HashiCorp Packer Has a Free API: Automated Machine Image Creation for Any Platform

#devops #infrastructure #automation #cloudnative

Packer is an open-source tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. Build AMIs, Docker images, Vagrant boxes, and more — all from one template.

What Is Packer?

Packer automates the creation of machine images. Instead of manually configuring servers, you define your image as code and Packer builds it identically across AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, VMware, and more.

Key Features:

Multi-platform (AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, VMware)
HCL2 configuration language
Parallel builds for multiple platforms
Provisioners (shell, Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
Post-processors (compress, upload, tag)
Plugin ecosystem
CI/CD integration
Idempotent builds

Quick Start

# Install
brew install packer

# Initialize plugins
packer init .

# Build
packer build template.pkr.hcl

Packer Template (HCL2)

# docker-image.pkr.hcl
packer {
  required_plugins {
    docker = {
      version = ">= 1.0.0"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/docker"
    }
  }
}

source "docker" "ubuntu" {
  image  = "ubuntu:22.04"
  commit = true
}

build {
  name = "my-app"
  sources = ["source.docker.ubuntu"]

  provisioner "shell" {
    inline = [
      "apt-get update",
      "apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip nginx",
      "pip3 install flask gunicorn"
    ]
  }

  provisioner "file" {
    source      = "app/"
    destination = "/opt/app/"
  }

  provisioner "shell" {
    inline = [
      "cd /opt/app && pip3 install -r requirements.txt"
    ]
  }

  post-processor "docker-tag" {
    repository = "myapp"
    tags       = ["latest", "1.0.0"]
  }
}

AWS AMI Build

source "amazon-ebs" "web-server" {
  ami_name      = "web-server-{{timestamp}}"
  instance_type = "t3.micro"
  region        = "us-east-1"
  source_ami_filter {
    filters = {
      name                = "ubuntu/images/hvm-ssd/ubuntu-jammy-22.04-amd64-server-*"
      root-device-type    = "ebs"
      virtualization-type = "hvm"
    }
    owners      = ["099720109477"]
    most_recent = true
  }
  ssh_username = "ubuntu"
}

build {
  sources = ["source.amazon-ebs.web-server"]

  provisioner "ansible" {
    playbook_file = "./playbook.yml"
  }

  post-processor "manifest" {
    output = "manifest.json"
  }
}

Multi-Platform Build

# Build for AWS AND Azure simultaneously
build {
  sources = [
    "source.amazon-ebs.web-server",
    "source.azure-arm.web-server"
  ]

  provisioner "shell" {
    inline = ["echo Building for platform: ${source.type}"]
  }
}

Packer with Variables

variable "app_version" {
  type    = string
  default = "1.0.0"
}

variable "environment" {
  type = string
}

source "docker" "app" {
  image  = "node:20-alpine"
  commit = true
}

build {
  sources = ["source.docker.app"]

  provisioner "shell" {
    environment_vars = [
      "APP_VERSION=${var.app_version}",
      "NODE_ENV=${var.environment}"
    ]
    inline = [
      "echo Building version $APP_VERSION for $NODE_ENV"
    ]
  }
}

packer build -var 'environment=production' template.pkr.hcl

Resources

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