VM Templates - Packer + Ansible Build Repository

Summary

• Automated, reproducible VM template builds for vSphere using Packer and Ansible.

This repository contains the complete Packer build definitions and supporting automation for creating standardized, hardened, and reproducible VM templates across multiple operating systems (Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, Debian, and Windows) for VMware vSphere.

Ansible is heavily used post-provisioning to apply consistent configuration, security hardening, baseline compliance, and tooling across all templates.

---

Audience

Designed for Platform Automation Engineers, SREs, and Infrastructure Architects who require reliable, version-controlled, and auditable VM templates as the foundation for their workloads.

---

CI Status

---

Key Features

• Hybrid Configuration: Source of truth in clean JSON + rendered HCL2 via ensure-template-configs.py
• Multi-OS Support: Ubuntu, CentOS/RHEL, Debian, and Windows Server/Desktop
• Flexible Sizing: small / medium / large LVM layouts with BIOS + EFI support
• Ansible Post-Provisioning: Consistent hardening, security baselines, and tooling
• Full Jenkins Pipeline Integration with shared Groovy library
• Incremental config conversion with caching for fast feedback loops
• GitHub Actions validation on every commit

---

Repository Structure

templates/
├── common-vars.json                  # Shared variables
├── ensure-template-configs.py        # JSON → HCL2 converter (recommended)
├── Ubuntu/
│   ├── distribution-vars.json.pkrvars.hcl
│   └── 26.04/server/
│       ├── box_info.medium.json.pkrvars.hcl
│       └── template.json.pkrvars.hcl
├── Windows/
│   └── server/
├── env-vars.PROD.json.pkrvars.hcl
└── ...

---

Quick Start

1. Refresh Configurations

python3 ensure-template-configs.py --force

2. Validate a Template

cd templates

# Ubuntu example
packer validate -only vsphere-iso.Ubuntu \
  -var-file=env-vars.PROD.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Ubuntu/distribution-vars.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Ubuntu/26.04/server/template.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Ubuntu/26.04/server/box_info.small.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var vm_template_build_type=small \
  -var vm_template_name=vm-template-ubuntu26.04-small-prod \
  -var vm_build_env=PROD \
  -var iso_dir=Ubuntu/26.04 \
  -var iso_file=ubuntu-26.04-live-server-amd64.iso \
  Ubuntu/

## Debian
packer validate \
  -only vsphere-iso.Debian \
  -var-file=env-vars.PROD.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Debian/distribution-vars.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Debian/12/server/template.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Debian/12/server/box_info.small.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var vm_template_build_type=small \
  -var vm_template_name=vm-template-debian12-small-prod \
  -var vm_build_env=PROD \
  Debian/

3. Build (via Jenkins or locally)

cd templates

# Ubuntu example
packer build -only vsphere-iso.Ubuntu \
  -on-error=abort \
  -var-file=env-vars.PROD.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Ubuntu/distribution-vars.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Ubuntu/26.04/server/template.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var-file=Ubuntu/26.04/server/box_info.small.json.pkrvars.hcl \
  -var vm_template_build_name=vm-template-ubuntu26.04-small-prod-00006 \
  -var vm_template_build_type=small \
  -var vm_template_name=vm-template-ubuntu26.04-small-prod \
  -var vm_build_env=PROD \
  -var iso_dir=Ubuntu/26.04 \
  -var iso_file=ubuntu-26.04-live-server-amd64.iso \
  Ubuntu/

Automation Architecture

Jenkins Pipeline Structure

• Top Level: packer-templates folder
• OS Level: Ubuntu, Windows, CentOS, etc.
• Version Level: 26.04, 24.04, 2022, etc.
• Build Level: Individual template jobs (e.g., focal64, bionic64)

Shared pipeline logic is provided by the pipeline-automation-lib library.

Tooling Stack

• Packer (vsphere-iso builder)
• Ansible (post-provisioning + hardening)
• Jenkins with JCasC and Shared Libraries
• Python (ensure-template-configs.py) for config management

Jenkins Job Configuration

Detailed instructions on jenkins job configuration, parameter initialization, and Jenkins-led execution can be found in the documentation link below:

• Jenkins VM Template build automation

Maintenance

Refresh Template Configurations

python3 ensure-template-configs.py -L INFO
git add templates/ && git commit -m "chore: refresh packer hcl configs"

Update Submodules

./refresh-submodules.sh

Related Repositories

Repository	Purpose
pipeline-automation-lib	Shared Jenkins Groovy pipelines
ansible-datacenter	"Ansible roles (hardening, bootstrap, etc.)"
jenkins-docker-agent	Build agent Docker images

---

License

---

Contributing & Support

• Reporting Issues: Please use the GitHub Issues tab to report bugs or request features.
• Pull Requests: Contributions are welcome. Please ensure all Molecule tests pass before submitting.
• Contact: Connect with Lee James Johnson on LinkedIn.

---

Documentation Links

• HashiCorp Packer Documentation
• Packer Examples for vSphere
• Bento Project