This builds a Windows Server 2016 base Vagrant box using Packer.

Install VirtualBox (or libvirt on Linux based systems), packer, packer-provisioner-windows-update plugin and vagrant. If you are using Windows and Chocolatey, you can install everything with:

choco install -y virtualbox packer packer-provisioner-windows-update vagrant

To build the base box based on the Windows Server 2016 Evaluation ISO run:

packer build -only=windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox windows-2016.json # or make build-libvirt

If you want to use your own ISO, run the following instead:

packer build -var iso_url=<ISO_URL> -var iso_checksum=<ISO_SHA256_CHECKSUM> -only=windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox windows-2016.json

NB if the build fails with something like Post-processor failed: write /tmp/packer073329394/packer-windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox-1505050546-disk001.vmdk: no space left on device you need to increase your temporary partition size or change its location as described in the packer TMPDIR/TMP environment variable documentation.

NB if you are having trouble building the base box due to floppy drive removal errors try adding, as a workaround, "post_shutdown_delay": "30s", to the windows-2016.json file.

NB To troubleshoot, before launching packer, you can set the following environment variables:

export CHECKPOINT_DISABLE=1
export PACKER_LOG=1
export PACKER_LOG_PATH=packer.log

You can then add the base box to your local vagrant installation with:

vagrant box add -f windows-2016-amd64 windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox.box

And test this base box by launching an example Vagrant environment:

cd example
vagrant up --provider=virtualbox # or --provider=libvirt

NB if you are having trouble running the example with the vagrant libvirt provider check the libvirt logs in the host (e.g. sudo tail -f /var/log/libvirt/qemu/example_default.log) and in the guest (inside C:\Windows\Temp).

Then test with a more complete example:

git clone https://github.com/rgl/customize-windows-vagrant
cd customize-windows-vagrant
vagrant up --provider=virtualbox # or --provider=libvirt

Build the base box for the vagrant-libvirt provider with:

make build-libvirt

If you want to access the UI run:

spicy --uri 'spice+unix:///tmp/packer-windows-2016-amd64-libvirt-spice.socket'

NB the packer template file defines qemuargs (which overrides the default packer qemu arguments), if you modify it, verify if you also need include the default packer qemu arguments (see builder/qemu/step_run.go or start packer without qemuargs defined to see how it starts qemu).

You can connect to this machine through WinRM to run a remote command, e.g.:

winrs -r:localhost:55985 -u:vagrant -p:vagrant "whoami /all"

NB the exact local WinRM port should be displayed by vagrant, in this case:

==> default: Forwarding ports...
    default: 5985 (guest) => 55985 (host) (adapter 1)

This base image uses WinRM. WinRM poses several limitations on remote administration, those were worked around by disabling User Account Control (UAC) (aka Limited User Account (LUA)) in autounattend.xml.

If needed, you can later enable it with:

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name EnableLUA -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name EnableLUA -Value 1
Restart-Computer

When Windows boots from the installation media its Setup application loads the a:\autounattend.xml file. It contains all the answers needed to automatically install Windows without any human intervention. For more information on how this works see OEM Windows Deployment and Imaging Walkthrough.

autounattend.xml was generated with the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) application that is included in the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).

To create, edit and validate the a:\autounattend.xml file you need to install the Deployment Tools that are included in the Windows ADK.

If you are having trouble installing the ADK (adksetup) or running WSIM (imgmgr) when your machine is on a Windows Domain and the log has:

Image path is [\??\C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\DISM\wimmount.sys]
Could not acquire privileges; GLE=0x514
Returning status 0x514

It means there's a group policy that is restricting your effective permissions, for an workaround, run adksetup and imgmgr from a SYSTEM shell, something like:

psexec -s -d -i cmd
adksetup
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\WSIM"
imgmgr

For more information see Error installing Windows ADK.