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Release History

v0.21.0

Release Date: Not Released

Bug Fix:

  • Updates to debian.yml file to remove the disable flag on cloud-init for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS version. #940
  • Updates to debian.yml file to fix cloud-init install issue and additional package issue. #944
  • Fixes issue when using http data source with a static IP address and the kickstart file could not be sent from Packer host. #959

Enhancement:

  • Updates pkr.hcl.example and variables.pkr.hcl with defaults. #944, #945

Chore:

  • Removes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 from the project. #944

On 30 June 2024, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 reached the end of life.

  • Updates Rocky Linux 8.9 to 8.10 release. #944

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.11.0. #960

  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.4.0. #960
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.9.5. #960
  • Updates required_versions for terraform-provider-vsphere to >= 2.8.3. #960
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/hcp to >= 0.95.0. #960
  • Updates required_versions for packer-plugin-ansible to >= 1.1.1. #960
  • Removes Centos Linux 7 from the project. #960
  • Updates Debian Linux 12.5 to 12.6 release. #960
  • Updates Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to 22.04.1 LTS. #965
  • Updates AlmaLinux Build pkr.hcl file change version from 8.9 to 8.10 #965
  • Updates Oracle Linux Build pkr.hcl file change version from 8.9 to 8.10 #965

v0.20.0

Release Date: 2024-05-29

Bug Fix:

  • Updates Windows Desktop Enterprise Edition to support the default use of evaluation mode. #908

Note: Professional Edition does not support evaluation mode. Microsoft Evaluation Center only provides support for Enterprise Edition. Please see the FAQ for additional details.

Enhancement:

  • Adds a download script (./download.sh) and a JSON configuration file (project.json) to assist in the download of the guest operating systems. #874, #877
  • Refactored the build script (./build.sh) to provide the same experience as the download script. #910
  • Adds Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS to the project. #891
  • Adds Fedora Server 40 Linux distribution to the project. #xxx
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Debian 12. #883
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. #888
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. #888
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Rocky Linux 9. #895
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Rocky Linux 8. #895
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on CentOS Stream 8. #897
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on CentOS Stream 9. #897
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on AlmaLinux OS 8. #898
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on AlmaLinux OS 9. #898
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Oracle Linux 8. #899
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on Oracle Linux 9. #899
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on VMware Photon OS 4. #900
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on VMware Photon OS 5. #900
  • Adds option to enable cloud-init on SUSE Enterprise Linux 15. #910

Chore:

  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 to 9.4 release. #925
  • Updates Oracle Linux 9 to 9.4 release. #927
  • Updates Almalinux 9 to 9.4 release. #927
  • Updates Rocky Linux 9 to 9.4 release. #927
  • Removes CentOS Stream 8 from the project.
  • Updates Almalinux 8.9 to 8.10 release. #956
  • Updates Oracle Linux 8.9 to 8.10. #956

On 31 May 2024, CentOS Stream 8 reached the end of life.

  • Removes Ubuntu Server 23.10 from the project; superseded by 24.04 LTS. #891
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.3.0.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.8.3.
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/vsphere to >= 2.8.1.
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/hcp to >= 0.89.0.
  • Update ansible-core version from 2.15 to 2.16. #921

v0.19.1

Release Date: 2024-04-15

Bug Fix:

  • Removes the PowerShell provisioner for Windows 11 and 10 as it's not required after the transition to Ansible. #878

v0.19.0

Release Date: 2024-04-09

Enhancement:

  • Adds templates and unit tests for managing custom network and storage configurations for Linux distributions. #473, #805
  • Adds additional configuration to install packages for Linux distributions. #800
  • Adds option to set a specified number of remaining CD-ROMs for a machine images added in packer-plugin-vsphere v1.2.4. #836
  • Adds use of evaluation versions for Windows Server 2025, 2022, and 2019 images, by default. Keys are still supported. #844
  • Adds use of evaluation versions for Windows 11 and 10 images, by default. Keys are still supported. #844
  • Adds Windows Server 2025 Insiders Preview. #834
  • Adds Ansible integration for Windows Server 2025, 2022, and 2019 images. #801
  • Adds Ansible integration for Windows 11 and 10 images. #801
  • Adds option to enable a content library to source all guest operating system ISOs or use a datastore path. Defaults to false, disabled. Set common_iso_content_library_enabled to true to enable use of a content library for all guest operating system ISOs.
  • Adds option to enable a content library for the placement of virtual machine images builds. Defaults to true, enabled. Set common_content_library_enabled to false to disable use of a content library for saving virtual machine image builds.

Refactor:

  • Refactors the Ubuntu builds not to use cloud-init, by default. ## Set vm_guest_os_cloudinit to true to enable cloud-init on the machine image.

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.11.0. #828
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.2.7. #824, #871, #873
  • Updates required_plugins for ethanmdavidson/packer-plugin-git to >= 0.6.2. #868
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.7.1. #829
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/vsphere to >= 2.7.0. #866
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/hcp to >= 0.84.1. #867
  • Updates Gomplate to 3.11.7. #825
  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 to 9.3 release. #819
  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to 8.9 release. #818
  • Updates AlmaLinux 9 to 9.3 release. #817
  • Updates AlmaLinux 8 to 8.9 release. #817
  • Updates Rocky Linux 9 to 9.3 release. #823
  • Updates Rocky Linux 8 to 8.9 release. #822
  • Updates Oracle Linux 9 to 9.3 release. #821
  • Updates Oracle Linux 8 to 8.9 release. #820
  • Updates Debian 12 to 12.5 release. #865
  • Updates Debian 11 to 11.9 release. #864
  • Updates Ubuntu 22.04 to 22.04.4 release. #863
  • Updates AlmaLinux to upgrade the almalinux-release package during the build. #

v0.18.0

Release Date: 2023-11-28

Enhancement:

  • Adds Ubuntu Server 23.10 to the project. #769
  • Adds support for setting additional options. (vsphere_resource_pool, set_host_for_datastore_uploads, and ip_settle_timeout). #771

Chore:

  • Updates ansible/ansible.cfg to use scp_extra_args = "-O" by default. See the Ansible documentation. #767
  • Removes unused files from ansible/. #768
  • Removes redundant Ansible task for users. #770

v0.17.0

Release Date: 2023-10-23

Enhancement:

  • Adds VMware Photon OS 5.0 to the project. #582
  • Adds Debian 12 to the project. #584
  • Adds Oracle Linux 9 to the project. #670
  • Adds Oracle Linux 8 to the project. #670
  • Adds Windows 11 Enterprise to the project. #688
  • Adds Windows 10 Enterprise to the project. #688
  • Adds the option to configure the following target for builds: #471
  • a vSphere cluster with Distributed Resource Scheduling enabled. (Default)
  • an ESXi host in vSphere cluster with Distributed Resource Scheduling disabled. (Override)
  • an ESXi host not in a vSphere cluster. (Override)
  • Adds a development container for Visual Studio Code. #700
  • Adds an example .gitlab.yml file for GitLab CI/CD. #675
  • Adds a build-ci.tmpl that can be used to create or update the .gitlab-ci.yml file using gomplate. #675
  • Adds Packer logging settings to set-envvars.sh. #705
  • Adds a debug option (--debug or -d) to./build.sh to enable debug logging for Packer. #706

Bugfix:

  • Updates Debian 11 to include build_password in the linux-debian.pkr.hcl configuration file. #653
  • Updates Debian 11 to ensure /dev/sr1 is not mounted with use of the default http data source. No changes to the disk data source. #686

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.9.4. #718
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.2.1. #564
  • Updates required_plugins for ethanmdavidson/packer-plugin-git to >= 0.4.3. #717
  • Updates required_plugins for rgl/packer-plugin-windows-update to >= 0.14.3. #565
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.6.0. #757
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/vsphere to >= 2.5.1. #758
  • Updates Gomplate to 3.11.5. #559
  • Updates ansible-core to 2.15. #573
  • Updates Debian 11 to 11.8 release. #738
  • Updates Ubuntu 22.04 to 22.04.3 release. #720
  • Updates Ubuntu 20.04 to 20.04.6 release. #566
  • Removes Ubuntu 18.04 from the project. #578

On 31 May 2023, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS reached the end of standard support. See Ubuntu Lifecycle for more information.

  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 to 9.2 release. #576, #587
  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to 8.8 release. #577
  • Updates Almalinux 9 to 9.2 release. #569
  • Updates Almalinux 8 to 8.8 release. #570
  • Updates Rocky Linux 9 to 9.2 release. #571
  • Updates Rocky Linux 8 to 8.8 release. #572
  • Updates CentOS Stream 9 to latest June 2023 release. #567
  • Updates CentOS Stream 8 to latest June 2023 release. #568
  • Updates SLES 15 to 15.5 release. #740
  • Updates Windows Server 2022 to October 2023 (US English) release. #744
  • Updates Windows 11 22H2 to October 2023 (US English) release. #743
  • Updates Windows 10 22H2 to October 2023 (US English) release. #742

Refactor:

  • Removes the use of iso_checksum and iso_checksum_type as they are not needed since the ISOs are not being downloaded by the plugin and are expected to be present and already verified by the user after download. #722
  • Removes the installation of Chocolatey from the Microsoft Windows guest operating system builds. #586

v0.16.0

Release Date: 2023-01-17

Enhancement:

  • Adds support for disabling password expiration for the local administrator account on localized (non-English) Windows guest operating systems. #334.
  • Adds support for enabling Remote Desktop on localized (non-English) Windows guest operating systems. #335.
  • Adds support to allow SSH authentication with RSA keys for Ansible, if necessary. Adds a note related to OpenSSH >= 9.0 in the documentation. #387.

Bugfix:

  • Fixes missing privileges for the custom role in vSphere that effected the ability to build using disk-based deployment modes and Windows 11 22H2 with vTPM. #295, #339, #340
  • Updates the URI in user-data.pkrtpl.hcl for Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 to remove the country code. This will help to ensure that GeoIP lookup works for all users. #421
  • Updates the install commands for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 to use the correct EPEL repository version. #440

Documentation:

  • Updates options to download a release or clone the project. #385
  • Updates syntax to append RSA algorithm to HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa andPubKeyAcceptedAlgorithms +ssh-rsa. #386
  • Updates the ssh-keygen example for generating the ECDSA public key to use a 521 bit key length. Valid key lengths are 256, 384, or 521. #439

Refactor:

  • Refactors builds to use the current Git branch / tag as the build_version local variable used for virtual machine image names and descriptions. #385
  • Refactors Ansible roles to remove the warn: false args for ansible-core 2.14 compatibility. #443

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.8.5. #423
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.1.1. #416
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.3.7. #456
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/hcp to >= 0.51.0. #408, #409, #410, #411, #412, #413, #414, #415
  • Updates Gomplate to 3.11.3. #380, #382
  • Updates Debian 11 to 11.6 release. #432
  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 to 9.1 release. #366
  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to 8.7 release. #365
  • Updates Rocky Linux 9 to 9.1 release. #381
  • Updates Rocky Linux 8 to 8.7 release. #368
  • Updates Almalinux 9 to 9.1 release. #362
  • Updates Almalinux 8 to 8.7 release. #361
  • Updates CentOS Stream 9 to latest December 2022 release. #454
  • Updates CentOS Stream 8 to latest December 2022 release. #453
  • Updates Windows Server 2022 to December 2022 (US English) release. #452
  • Updates Windows Server 2019 to November 2022 (US English) release. #373
  • Updates Windows 11 22H2 to December 2022 (US English) release. #451
  • Updates Windows 10 22H2 to December 2022 (US English) release. #450
  • Removes Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (x86_64) and macOS
  • Big Sur (Intel) as tested operating systems for the Packer host. #393

Breaking Change:

  • Removes support to use the iso_url variable to download the guest operating system .iso from a URL introduced in #249 due to #343. #435

v0.15.0

Release Date: 2022-09-28

Enhancement:

  • Adds support for disk-based deployment mode for Debian 11. #272.
  • Adds support for disk-based deployment mode for SLES 15. #276

Bugfix:

  • Fixes mismatches in source names for Windows Server when only builds for Standard or Datacenter are launched using ./build.sh. #281

Chore:

  • Updates Debian 11 to 11.5.0 release. #273
  • Updates Ubuntu 22.04 to 22.04.1 release. #274
  • Updates Ubuntu 20.04 to 20.04.5 release. #275
  • Updates SLES 15 to 15.4 release. #287
  • Updates Windows Server 2022 to September 2022 (US English) release. #282
  • Updates Windows 11 to 22H2 September 2022 (US English) release. #284
  • Updates Windows 10 to 21H2 September 2022 (US English) release. #283
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.3.1. #292

v0.14.0

Release Date: 2022-08-25

Enhancement:

  • Adds Debian 11. #195
  • Adds support for initial configuration and use of the HCP Packer Registry. #236 and #256
  • Adds support to use the iso_url variable to download the guest operating system .iso from a URL. #249

Breaking Change:

  • Updates vm_cpu_sockets to vm_cpu_count for CPUs. The value of the sockets is determined by dividing the number of CPUs by the number of cores per socket defined. #253

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.8.3.
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.8.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.2.8.
  • Updates Windows Server 2022 to August 2022 (US English) release.
  • Updates Windows 11 to August 2022 (US English) release.
  • Updates Windows 10 to August 2022 (US English) release.

Note

  • HTTP-based deployment only.

v0.13.0

Release Date: 2022-07-26

Enhancement:

  • Adds Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
  • Adds CentOS 9 Stream.
  • Adds Rocky Linux 9.
  • Adds AlmaLinux OS 9.
  • Adds SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15. #227.
  • Adds option for setting the number of video displays and the size for the video memory for both Windows 11 and 10, which is useful for virtual desktop use cases (e.g., Horizon). The ability to set the number of displays was added in v1.0.6 of packer-plugin-vsphere.
  • Adds a common option to export machine image artifacts (.ovf,.vmdk, and .mf) to an output path.
  • Removes the default requirement for a trusted root authority certificate to be imported and trusted by each machine image build. This will allow project users to get started more quickly without a pre-requisite.

Refactor:

  • Refactors builds to use local variables for virtual machine image names and descriptions.
  • Refactors builds to use local variables for ISO paths and checksums.
  • Refactors builds to use local variables for manifest data and output path.

Chore:

  • Updates vSphere to version 7.0.3D or higher to address a known issue with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 with EFI firmware.
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.6.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.2.5.
  • Updates Rocky Linux 8 to use other4xLinuxGuest64.
  • Updates Almalinux 8 to use other4xLinuxGuest64.
  • Removes the deprecated CentOS 8 option; end-of-life as of December 31, 2021.
  • Removes the deprecated Windows Server 2016 option; end-of-life as of January 11, 2022.

Note

  • Supports 15.3 / 15 Service Pack 3.
  • HTTP-based deployment only. Disk-based deployment planned.

v0.12.0

Release Date: 2022-06-27

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.8.2.
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.5.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.2.3.
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/vsphere to >= 2.2.0.
  • Updates vSphere to version 7.0.3 or higher.
  • Updates Windows Server 2022 to June 2022 (US English) release.
  • Updates Windows 11 to June 2022 (US English) release.
  • Updates vm_guest_os_type for Windows Server 2022 guest ID to windows2019srvNext_64Guest.

v0.11.0

Release Date: 2022-05-31

Chore:

  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.4.
  • Updates required_plugins and packer-plugin-windows-update to >= 0.14.1.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.2.1.
  • Updates Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to 8.6 release.
  • Updates Rocky Linux 8 to 8.6 release.
  • Updates Almalinux 8 to 8.6 release.
  • Updates CentOS Stream 8 checksum to latest release.
  • Updates Windows Server 2022 to April 2022 (US English) release.
  • Updates Windows 11 to May 2022 (US English) release.
  • Updates requirements to include VMware Photon OS 4 as a tested operating system.
  • Updates requirements to include Ubuntu 22.04 as a tested operating system.

v0.10.0

Release Date: 2022-04-28

Enhancement:

  • Adds Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS (#185)
  • Adds an option to generate a custom build script. (#188)

🐞 Bugfix:

  • Updates the Python interpreter for Ansible on AlmaLinux to use /usr/libexec/platform-python. (#182)
  • Adds the use of build_password to the Linux distributions to ensure use of set-envvars.sh works as expected. (#197)
  • Updates the SHA256 checksum for the CentOS 7 .iso CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2009.iso. (#201)

Chore:

  • Updates the Windows Server 2022 February 2022 (US English) release. (#192)
  • Updates the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to 20.04.4 release. (#184)

v0.9.0

Release Date: 2022-03-17

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.8.0.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.1.7.
  • Updates required_versions for hashicorp/vsphere to >= 2.1.1.

v0.8.0

Release Date: 2022-02-22

Enhancement:

  • Updates the configuration of Linux machine images to use the Ansible roles instead of shell scripts.

Chore:

  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.7.10.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.1.5.

v0.7.0

Release Date: 2022-01-21

Enhancement:

  • Updates the notes to automatically include the Packer version and a build_version.
  • Updates the naming for the machine image output and includes a build_version (e.g., linux-photon-4-v22.01).
  • Updates all Microsoft Windows Server machine image builds to a default of 4096 MB of memory to increase performance during operating system patching.

Chore:

  • Updates the structure of the subdirectories in builds/.
  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.7.9.
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.3.
  • Updates required_versions for terraform to >= 1.1.4.
  • Updates Microsoft Windows 11 Professional to use virtual trusted platform module (vTPM) and removes experimental project support. vTPM is now supported by packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.3.
  • Updates VMware Photon OS 4.0 to Revision 2.
  • Adds configurable data source provisioning for VMware Photon OS 4.0. Revision 2 adds support for secondary devices with kickstart. Edit the common_data_source in common.pkvars.hcl from http to disk. The build will attach an on-demand .iso as the secondary CD-ROM for the kickstart. This is useful for environments that can not use HTTP-based kickstart.
  • Adds a GitHub Action on pull requests to check code quality using linters.
  • Updates all of project code to address issues found by the linter(s).

v0.6.0

Release Date: 2021-11-09

Enhancement:

  • Adds support for cloud-init and the [VMware] data source introduced in cloud-init v21.3 for Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS

Important Note: Uncomment these lines in the script for Ubuntu 20.04 and guest customization will be performed by VMware Tools vs. cloud-init.

# Uncomment below if guest customization will be performed by VMware Tools.
# touch /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99.disable-network-config.cfg
# echo "network: {config: disabled}" >> /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99.disable-network-config.cfg
  • Adds custom disk partitioning for Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS
  • Updates Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to efi-secure.
  • Updates all certificates to the PEM-encoded .cer format.
  • Adds example Terraform plans for deployment testing.
  • Adds an Ansible playbook example to create a custom role in vSphere for Packer.

v0.5.1

Release Date: 2021-10-20

  • Updates LICENSE and NOTICE to BSD-2.
  • Updates required_versions for packer to >= 1.7.7.
  • Updates required_plugins for packer-plugin-vsphere to >= 1.0.2.
  • Updates Linux distributions to generate new host keys on first-boot.
  • Adds option to usefloppy_content included in packer-plugin-vsphere releasev1.0.2. Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS will toggle to use floppy_content from http_content when common_data_source = "disk" is enabled.
  • Updates VMware Photon OS 4.0 to Revision 1.
  • Adds Microsoft Windows 11 Professional as experimental until vsphere-iso supports vTPM.
  • Adds support for skip_import Adds to packer-plugin-vsphere in v1.0.2. When set to true the virtual machine will not be imported into the content library. This is useful for testing/debugging. Defaults to false.

v0.5.0

Release Date: 2021-10-11

  • Adds the config.sh to create config/*.prkvars.hcl (default) files from the examples in builds/.
  • Adds the option for create >1 set of configuration set by passing an argument to config.sh (e.g. config.sh config/us-west-1) and the pass the configuration set to build.sh (e.g. build.sh config/us-west-1).
  • Use of the content library is now optional by updating the config/common.pkvars.hcl settings to the following:
common_template_conversion     = true
common_content_library    = null
common_content_library_ovf     = false
common_content_library_destroy = false
  • Adds support for a SOCKS proxy by editing config/proxy.pkvars.hcl.
  • Adds the ability to set the IP address to bind the HTTP server by editing the common_http_ip in config/common.pkvars.hcl from null to an IP address on the Packer host:
common_http_ip = "172.16.11.100"
  • Add configurable data source provisioning for Linux images. By default, HTTP is used for the kickstart. By editing the common_data_source in config/common.pkvars.hcl from http to disk the build will use a disk-based method, such as a .iso as the secondary CD-ROM. This is useful for environments that can not communicate back to the Packer host's HTTP server.
common_data_source = "disk"
  • Renames all certificates to *.ctr.example and *.pb7.example. Please add your own custom certificates to the directories per the README.md.
  • Adds the ability for Packer to be run from any directory by including the use of $(path.cwd)/.
  • Adds the ansible provisioner to Linux builds for base configuration using roles. More updates to follow.
  • Adds information on least privilege service account using a custom role in vSphere.
  • Adds a Terraform example for creation of the custom role in vSphere.
  • Updates manifests to use manifests/ and a JSON output based on the timestamp.
  • Updates manifests to use include relevant data in the JSON output for the build.
  • Adds RHEL 7 and CentoOS 7 back to the builds per requests.
  • Refactors RHEL and RHEL derivative kickstarts templates.
  • Adds Windows 10 Professional.
  • Updates PhotonOS to efi-secure.
  • Updates Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to efi-secure.
  • Adds vendor provided filename and checksums to the build examples.
  • Updates CONTRIBUTING.md with the contributor workflow.
  • Adds headers to various scripts and files, as needed.
  • Add public keys and specific Terraform files to .gitignore.
  • Updates issue templates to use forms.
  • Various bugfixes and code cleanliness.
  • Bumped Packer to >= 1.7.6.
  • Thanks to the new contributors: @sestegra, @metabsdm, and @gcblack!

v0.4.1

Release Date: 2021-09-16

  • Refactors issue templates to use GitHub custom issue forms.
  • Refactors all builds to pass the language, keyboard, and timezone to the configuration files.
  • Updates the Rocky Linux build to use UEFI; however without secure boot.
  • Updates the defaults in common.pkvars.hcl to use hardware version 19, which provides the best performance and latest features available in ESXi 7.0 U2. if using a previous release
  • Refactors all builds with input variable definitions separated into variables.pkr.hcl.
  • Refactors all builds to use <build>.auto.pkvars.hcl for input variables the and <build>.pkr.hcl for the template configurations, with simplified names for <build>.
  • Refactors all builds to use ${path.cwd}/output/ as the path for the manifest post-processor.
  • Adds disclaimers and Updates descriptions in script files.
  • Updates README.md.

v0.4.0

Release Date: 2021-09-07

  • Adds support for Microsoft Windows Server 2022 machine image builds.
  • Refactors configuration files to be generated using templates. Reduces the number of files and passes variables into the .pkrtpl.hcl content.
  • Refactors builds for Linux distributions to use http_content instead of http_directory and http_file.
  • Refactors builds for Microsoft Windows to use cd_content instead of floppy_files, which allows for use generated configuration files. A Packer compatible .iso command-line tool is required.
  • Adds disclaimers and Updates descriptions in script files.
  • Adds NOTICE.
  • Updates the packer init commands run in build.sh.
  • Updates MAINTAINERS.md.
  • Updates CONTRIBUTING.md.
  • Updates README.md.

v0.3.0

Release Date: 2021-08-18

  • Moves vsphere.pkrvars.hcl and rhsm.pkrvars.hcl to the builds directory.
  • Isolates variables to simplify updates to common settings with builds/common.pkrvars.hcl.
  • Refactors all build definitions to use variables and reduce any hard-coded settings.
  • All machine image build definitions use the the recommended firmware based on the guest operating system and the minimum vSphere release supported by the repository. EFI Secure Boot is enabled for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CentoOS Linux/Stream 8, AlmaLinux 8, and Microsoft Windows Server 2019/2016. BIOS is enabled Rocky Linux 8.
  • Adds the manifest post-provisioner to machine image build definitions.
  • Moves public keys to variables.
  • Adds a user for Ansible to Linux machine images with authorized_keys. Uses builds/ansible.pkrvars.hcl. Password is randomized.
  • Updates the Packer block to all builds with required_versions >= "1.7.4" for Packer.
  • Adds the required_plugins to the Packer block for all builds to use the vsphere plugin version = ">= 1.0.1".
  • Updates the Packer block for Windows builds with required_plugins and version = "0.14.0" for the Windows-Update plugin.
  • All builds automatically run packer init to initialize required plugins before running a build with build.sh.
  • Updates Microsoft Windows autounattend.xml files to use the attached VMware Tools .iso for PVSCSI driver.
  • Simplified and reduced the script files used by provisioners.
  • Patches the script for VMware Photon OS 4 due to an issue performing updates with tdnf.
  • Patches the script for Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS to remove cloud-init and remove all netplan configurations before GuestOS customization.
  • Removes support for VMware Photon OS 3 machine image builds.
  • Removes support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 machine image builds.
  • Removes support for CentOS Linux 7 machine image builds.
  • Deprecates CentOS Linux 8. Removing in a future update. The CentOS Project has shifted focus from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream. CentOS Linux 8 EOL: 2021-12-31.
  • Deprecating Microsoft Windows Server 2016. Removing in a future update. Microsoft Windows Server 2016 EOL: 2022-01-22.
  • Adds MAINTAINERS.md.
  • Updates README.md.

v0.2.0

Release Date: 2021-07-21

v0.1.0

Release Date: 2020-11-26

  • Initial release.