Lab
A Cloud Guru

Adding Packer Plugins

HashiCorp Packer allows users to create identical, cross-platform machine images by writing templates that leverage our existing infrastructure tools; however, Packer doesn't always offers native support for everything we require. In this hands-on lab, we'll prepare our desired Packer setup by installing some Packer plugins.

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Path Info

Level

Beginner

Duration

15m

Published

Oct 02, 2020

Challenge

Add the Windows Update Plugin

Locate the appropriate binary from the plugin repository and download it:

wget https://github.com/rgl/packer-provisioner-windows-update/releases/download/v0.9.0/packer-provisioner-windows-update-linux.tgz

Expand the file:

tar zxvf packer-provisioner-windows-update-linux.tgz

Make binary executable:

chmod +x packer-provisioner-windows-update

Create the necessary plugins directory:
```
mkdir -p ~/.packer.d/plugins
```

Move the binary:

mv packer-provisioner-windows-update ~/.packer.d/plugins/

Challenge

Add ARM Builder Dependencies

The ARM Builder plugin is a Go module; install a version of Go newer than 1.11.0:

wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.18.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.18.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin

Install the other module dependencies:

sudo apt install kpartx qemu-user-static

Challenge

Add the ARM Builder Plugin

Pull down the repository:

git clone https://github.com/solo-io/packer-builder-arm-image.git

cd packer-builder-arm-image

Build the module:
```
go mod download
```
```
go build
```

Move the resulting binary:

mv packer-plugin-arm-image ~/.packer.d/plugins/

Clean up your home directory when finished:
```
cd
```
```
rm -rf packer*
```
```
sudo rm -rf go*
```

Author

A Cloud Guru

The Cloud Content team comprises subject matter experts hyper focused on services offered by the leading cloud vendors (AWS, GCP, and Azure), as well as cloud-related technologies such as Linux and DevOps. The team is thrilled to share their knowledge to help you build modern tech solutions from the ground up, secure and optimize your environments, and so much more!

What's a lab?

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.