Packer

This repo contains scripts and configuration to build virtual machines on macOS and Windows with the help of packer and VMware. At the moment I don't have a macOS machine with an Intel processor so those scripts are not tested. Since VMware Fusion for arm is in beta no real effort is made to support that platform.

Instructions on Windows

To get started install VMware Workstation, packer and git. My recommendation is to install git with the command winget. Run the following in a Windows Terminal:

winget install Git.Git

You have to add C:\Program Files\Git\bin to the Path environment variable. Also make sure that you have VMware in the path, C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation.

Then start a new terminal and change to folder where you like to check out the repo. Then use git to check it out and configure some defaults.

git clone https://github.com/reuteras/packer.git
cd packer
# Open and configure the default values
<editor> defaults.ps1

To build a VM use cd to change to the folder for base image you would like to use. The following are available for Windows

• packer-centos
• packer-kali
• packer-ubuntu

CentOS

• centos-7 - CentOS 7 - build with ./build-centos-7.ps1
• centos-8-stream - CentOS 8 Stream - build with ./build-centos-8-stream.ps1

Kali

• kali - my repo kali-tools is used to do a very basic installation of Kali - build with ./build-kali.ps1

Images based on Ubuntu

Configuration for the images based on Ubuntu 20.04 is done in variables-ubuntu-2004.pkr.hcl for images based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Images based on Ubuntu 20.04.

• Ubuntu 20.04 default - build with ./build-ubuntu-2004.ps1
• REMnux installed via my repo [remnux-tools][ret] - build with ./build-remnux.ps1
• SIFT installed via my repo [remnux-tools][ret] - build with ./build-sift.ps1

Configuration for the images based on Ubuntu 22.04 is done in variables-ubuntu-2204.pkr.hcl for images based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Images based on Ubuntu 22.04.

• Ubuntu 22.04 default - build with ./build-ubuntu-2204.ps1
• Malcolm - Malcolm is not installed but my repo malir is added to help with the installation - build with ./build-malcolm.ps1

Instructions on macOS

CentOS

• centos-7 - CentOS 7
• centos-8 - CentOS 8

Debian

Available in the subdirectory packer-debian and has two make targets:

• debian - debian.json - install a basic Debian host.

Kali

• kali - kali.json - my script kali-tools to do a very basic install of Kali.

Ubuntu

Available in packer-ubuntu and has three targets:

• remnux
• sift
• ubuntu

Windows

Windows 10 and server.

• Windows 10

packerconfig.pkr.hcl

My packerconfig.pkr.hcl file contains the following.

packer {
  required_plugins {
    digitalocean = {
      version = ">= 1.0.0"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/digitalocean"
    }
    vmware = {
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/vmware"
      version = "~> 1"
    }
  }
}

To install the dependencies I use the following command (update for your path) on macOS (arm64).

packer init -upgrade ~/.packer.d/.packerconfig.pkr.hcl

FAQ

Packer Build Error with VMware Workstation 16

If you have problems building with Packer with VMware Workstation 16 read the blog post. In short the solution is to the following steps.

• In Workstation go to Edit...Virtual Network Editor
• Click Change Settings
• Don’t change anything, just click OK

TODO

Update the code and fix (among other things):

• Better preseed.cfg can cloud-init files
• Use templates

Bugs

There will be bugs so please file a report when you find them.

Support