unclear on workflow between packer and vagrant

[jetch...@gmx.com]

Hello,

There's obviously something I'm missing in my understanding of the workflow from packer to vagrant.

Let's say I'm having to do multiple packer runs for some reason, say, having to debug or fine tune the ks.cfg for centos7.2 installs.  If it matters I'm using virtualbox-iso.

My understanding of the workflow is:

packer validate
packer build
vagrant init
vagrant up
vagrant ssh
examine results
vagrant destroy
correct/modify/enhance ks.cfg
repeat

BUT:

I'm finding that I have to do:

vagrant box delete <boxpath/boxname>

before the packer build.  Is this correct?  If so, isn't there an overwrite option?

And then, the packer init won't build unless I delete Vagrantfile.  Then it generates a bare-bones vagrantfile, not the one in the .box.  I end up having to copy my vagranfile template to Vagrantfile manually.  This can't be right.So what am I missing here?




The working directory is
  

 ~/centos-minimal

I've got a Vagrantfile template ~/Vagrantfile-centos-7.2-minimal

$ cat Vagrantfile-centos-7.2-minimal

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "builds/centos-7.2.virtualbox.box"
  config.ssh.insert_key = false
  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/pub", :mount_options => ["dmode=777", "fmode=666"]
end

Here's the post-processor "vagrant" section of the .json

  "post-processors": [
    {
      "type": "vagrant",
      "output": "builds/{{user `box_basename`}}.{{.Provider}}.box",
      "vagrantfile_template":"Vagrantfile-centos-7.2-minimal",
      "keep_input_artifact": true
    }

the packer build seems to run to completion just fine.  And it does create a builds/centos-7.2.virtualbox.box

So, packer build finishes.   My understanding is I then have to:

vagrant init builds/centos-7.2.virtualbox.box
vagrant up

If I tar xvzf centos-7.2.virtualbox.box, the expected Vagrantfile is shown to be part of the .box

$ tar xvzf centos-7.2.virtualbox.box
Vagrantfile
box.ovf
centos-7.2-x86_64-disk1.vmdk
metadata.json


[builds]$ cat Vagrantfile

# The contents below were provided by the Packer Vagrant post-processor

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.base_mac = "0800270B9CB5"
end


# The contents below (if any) are custom contents provided by the
# Packer template during image build.
Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "builds/centos-7.2.virtualbox.box"
  config.ssh.insert_key = false
  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/pub", :mount_options => ["dmode=777", "fmode=666"]
end

 Side question:  are there really supposed to be two

      Vagrant.Configure("2") do |config|

Sections?  Is that legal?

I hope this is clear...if not, just ask.  Thanks!

[Alvaro Miranda Aguilera]

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 1:52 PM, <jetch...@gmx.com> wrote:

packer validate
packer build
vagrant init
vagrant up
vagrant ssh
examine results
vagrant destroy
correct/modify/enhance ks.cfg
repeat

HEllo

You need to create the vagrant file once, so you can do

vagrant init -m mybox

and then:

packer validate
packer build
vagrant box add --name mybox -f builds/centos-7.2.virtualbox.box