This repository contains Windows templates that can be used to create boxes for Vagrant using Packer. It is inspired by https://github.com/mwrock/packer-templates and by https://github.com/MattHodge/PackerTemplates. I was a bit stuck until I read https://hodgkins.io/best-practices-with-packer-and-windows. My previous approach of stuffing all box creating effort in 1 file was very cumbersome. Turns out you can use a modular approach with Packer by creating multiple artifacts and chain them together.

The Windows boxes are created with Packer version 0.12.2 and are using WinRM (no SSH). Vagrant, Packer and Virtualbox or Parallels.

Linux: Install them with your package provider.

MacOS:

• You will need Parallels Desktop 12. Unfortunately you need the Pro Edition for Vagrant support!
• Install with Brew:

brew cask install vagrant
vagrant plugin install vagrant-parallels

• You also need the Parallels Virtualization SDK.

Windows: You can install the prerequisites with packagemanagement:

Install-Package -ProviderName Chocolatey -ForceBootstrap -Force vagrant,virtualbox,packer

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/jacqinthebox/packer-templates.git; cd packer-templates

Save the Packer executable in this folder.

How to create a Parallels Windows 2016 box:

./example_build_parallels_windows_2016.sh

How to create a Windows 2016 box for VirtualBox. This also exports a Hyper-V box. For Hyper-V you need to add this plugin to the packer-templates folder.

./example_build_vbox_windows_2016.sh

vagrant box add --name windows_server_2016 windows2016_parallels.box