# MSVSphere Cloud Images

[Packer](https://www.packer.io/) templates and configuration files for
building MSVSphere images for various cloud platforms.


## Build environment configuration

Supported operating systems:

  * MSVSphere 9 and other EL9-compatible distributions
  * Fedora

Follow the Packer installation [instructions](https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/downloads?product_intent=packer).

Alternatively, you can install a Packer binary from a Yandex
[mirror](https://hashicorp-releases.yandexcloud.net/packer/): just download a
latest version archive and unzip it somewhere in PATH (e.g. `~/.local/bin`).

Verify that Packer works:

```shell
$ packer version
Packer v1.9.1
```

In order to install required Packer plugins run the following command in the
project root:

```shell
$ packer init -upgrade .
```

Dependently on your network configuration, you may also need to open the
8000-9000 TCP port range so that Packer can serve kickstart files to VMs:

```shell
$ firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8000-9000/tcp --permanent
$ firewall-cmd --reload
```

You will also need to install either QEMU/KVM or VirtualBox or
VMWare Workstation, depending on what types of images you are going to build.

For VirtualBox and VMWare Workstation just follow the official site
instructions.

The QEMU/KVM installation instructions are provided below:

```shell
$ dnf install @virtualization
$ dnf install edk2-ovmf
```


## Building images

In order to build an image use the following command syntax:

```shell
$ packer build -only=${BUILDER}.${CONFIGURATION} .
```

where `${BUILDER}` is a Packer builder (e.g. `virtualbox-iso`) and
`${CONFIGURATION}` is an image configuration name (e.g. 
`msvsphere-9-vagrant-x86_64`).

A graphical VM console is disabled by default, but you can enable it for
debugging purposes by setting the `headless` variable to `false`:

```shell
$ packer build -only=vmware-iso.msvsphere-9-vagrant-x86_64 \
               -var headless=false .
```

See the [variables.pkr.hcl](variables.pkr.hcl) file for other supported
variables.


### Building Generic Cloud images

Generic Cloud image build command:

```shell
$ packer build -only=qemu.msvsphere-9-gencloud-x86_64 .
```


### Building Vagrant boxes

VirtualBox Vagrant box build command:

```shell
$ packer build -only=virtualbox-iso.msvsphere-9-vagrant-x86_64 .
```

VMWare Vagrant box build command:

```shell
$ packer build -only=vmware-iso.msvsphere-9-vagrant-x86_64 .
```


## License

Licensed under the MIT license, see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.