Packer ubuntu proxmox template

This repo has a packer template file to create a cloud init enabled ubuntu server 18.04 proxmox template.

This repo has Taskfile support to make running some of the common commands easier.

Creating a ubuntu proxmox template

You can run the template with the following methods:

• The simple way
• The manual way

This template has some required configuration variables, all of these variables can be seen in the example-vars.json copy this file and fill in all variables for your environment and pass the var file to packer with the -var-file option.

For this template you will need to have the ubuntu 18.04 server iso locally available on the PVE host. If you have task installed you can do this with the task ubuntu-18-iso command to download it to your local machine and then upload it to the PVE host.

The simple way

This repo uses a Taskfile for common commands. You can find installation instructions for task here.

1. Configure template varibles for your setup

   $ task init
   cp ./example.json ./config.json

   After the task has completed fill out the config.json file for your environment. See the variables section for more details on what these variables are.

2. Check your template file is valid

   $ task validate
   packer validate ./ubuntu-18.04.json
   Template validated successfully.

3. Build your proxmox template

   $ task build
   packer build -var-file="./config.json" ./ubuntu-18.04.json
   proxmox: output will be in this color.
   
   ==> proxmox: Creating VM
   ==> proxmox: Starting VM
   ==> proxmox: Starting HTTP server on port 8771
   
   ...
   
   Build 'proxmox' finished.
   
   ==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
   --> proxmox: A template was created: 4444
   --> proxmox:

4. Your template should now be available on your PVE host

The manual way

1. Configure template varibles for your setup

   cp ./example.json ./config.json

   After the task has completed fill out the config.json file for your environment. See the variables section for more details on what these variables are.

2. Check your template file is valid

   $ packer validate ./ubuntu-18.04.json
   Template validated successfully.

3. Build your proxmox template

   $ packer build -var-file="./config.json" ./ubuntu-18.04.json
   proxmox: output will be in this color.
   
   ==> proxmox: Creating VM
   ==> proxmox: Starting VM
   ==> proxmox: Starting HTTP server on port 8771
   
   ...
   
   Build 'proxmox' finished.
   
   ==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
   --> proxmox: A template was created: 4444
   --> proxmox:

4. Your template should now be ready on your PVE host

If you had no errors building your image you should now have a proxmox template ready on your PVE host that is cloud init enabled and should be named the same as the template_name variable you set in your config.json file.

Variables

Variable	Description	Example
proxmox_host	The hostname of your pve node that will be accessed via the web api	100.0.0.100:8006, pve.example.com
proxmox_node_name	The name of the node the template will be created on	pve-01
proxmox_api_user	User plus login method for the user that will perform the commands on the PVE host	root@pam
proxmox_api_password	Password of the user that will perform the commands on the PVE host	password
template_name	Name of the proxmox template to be created, Good to make this unique and easily identifiable	ubuntu-18-04-{{ isotime \"2006-01-02-T15-04-05\" }}
template_description	Description applied to the proxmox template to be created	Ubuntu 18.04, generated by packer on {{ isotime \"2006-01-02T15:04:05Z\" }}
ssh_username	Default username, if modified from packer update the default preseed.cfg file d-i preseed/late_command string command and update it to your new sudoer username	packer
ssh_fullname	Default user full name	packer
ssh_password	Default user password	packer
hostname	Internal OS hostname	ubuntu-18-04-cloudinit
vmid	ID of the vm that will be created to configure the template	4000
locale	Locale of the created VM	en_US
cores	Available cores on the template	1
sockets	Available sockets on the template	1
memory	Available memory on the template	512
disk_size	OS disk size of the template	50G
datastore	The data store the vm os disk will be created on	local
datastore_type	The type of the os disk data store	directory
iso	PVE host local path to the OS ISO image for the template	local:iso/ubuntu-18.04.3-server-amd64.iso
boot_command_prefix	Command to enter the command line during the installation process	<esc><esc><enter><wait>
preseed_file	Pre seed file you wish to be used relative to the ./http directory	preseed.cfg

Notes

• This template has been tested against the ubuntu-18.04.4-server-amd64.iso file.
• You can configure the os setup by modifying the pre seed file located in the ./http folder