• Set of Hashicorp's Packer templates to create Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines
  • Requirements
  • Requirements - Quick Start
    • Install packer from Chocolatey
    • Install required plugins
    • Use account with Administrator privileges for Hyper-V
    • Add firewal exclusions for TCP ports 8000-9000 default range
    • Adjust Hyper-V settings
    • Default passwords
    • Enable Packer debug logging
  • Scripts
    • Windows Machines
    • Linux Machines
  • Templates Windows 2022
    • Hyper-V Generation 2 Windows Server 2022 Standard Image
      • Windows 2022 Standard Generation 2 Prerequisites
    • Hyper-V Generation 2 Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Image
      • Windows 2022 Datacenter Generation 2 Prerequisites
    • [Experimental] Hyper-V generation 2 Windows Server 2022 Standard Vagrant support
    • [Experimental] Hyper-V generation 2 Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Vagrant support
  • Templates Ubuntu
    • Warnings - Ubuntu 20.x
    • Hyper-V Generation 2 Ubuntu 22.04 Image
  • Ansible Provisioning
  • Known issues
    • I have general problem not covered here
    • Infamous UEFI/Secure boot WIndows implementation
    • When Hyper-V host has more than one interface Packer sets {{ .HTTPIP }} variable to inproper interface
    • Packer version 1.3.0/1.3.1 have bug with windows-restart provisioner
    • Packer won't run until VirtualSwitch is created as shared
    • I have problem how to find a proper WIM name in Windows ISO to pick proper version
    • On Windows machines, build break during updates phase, when update cycles are interfering with each other
    • Why don't you use ansible instead of shell scripts for provisioning
  • About

• packer <=1.8.4. Do not use packer below 1.7.0 version. For previous packer versions use previous releases from this repository
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 or Microsoft Windows Server 2019/2022 with Hyper-V role installed as host to build your images
• firewall exceptions for packer http server (look down below)
• properly constructed virtual switch in Hyper-v allowing virtual machine to get IP from DHCP and contact Hyper-V server on mentioned packer ports. This is a must, if kickstart is reachable over the network.

choco install packer --version=1.8.4 -y

In root folder of a repository

packer init --upgrade config.pkr.hcl

Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Packer_http_server" -Verbose
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Packer_http_server" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 8000-9000

To adjust to your Hyper-V, please check variables below and/or in ./variables files

• (variable vlan_id in /variables/variables.*.pkvars.hcl) - proper VLAN ID . Look up to find your build server vEthernet setings.
• (variable switch_name in /variables/variables.*.pkvars.hcl) - proper Hyper-V Virtual Switch name (access to Internet will be required). Make sure you're using pre-existing switch in your Hyper-V server - creation of new switch by packer, instead of reusing existing one can cause lack of Internet access, thus failing the build.

# example of mentioned variables
vlan_id = ""
switch_name = "vSwitch"

Soon to be parametrized

In building script set packet_log variable to 1

$packer_log=1

• all available updates will be applied (3 passes)

• latest version of chocolatey

• packages from a list below:

  Package	Version
  conemu	latest
  dotnetfx	latest
  sysinternals	latest

• phase4b-docker.ps1 - Docker settings can be customised

  • requiredVersion - which version of docker module to install - defaults to 19.03.1
  • installCompose ($true/$false) - install docker-compose from chocolatey packages
  • dockerLocation - of set, will default docker images and settings there. On empty, docker location is not being set.
  • configDockerLocation - default place for docker's config file

  Example of usage

  .\phase5b-docker.ps1 -requiredVersion "19.03.1" -installCompose $true -dockerLocation "d:\docker" -configDockerLocation "C:\ProgramData\Docker\config"

• Repositories:

  Repository	Package	switch
  Epel 7/8/9	epel-release	can be switched off by setting "install_epel" to false
  Zabbix 6.0	zabbix-agent	can be switched on by setting "install_zabbix" to true
  Hyper-V	SCVMM Agent	can be switched off by setting "install_hyperv" to false
  Neofetch	neofetch	can be switched off by setting "install_neofetch" to false

• [Optional] Linux machine with separated disk for docker

• [Optional] Linux machine for vagrant

Run hv_win2022_std.ps1 (Windows)

For Generation 2 prepare secondary.iso with folder structure:

• ./extra/files/gen2-2022/std/Autounattend.xml => /Autounattend.xml
• ./extra/scripts/hyper-v/bootstrap.ps1 => /bootstrap.ps1

This template uses this image name in Autounattendes.xml. If youre using different ISO you'll have to adjust that part in proper file and rebuild secondary.iso image.

<InstallFrom>
    <MetaData wcm:action="add">
        <Key>/IMAGE/NAME </Key>
        <Value>Windows Server 2022 SERVERSTANDARD</Value>
    </MetaData>
</InstallFrom>

Run hv_win2022_dc.ps1 (Windows)

For Generation 2 prepare secondary.iso with folder structure:

• ./extra/files/gen2-2022/dc/autounattend.xml => /Autounattend.xml
• ./extra/scripts/hyper-v/bootstrap.ps1 => /bootstrap.ps1
• ./extra/scripts/hyper-v/winrm-config.ps1 => /winrm-config.ps1

This template uses this image name in Autounattendes.xml. If youre using different ISO you'll have to adjust that part in proper file and rebuild secondary.iso image. You can use the unattend-iso-build.ps1 script in the root of the repo to rebuild the ISO incase of any additions/modifications.

<InstallFrom>
    <MetaData wcm:action="add">
        <Key>/IMAGE/NAME </Key>
        <Value>Windows Server 2022 SERVERDATACENTER</Value>
    </MetaData>
</InstallFrom>

• if required change switch_name parameter to switch's name you're using. In most situations packer manages it fine but there were a cases when it created new 'internal' switches without access to Internet. By design this setup will fail to download and apply updates.
• if needed - change iso_url variable to a proper iso name
• packer generates v8 machine configuration files (Windows 2016/Hyper-V 2016 as host) and v9 for Windows Server 2019/Windows 10 1809
• credentials for Windows machines: Administrator/password (removed after sysprep)
• credentials for Linux machines: root/password
• for Windows based machines adjust your settings in ./scripts/phase-2.ps1
• for Linux based machines adjust your settings in ./files/gen2-{{os}}/provision.sh and ./files/gen2-{{os}}/puppet.conf

Run hv_ubuntu2004.ps1

Run hv_ubuntu2204.ps1

I use CI with Azure DevOps for building images via Packer. In order to facilitate this I use Ansible to run the packer builds on Hyper-V.

The packer_build.yml file in the root of the repo is the Ansible playbook that can be used. The plays are located in ./roles/packer_build/tasks/main.yml

The play will need to be modified slightly as it is catered for my own environment where its cloning private git repos and such

hashicorp/packer#7278 (comment)

Fixed in version 1.4.4. Do not use previous versions

Fixed in version 1.4.4. Do not use lower versions No resolution so far, template needs to be changed to pass real IP address, or there should be connection between these addresses. Limiting these, end with timeout errors.**

hashicorp/packer#6733

hashicorp/packer#5023 Will be fixed in 1.4.x revision

You can use number. If you have 4 images on the list of choice - use ImageIndex with proper Value

<ImageInstall>
    <OSImage>
        <InstallFrom>
            <MetaData wcm:action="add">
                <Key>/IMAGE/INDEX </Key>
                <Value>2</Value>
            </MetaData>
        </InstallFrom>
        <InstallTo>
            <DiskID>0</DiskID>
            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
        </InstallTo>
    </OSImage>
</ImageInstall>

Increase variable update_timeout in ./variables/*.json file - this will create longer pauses between stages, allowing cycles to complete before jumping to another one.