This is exactly what I am planning on doing very soon. I have already collection some docs to read, but I didn't have this one. I believe that using packer will reduce overhead in managing Actual VMware Templates ( and besides has the added advantage of cloud provisioning ).
On Monday, July 18, 2022 at 10:09:28 AM UTC-7 > We use Hashicorp Packer to create and maintain Windows Server and Linux VM > templates. We then use those templates for server provisioning. We also use > packer to maintain AWS AMIs. With packer we can ensure we offer the same > source OS configurations across AWS and VMware - same OS families and > versions and base configurations. For automated server provisioning this is > key because it lets your provisioning workflow make assumptions across all > provisioning landscapes as to what is the starting point after the template > or AMI is launched. We bake into our templates and AMIs a service account > that lets our provisioning process get into the new systems and do > privileged tasks. Windows and Linux obviously look different, but all Linux > families / versions have the same base config, and all Windows versions > have the same base config. > > Packer has three stages - builder, provisioner, post-processor. > > - The builder stage creates the base image from an ISO (for VMware) or > from an AMI (for AWS). > - The provisioner stage logs into that base image and gets it up to > the expected base configuration using ansible (and some PowerShell for > Windows). > - The post-processor takes the "provisioned" (configured) images and > converts them to VMware templates or new AWS AMIs. > > I highly recommend learning packer and using it. Learning how to do Debian > Preseed or Ubuntu Cloud-Init profiles is a real mess but can be done. Red > Hat Kickstart profiles are much easier to build. Windows Server requires > learning how to do unattended answer files. All of this is required to > master the packer build stage. > > A great place to see all this as an example is Jeff Geerling's Packer > Boxes project on GitHub. > https://github.com/geerlingguy/packer-boxes > > This was the basis for our Image Factory project that maintains our base > VMware templates and AWS AMIs. > > The vmare_guest module can easily create VMs from templates. Use packer to > maintain the templates. Use Ansible to deploy servers sourcing those > templates. > --- > Walter Rowe, Chief > Infrastructure Services > NIST Office of Information Systems Management > US Department of Commerce > > On Monday, July 18, 2022 at 10:58:43 AM UTC-4 Antony Stone wrote: > >> On Monday 18 July 2022 at 16:51:25, Abhijeet Kasurde wrote: >> >> > You want to check - >> > >> > >> https://medium.com/@AbhijeetKasurde/automating-centos-7-installation-using- >> > ansible-and-kickstart-483807a3774c >> > >> https://medium.com/8042/ansible-automating-windows-server-2012-r2-installa >> > tion-in-vcenter-227577f5917c >> >> Also see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed and >> https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/apb.en.html if you happen >> to be >> installing Debian or Devuan. It probably works for Ubuntu as well (but >> I've >> not tried that). >> >> >> Antony. >> >> -- >> The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed in >> 1824. >> The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was not >> formed >> until 1884. >> That says something about the British. >> >> Please reply to the list; >> please *don't* CC me. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ansible Project" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/00f384c8-a07a-4899-b8bf-57a5bbbe0231n%40googlegroups.com.
