Create and import on-premises images by using Packer

Prerequisites

• You must have an AccessKey for the configuration file.
  Note Do not use the AccessKey of your Alibaba Cloud account. Instead, create a RAM user and use the RAM account to create the necessary AccessKey to maintain account security.
• You must have purchased OSS.

Example of creating and importing an on-premises image

1. Run egrep "(svm|vmx)" /proc/cpuinfo to check whether your on-premises server or virtual machine supports KVM. If the following output returns, KVM is supported.

   pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
   flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov

2. Run the following commands to install the KVM:

   sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm qemu virt-manager virt-viewer libvirt-bin bridge-utils # Install KVM and related dependencies.
   sudo virt-manager # Enable virt-manager.

   If a GUI runs in the VM console window, you have successfully installed the KVM.

3. Install Packer.

   To install Packer, see use Packer to create a custom image.

4. Run the following commands to define a Packer template.
   Note The on-premises image created in the following configuration is for the CentOS 6.9 operating system only. To create images for other operating systems, customize the configuration file centos.json as required.

   cd /user/local # Switch the directory.
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alibaba/packer-provider/master/examples/alicloud/local/centos.json # Download file centos.json that is released by Alibaba Cloud.
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alibaba/packer-provider/master/examples/alicloud/local/http/centos-6.9/ks.cfg # Download file ks.cfg that is released by Alibaba Cloud.
   mkdir -p http/centos-6.9 # Create a directory.
   mv ks.cfg http/centos-6.9/ # Move file ks.cfg to the http/centos-6.9 directory.

5. Run the following commands to create an on-premises image.

   export ALICLOUD_ACCESS_KEY= SpecifyYourAccessKeyIDHere # Import your AccessKeyID,
   export ALICLOUD_SECRET_KEY= SpecifyYourAccessKeySecretHere # Import your AccessKeySecret.
   packer build centos.json # Create an on-premises image.

   An example result is as follows.

   qemu output will be in this color.
    ==> qemu: Downloading or copying ISO
        qemu: Downloading or copying: http://mirrors.aliyun.com/centos/6.9/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.9-x86_64-minimal.iso
    ................................................
    ==> qemu: Running post-processor: alicloud-import
        qemu (alicloud-import): Deleting import source https://oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/packer/centos_x86_64
    Build 'qemu' finished.
    ==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
    --> qemu: Alicloud images were created:
    cn-beijing: XXXXXXXX

6. Wait for a few minutes, log on to the ECS console and check your custom image in the image list that is in the corresponding region. In this example, the region is cn-beijing, i.e. China (Beijing).

Customize a Packer template

In this example, the following JSON file is customized based on the template used to create an image for the CentOS 6.9.

{"variables": {
        "box_basename": "centos-6.9",
        "build_timestamp": "{{isotime \"20060102150405\"}}",
        "cpus": "1",
        "disk_size": "4096",
        "git_revision": "__unknown_git_revision__",
        "headless": "",
        "http_proxy": "{{env `http_proxy`}}",
        "https_proxy": "{{env `https_proxy`}}",
        "iso_checksum_type": "md5",
        "iso_checksum": "af4axxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx192a2",
        "iso_name": "CentOS-6.9-x86_64-minimal.iso",
        "ks_path": "centos-6.9/ks.cfg",
        "memory": "512",
        "metadata": "floppy/dummy_metadata.json",
        "mirror": "http://mirrors.aliyun.com/centos",
        "mirror_directory": "6.9/isos/x86_64",
        "name": "centos-6.9",
        "no_proxy": "{{env `no_proxy`}}",
        "template": "centos-6.9-x86_64",
        "version": "2.1.TIMESTAMP"
      },
    "builders":[
        {
          "boot_command": [
            "<tab> text ks=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/{{user `ks_path`}}<enter><wait>"
          ],
          "boot_wait": "10s",
          "disk_size": "{{user `disk_size`}}",
          "headless": "{{ user `headless` }}",
          "http_directory": "http",
          "iso_checksum": "{{user `iso_checksum`}}",
          "iso_checksum_type": "{{user `iso_checksum_type`}}",
          "iso_url": "{{user `mirror`}}/{{user `mirror_directory`}}/{{user `iso_name`}}",
          "output_directory": "packer-{{user `template`}}-qemu",
          "shutdown_command": "echo 'vagrant'|sudo -S /sbin/halt -h -p",
          "ssh_password": "vagrant",
          "ssh_port": 22,
          "ssh_username": "root",
          "ssh_wait_timeout": "10000s",
          "type": "qemu",
          "vm_name": "{{ user `template` }}.raw",
          "net_device": "virtio-net",
          "disk_interface": "virtio",
          "format": "raw"
        }
      ],
    "provisioners": [{
          "type": "shell",
          "inline": [
                "sleep 30",
                "yum install cloud-util cloud-init -y"
              ]
        }],
      "post-processors":[
        {
          "type":"alicloud-import",
          "oss_bucket_name": "packer",
          "image_name": "packer_import",
          "image_os_type": "linux",
          "image_platform": "CentOS",
          "image_architecture": "x86_64",
          "image_system_size": "40",
          "region":"cn-beijing"
        }
      ]
}

Parameters in a Packer builder

QEMU builder is used in the preceding example to create a virtual machine image. Required parameters for the builder are as follows.

For more information, see Packer QEMU Builder.

Parameters in a Packer provisioner

The provisioner in the preceding example contains a Post-Processor module that enables automated upload of on-premises images to Alibaba Cloud. Required parameters for the provisioner are as follows:

For more information, see Packer Alicloud Post-Processor.

Next step

You can use the created image to create an ECS instance. For more information, see create an instance from a custom image.

References

• For more information about how to use Packer, see Packer documentation.
• For more information about release information, visit the Packer repository on GitHub packer.
• For more information about Alibaba Cloud open source tools, visit the Alibaba Cloud repository on GitHub opstools.
• For more information about Alibaba Cloud and Packer project, visit the Alibaba Cloud & Packer repositories on GitHub packer-provider.
• For more information about configuration file ks.cfg, see Anaconda Kickstart .