vsphere post-provisioner convert to template

[Jon Hittner]

I'm using the vsphere post-provisioner to upload the vmx output from the vmware-iso builder to my vcenter.   It works well, but the result is a virtual machine.   Is there any way to have the provisioner convert the virtual machine to a template, or does anyone have a workflow that already does this?

[Stan Dorsett]

I've posted some blog posts around the approach the team I work on uses:
https://sdorsett.github.io/2015/12/27/using-ovftool-to-export-packer-generated-virtual-machines/
https://sdorsett.github.io/2015/12/28/scripted-packer-build-and-export/

Stan

On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 2:52 PM, Jon Hittner <jhittn...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm using the vsphere post-provisioner to upload the vmx output from the vmware-iso builder to my vcenter.   It works well, but the result is a virtual machine.   Is there any way to have the provisioner convert the virtual machine to a template, or does anyone have a workflow that already does this?

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[Jon Hittner]

Thanks, but unfortunately that doesn't work in my case as we don't use virtualbox/vagrant.   We are using the vmware-iso builder to build the image using a remote esxi box (remote_type esx5) and the the vsphere post-processor to upload to our vcenter.   Unless Im missing it, I don't think the ovftool has the ability to convert a vmware virtual machine on a vsphere to a vmware template.   

Maybe there is a way to do it during the builder phase after the machine is shutdown as a final step.   The esxi shell has a "vim-cmd vmsvc/convert.toTemplate" although I havent figured out how to get the builder to run a command on the remote esxi machine that the image is being built, or how to pass it the vmid that that command would need.

any ideas?

-Jon

[Becky]

Hi Jon,

Try out these  steps 

variables.json

==============

{

    "esxi_host": "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx",

    "esxi_username": "root",

    "esxi_password": "PassWordGoesHere"

}

runESXiCommands.json

===================

{

    "builders": [{

        "type": "null",

        "name": "BUILDER-EXEC-ESXI-CMD",

        "ssh_host": "{{user `esxi_host`}}",

        "ssh_username": "{{user `esxi_username`}}",

        "ssh_password": "{{user `esxi_password`}}"

    }],

    "provisioners": [{

        "type": "shell",

        "only": ["BUILDER-EXEC-ESXI-CMD"],

        "scripts": [

            "runESXiCommands.sh"

        ]

    }

    ]

}

runESXiCommands.sh << This script  will be executed on ESXi and make sure that SSH is Open on ESXi >>

==================

#!/bin/sh

vim-cmd vmsvc/convert.toTemplate

packer validate -var-file=variables.json runESXiCommands.json

packer build -only=BUILDER-EXEC-ESXI-CMD -var-file=.variables.json runESXiCommands.json

Regards,

[Jon Hittner]

cool, thanks Becky.  It looks like Im almost there, the null builder does exactly what I want and executes on the ESXi instead of the VM.. Now I need to find a way to have the null builder wait until after the vmware-iso builder is run before it starts. 

 The run order I need would look something like:

1- vmware-iso builder 

2- all provisioners used by vmware-iso (wait till complete)

3- null builder

4- script provisioner used by null builder

5- vsphere post processor

Is there a way to get one builder to wait on the other before starting?   Am I approaching this wrong?

-Jon

[Becky]

Hi Jon,

No there is no such way which i am aware of but this is what you can do..

write a master.sh script 

MASTER.sh

===============

#!/bin/bash

function packerValidate()

{

packer validate -var-file=variables.json runESXiCommands.json

packer validate -var-file=variables.json runESXiCommands2.json

}

function packerBuildSerialOrder()

{

packer build -only=BUILDER-EXEC-ESXI-CMD1 -var-file=.variables.json runESXiCommands1.json

packer build -only=BUILDER-EXEC-ESXI-CMD2 -var-file=.variables.json runESXiCommands2.json

}

packerValidate

packerBuildSerialOrder

==================

Hope above helps.

Regards,

[Rodrigo P.]

Hi Jon,

I was wondering how you got to work the combination of vmware-iso on remote esxi and vsphere post-processor. I couldn't get this to work, and I assumed it was because the vsphere post-processor expects the VM files in some output directory where packer was executed, but instead it's on the ESXi datastore. Can you offer some hint about it?

thanks in advance,

rodrigo

[murali U]

Hi Rodrigo/Jon,

Did either of you figure our creating vmtx files or templates using packer. If so, can you advise on how to do this please? 

cheers

[Rickard von Essen]

See my answer here https://groups.google.com/d/msg/packer-tool/19A46jg1rGw/cg7PjMXIAAAJ

And https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/pull/4882

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[James Paley]

Note that in your terraform script, the disk section -> template parameter can refer to a vsphere virtual machine, which will result in a clone of the virtual machine, pretty much just like a template.