - Host onto which the virtual machine template should be placed. If host and resource_pool are both specified, resource_pool must belong to host. If host and cluster are both specified, host must be a member of cluster. This option is not used when importing OVF templates. Defaults to host.

  • resource_pool (string) - Resource pool into which the virtual machine template should be placed. Defaults to resource_pool. if resource_pool is also unset, the system will attempt to choose a suitable resource pool for the virtual machine template.

  • datastore (string) - The datastore for the virtual machine template's configuration and log files. This option is not used when importing OVF templates. Defaults to the storage backing associated with the library specified by library.

  • destroy (bool) - If set to true, the VM will be destroyed after deploying the template to the Content Library. Defaults to false.

  • ovf (bool) - When set to true, Packer will import and OVF template to the content library item. Defaults to false.

  • skip_import (bool) - When set to true, the VM won't be imported to the content library item. Useful for setting to true during a build test stage. Defaults to false.

  • ovf_flags ([]string) - Flags to use for OVF package creation. The supported flags can be obtained using ExportFlag.list. If unset, no flags will be used. Known values: EXTRA_CONFIG, PRESERVE_MAC

Minimal example of usage:

JSON

    "content_library_destination" : {
        "library": "Packer Library Test"
    }

HCL2

    content_library_destination {
            library = "Packer Library Test"
    }

Working With Clusters And Hosts

Standalone Hosts

Only use the host option. Optionally specify a resource_pool:

JSON

"host": "esxi-01.example.com",
"resource_pool": "pool1",

HCL2

host = "esxi-01.example.com"
resource_pool = "pool1"

Clusters Without DRS

Use the cluster and hostparameters:

JSON

"cluster": "cluster1",
"host": "esxi-02.example.com",

HCL2

cluster = "cluster1"
host = "esxi-02.example.com"

Clusters With DRS

Only use the cluster option. Optionally specify a resource_pool:

JSON

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

HCL2

cluster = "cluster2"
resource_pool = "pool1"

Required vSphere Privileges

  • VM folder (this object and children):
    Virtual machine -> Inventory
Virtual machine -> Configuration
Virtual machine -> Interaction
Virtual machine -> Snapshot management
Virtual machine -> Provisioning
    Individual privileges are listed in https://github.com/jetbrains-infra/packer-builder-vsphere/issues/97#issuecomment-436063235.
  • Resource pool, host, or cluster (this object):
    Resource -> Assign virtual machine to resource pool
  • Host in clusters without DRS (this object):
    Read-only
  • Datastore (this object):
    Datastore -> Allocate space
Datastore -> Browse datastore
Datastore -> Low level file operations
  • Network (this object):
    Network -> Assign network
  • Distributed switch (this object):
    Read-only

For floppy image upload:

  • Datacenter (this object):
    Datastore -> Low level file operations
  • Host (this object):
    Host -> Configuration -> System Management