Create VM templates with Packer for usage with Libvirt/KVM virtualization : CentOS 7, CentOS 8 (Stream), CentOS 9 (Stream), Alma Linux 8, Alma Linux 9, Rocky Linux 8, Bionic (Ubuntu 1804), Focal (Ubuntu 2004), Jammy (Ubuntu 2204), Debian 11 (stable), Kali Linux, Fedora 35.
Only for education and learning purposes. Do not use it in production.
Packer is an open source tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration called a template. (Introduction to Packer, What is Packer?). It uses different plugins as builders, provisioners or post-processors.
While the JSON format template is still supported, certain new features in the Packer core will only be implemented for the newer HCL2 format. Therefore, this project has been updated to HCL2.
Builders are responsible for creating machines and generating images from them for various platforms. For example, there are separate builders for EC2, VMware, VirtualBox, Qemu, etc. Packer comes with many builders by default, and can also be extended to add new builders. (Builders)
Packer can enable an http server to serve kickstart, preseed or cloud-init configuration files at boot.
Provisioners use builtin and third-party software to install and configure the machine image after booting. (Provisioners)
Post-processors run after the image is built by the builder and provisioned by the provisioner(s). (Post-Processors)
This is a Packer "Proof of Concept" with :
- qemu/kvm as image builder (qcow2)
- "shell" and "ansible-local" as provisionners
- "shell-local" as post-processor to generate a gns3a appliance file, checksum and upload to a server
Optionnal :
- run this inside a docker container
- build your own container
Enjoy those images with :
- Libvirt native tools
- Terraform as IaC tool with a third party Libvirtd Provider plugin
The built images are intended to be published on a S3 bucket.
The run this project with success, you need a virtualization server and some softwares installed :
- Libvirt/KVM, Packer and aws s3 cli
- Docker (to run the build inside a container)
Use ./setup.sh for a quick setup of Libvirt/KVM, Packer and aws s3 cli but please read before the following manual instructions.
For Docker usage, install it and put your aws S3 credits in your ~/.profile.
Anyway, you can remove the post-processor in your image JSON template to avoid S3 upload attemps.
Configure your S3 credits :
echo "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY=<your AWS_ACCESS_KEY>" >> ~/.profile
echo "export AWS_SECRET_KEY=<your AWS_SECRET_KEY>" >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profileInstall Livirt/KVM on your server :
if [ -f /etc/debian_version ]; then
apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade
apt-get -y install qemu-kvm libvirt-dev virtinst virt-viewer libguestfs-tools virt-manager uuid-runtime curl linux-source libosinfo-bin
virsh net-start default
virsh net-autostart default
elif [ -f /etc/redhat-release ]; then
yum -y install epel-release
yum -y upgrade
yum -y group install "Virtualization Host"
yum -y install virt-manager libvirt virt-install qemu-kvm xauth dejavu-lgc-sans-fonts virt-top libguestfs-tools virt-viewer virt-manager curl
ln -s /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64
fiInstall the Packer binary :
yum -y install wget unzip || apt update && apt -y install wget unzip
latest=$(curl -L -s https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer | grep 'packer_' | sed 's/^.*<.*\">packer_\(.*\)<\/a>/\1/' | head -1)
wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer/${latest}/packer_${latest}_linux_amd64.zip
unzip packer*.zip
chmod +x packer
mv packer /usr/local/bin/Get Docker and docker-compose :
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh && sh get-docker.sh
if [ -f /etc/debian_version ]; then
apt-get update && apt-get -y install python3-pip
elif [ -f /etc/redhat-release ]; then
yum -y install python3-pip
fi
pip3 install docker-composeEach JSON file is a template for a distribution :
- almalinux8.pkr.hcl
- almalinux9.pkr.hcl
- bionic.pkr.hcl
- centos7.pkr.hcl
- centos8.pkr.hcl
- centos9.pkr.hcl
- debian11.pkr.hcl
- fedora35.pkr.hcl
- focal.pkr.hcl
- jammy.pkr.hcl
- rocky8.pkr.hcl
For example :
packer build centos7.pkr.hclgoffinet/packer-qemu is a Docker image for building qemu images with packer and is available on Docker Hub.
docker run --rm \
-e PACKER_LOG=1 \
-e PACKER_LOG_PATH="packer-docker.log" \
-it \
--privileged \
--cap-add=ALL -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
-v `pwd`:/opt/ \
-e AWS_ACCESS_KEY=$AWS_ACCESS_KEY \
-e AWS_SECRET_KEY=$AWS_SECRET_KEY \
-w /opt/ goffinet/packer-qemu build centos7.pkr.hclThe script build.sh do it with the template filename as first argument.
./build.sh centos7.pkr.hclTo build the image localy with the Dockerfile :
docker build -t packer-qemu .Packer use VNC to launch a temporary VM, you can check this window with a VNC client like vinagre.
You can have more details from Packet with the env var configured : PACKER_LOG=1.
I build images for qemu/KVM with this project and I publish them for use in those other IaC projects: Virt-scripts and Terraform with Libvirt/KVM provider.
- almalinux8.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- almalinux9.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- bionic.qcow2 (Ubuntu 18.04) [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- centos7.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- centos8.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- centos9.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- debian11.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- fedora32.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- fedora33.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- fedora34.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- fedora35.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- focal.qcow2 (Ubuntu 20.04) [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- jammy.qcow2 (Ubuntu 20.04) [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- kali20211.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
- rocky8.qcow2 [md5sum] [sha256sum]
You can easily download them to /var/lib/libvirt/images with this script :
curl -s -o /usr/local/bin/download-images.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goffinet/virt-scripts/master/download-images.sh
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/download-images.sh
download-images.shHow to exploit those built images?
- In the old way with Libvirt and some bash scripts
- In a beter way with a tool like Terraform
This is always beter to know how Libvirt is working. Can you read fundamentals about KVM virtualization in french.
https://github.com/goffinet/virt-scripts
- Clone virt-scripts repo and prepare the machine
sudo apt update && apt -y install git
git clone https://github.com/goffinet/virt-scripts
cd virt-scripts
sudo ./autoprep.sh- Build or download images
Put builded images in /var/lib/libvirt/images or download them :
sudo ./download-images.shPlease provide the image name :
centos7 bionic debian11
- Launch two new machines
sudo ./define-guest-image.sh c1 centos7
sudo ./define-guest-image.sh u1 bionic- Enjoy
sudo virsh console u1ssh $(dig @192.168.122.1 +short u1)https://github.com/goffinet/terraform-libvirt
Install Terraform 0.13 with a third party Libvirt provider plugin :
echo "security_driver = \"none\"" >> /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf
systemctl restart libvirtd
sudo yum -y install wget unzip || sudo apt update && sudo apt -y install wget unzip
wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/0.13.2/terraform_0.13.2_linux_amd64.zip
unzip terraform_0.13.2_linux_amd64.zip
chmod +x terraform
mv terraform /usr/local/bin/
wget https://github.com/dmacvicar/terraform-provider-libvirt/releases/download/v0.6.2/terraform-provider-libvirt-0.6.2+git.1585292411.8cbe9ad0.Ubuntu_18.04.amd64.tar.gz
tar xvf terraform-provider-libvirt-0.6.2+git.1585292411.8cbe9ad0.Ubuntu_18.04.amd64.tar.gz
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/terraform/plugins/registry.terraform.io/dmacvicar/libvirt/0.6.2/linux_amd64
cp -r terraform-provider-libvirt ~/.local/share/terraform/plugins/registry.terraform.io/dmacvicar/libvirt/0.6.2/linux_amd64/Compose your libvirt infrastructure :
git clone https://github.com/goffinet/terraform-libvirt
cd terraform-libvirt/ubuntu_cloudinit
terraform plan
cd ../count
terraform planThe scripts/push-image.sh generate somme meta-data and push the generated image to a pre-defined S3 Bucket.
To customize this process, you can change the content as it :
#!/bin/bash
name=$IMAGE_NAME
version=$IMAGE_VERSION
image="${name}${version}"
echo "artifacts/qemu/${image} post-processing ..."Anyway, you can remove the post-processor in your image JSON template to avoid this script call.
To generate the ssh keys for provisionning and put it in the sshkeys/ folder :
ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -N '' -C 'packer-kvm-default-key' -f sshkeys/id_rsaTo get the default ssh private key :
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goffinet/packer-kvm/master/sshkeys/id_rsaTo get the default ssh public key :
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goffinet/packer-kvm/master/sshkeys/id_rsa.pub- unique model : for efficience, a unique template should be sufficient with a data source with these elements.
- random secret for provisonning (https://www.packer.io/docs/templates/engine#template-variables)
- Remove swap post-processing
- docker-compose for automation
- add versions of post-processing and images meta-datas
Wath are the variants in those templates?
- the
iso_urlsand theiso_checksumtemplate parameters - the
ssh_username,ssh_passwordandssh_private_key_filetemplate parameters as well assshkeyin kickstart files. - the
boot_commandas template parameter - the configuration file type : kickstart, preseed or cloud-init
- https://github.com/idi-ops/packer-kvm-centos
- https://github.com/jakobadam/packer-qemu-templates
- https://github.com/leonkyneur/packer-qemu
- https://github.com/kaorimatz/packer-templates
- https://github.com/bramford/packer-debian9
- https://github.com/bpetit/packer-templates
- https://github.com/NeCTAR-RC/nectar-images/
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