How to use Packer on Ubuntu to create images on Azure/AWS/GCP
Install Packer on Ubuntu to create server machine images for any of the cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP). To start using Packer on any of the cloud platforms, the recommended way is to deploy a server with Packer installed, fully configured and setup. You can deploy Packer from any of the cloud marketplaces below:
Install Packer on Ubuntu Linux Cloud
Setup Packer on Azure
Setup Packer on AWS
Setup Packer on GCP
Table of Contents
Packer Server features
Packer is an image creator server for Azure, AWS GCP & other cloud platforms. It is a modern configuration management by encouraging you to use automated scripts to install and configure the software within your Packer-made images. Other main features are:
- Automates the creation of Azure, AWS and GCP server images
- Pre bakes images with software & configuration
- Uses WinRM or SSH to build images
- Builds images for other cloud platforms in parallel
- Uses Packer with your CI/CD Automation
- Uses scripts to automate any server config
- Azure Key Vault integration, AWS KMS, GCP Key Vault integration
- Fast infrastructure deployment. Packer images allow you to launch completely provisioned and configured machines in seconds
- Detailed logging, detect issues faster
- Multi-provider portability with running your production on multiple cloud providers, staging/QA in a private cloud like OpenStack, and development in desktop virtualization solutions(VMware, Hyper-V or VirtualBox).
- Extending Packer with Plugins, that cad add: builders, Data source, Post-processors and Provisioners.
Getting Started with Packer
Once your Packer server has been deployed, the following links explain how to connect to a Linux VM:
- How to connect to a Linux VM on Azure
- How to connect to a Linux VM on AWS
- How to connect to a Linux VM on GCP
Once connected and logged in, the following section explains how to start using Packer.
Using Packer on Ubuntu
Once logged in, you’re ready to start using Packer. Simply run the packer command straight from your terminal
packer
Packer Documentation
The following links to documentation explain how to use Packer for each cloud platform
Packer Support
If you have issues with installing Packer in your cloud environment leave a comment below or contact us directly and we will assist it getting the server up and running
Packer Support
Support for using Packer can be found on their community section:
https://www.packer.io/community
Disclaimer: Packer is a registered trademark of HashiCorp, Inc and is licensed under Mozilla Public License v2. No warrantee of any kind, express or implied, is included with this software. Use at your risk, responsibility for damages (if any) to anyone resulting from the use of this software rest entirely with the user. The author is not responsible for any damage that its use could cause.
