Packer/Vagrant/Puppet PE Demo

Create a virtual machine vagrant ready.(CentOS, Ubuntu, Oracle Linux, Windows).

Requirements

• Packer 0.5 or later
• Vagrant 1.4.2 or later
• VirtualBox 4.3.6 or later or VMWare Fusion
• Specific ISO files for each OS.

How does it work?

Packer reads a template configuration file in json format and installs the OS from the ISO file, applies the OS configuration from a .cfg file and package everything in a vagrant box format.

• Modify the templates if you want to use full http urls or specific local paths for iso files.
• Verify the http directory that contains the kickstart files for custom changes.
• Run packer build <template_name>.json

Oracle Linux Example

• Create Oracle Linux Image packer build -only=virtualbox-iso oracle.json
• Download JRockit to files folder (jrockit-jdk1.6.0_45-R28.2.7-4.1.0-64.bin)
• Add Vagrant Box vagrant box add oracle6_64 oracle6_64_virtualbox.box
• Run Vagrant Box vagrant up (Run from vagrant/oracle)
• Wait for Puppet Enterprise Installation...
• SSH to Virtual Machine (vagrant ssh)
• Execute sudo /usr/local/bin/puppet agent -t
• Restart the virtual machine sudo reboot

Windows 2008 R2 Example

• Download Windows 2008 R2 ISO Image from MSDN and change your .json file accordinly.
• Create Windows 2008 R2 Image packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2008r2core.json
• Add Vagrant Box vagrant box add win2008r2core win2008_r2_core_virtualbox.box
• Run Vagrant Box vagrant up (Run from vagrant/windows)
• SSH to Virtual Machine (vagrant ssh)

Tips

1. The kickstart files handle most of the basic installation configuration. Don't overkill
2. The .json file user needs to match the default user created on the kickstart file
3. The Windows Packer Template takes a while to create since it install the Windows Updates. Check cfg_windows\Autounattend.xml to remove the Windows Updates if necessary.