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Packer

What is Packer ?

Packer gives the ability to automate image builds. It will allow us to create customized template with pre-defined generic configuration.

List of supported configuration

Version is pinned in configuration file.

Hypervisors:

Distributions :

  • Ubuntu

How does it works ?

sequenceDiagram
    actor User
    User->>Packer: Launch packer command
    Packer->>Hypervisor: Connect to hypervisor API<br>and ask hypervisor to create VM
    create participant VM
    Hypervisor->>VM: Create and start VM
    Packer->>VM: Typing boot sequence<br>and tell the VM to connect to Packer HTTP server<br>to get cloud init configuration
    Packer->>Packer: Start HTTP server<br>and serve rendered cloud init configuration template<br>(minimal configuration)
    VM->>Packer: Download configuration through HTTP
    VM->>VM: Proceed to autoinstall<br>and reboot at the end
    Packer->>Packer: Waiting availability of SSH server
    Packer->>VM: SSH to the VM<br> and wait end of cloud init execution
    Packer->>VM: Execute ansible playbook deploy_packer.yml<br>to finish VM configuration
    Packer->>Packer: Shutdown VM,<br>remove CD-ROM,<br>convert VM to template<br>and stop HTTP server

How to open/close ports ?

PORT represents the packer http server port

  • Open port

    iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport <PORT> -j ACCEPT -m comment --comment "Packer"

    ufw allow <PORT>/tcp comment "Packer"

    nixos-firewall-tool open tcp <PORT>

  • Close port

    iptables -D INPUT -p tcp --dport <PORT> -j ACCEPT -m comment --comment "Packer"

    ufw delete allow <PORT>/tcp

    nixos-firewall-tool reset

Usage

Configuration is stored in packer folder.

Packer use 8888/tcp port for this HTTP server.

PROXMOX_PASSWORD represents the proxmox password used for HTTP API

Init plugins

uv run task packer:init

Generate ubuntu template

uv run task packer:ubuntu