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Requirements

  Platform

The project is tested on the following platforms:

Platform Version
VMware vSphere 8.0 or later
7.0 Update 3D or later

  Operating Systems

The project is tested on the following operating systems for the Packer host 1 :

Operating System Version Architecture
   VMware Photon OS 5.0 x86_64
   Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS x86_64
   macOS Sonoma Intel or Apple Silicon

  Packer

  Packer CLI

HashiCorp Packer 1.10.0 or higher.

You can install Packer on VMware Photon OS using the following commands:

PACKER_VERSION="1.10.0"
OS_PACKAGES="wget unzip"

if [[ $(uname -m) == "x86_64" ]]; then
  LINUX_ARCH="amd64"
elif [[ $(uname -m) == "aarch64" ]]; then
  LINUX_ARCH="arm64"
fi

tdnf install ${OS_PACKAGES} -y

wget -q https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer/${PACKER_VERSION}/packer_${PACKER_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip

unzip -o -d /usr/local/bin/ packer_${PACKER_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip

You must configure your system to trust that HashiCorp key for package authentication.

  1. Configure the repository:

    sudo bash -c 'wget -O- https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | gpg --dearmor > /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg'

  2. Verify the fingerprint:

    gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg --fingerprint

    You can verify that the fingerprint matches the HashiCorp public key published on Security at HashiCorp.

  3. Add the official HashiCorp repository to your system:

    sudo bash -c 'echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] \
https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list'

  4. Install Packer from the HashiCorp repository:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt install packer

You can install Packer on macOS using Homebrew.

brew tap hashicorp/tap

brew install hashicorp/tap/packer

  Packer Plugins

Required plugins are automatically downloaded and initialized when using ./build.sh.

For disconnected sites (e.g., air-gapped or dark sites), you may download the plugins and place these same directory as your Packer executable /usr/local/bin or $HOME/.packer.d/plugins.

Plugin Version Description Resources
   Packer Plugin for Ansible >= 1.1.0 By HashiCorp   
   Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere >= 1.2.7 By HashiCorp   
   Packer Plugin for Git >= 0.6.2 Community Plugin   

  Additional Software Packages

The following additional software packages must be installed on the operating system running Packer.

  • git command-line tools.

  • ansible-core 2.15.

  • jq - A command-line JSON processor.

  • xorriso - A command-line ISO creator.

    pip3 install --user ansible-core==2.15
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
tdnf -y install git jq xorriso

  • HashiCorp Terraform 1.7.1 or higher.

    TERRAFORM_VERSION="1.7.1"
OS_PACKAGES="wget unzip"

if [[ $(uname -m) == "x86_64" ]]; then
  LINUX_ARCH="amd64"
elif [[ $(uname -m) == "aarch64" ]]; then
  LINUX_ARCH="arm64"
fi

tdnf install ${OS_PACKAGES} -y

wget -q https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/${TERRAFORM_VERSION}/terraform_${TERRAFORM_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip

unzip -o -d /usr/local/bin/ terraform_${TERRAFORM_VERSION}_linux_${LINUX_ARCH}.zip

  • git command-line tools.

  • ansible-core 2.15.

  • jq - A command-line JSON processor.

  • xorriso - A command-line ISO creator.

  • mkpasswd - A password generating utility.

  • HashiCorp Terraform 1.7.1 or higher.

    pip3 install --user ansible-core==2.15
sudo apt -y install git jq xorriso whois terraform

  • gomplate 3.11.7 or higher.

    GOMPLATE_VERSION="3.11.7"
LINUX_ARCH="amd64"

sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/gomplate -sSL https://github.com/hairyhenderson/gomplate/releases/download/v${GOMPLATE_VERSION}/gomplate_linux-${LINUX_ARCH}
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/gomplate
  • git command-line tools.
  • ansible-core 2.15.
  • jq - A command-line JSON processor.
  • Coreutils
  • HashiCorp Terraform 1.7.1 or higher.

  • gomplate 3.11.7 or higher.

    pip3 install --user ansible-core==2.15
brew install git jq coreutils hashicorp/tap/terraform gomplate

  • mkpasswd - A password generating utility.

    brew install --cask docker

  1. The project may work on other operating systems and versions, but has not been tested by the maintainers. ↩