Elastic Compute Service:Create and import an on-premises image with Packer

Procedure

The following software versions are used in this example. Your steps may vary depending on your software versions.

• Operating system of the on-premises server: Ubuntu 16.04

• Operating system for the image to be created: CentOS 6.9

Step 1: Install KVM

1. Run the following command to check whether your on-premises server, which runs Ubuntu 16.04 in this example, supports KVM.

   egrep "(svm|vmx)" /proc/cpuinfo

   If the command returns the following output, your server supports KVM.

   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. If your on-premises server supports KVM, run the following commands to install KVM and related packages.

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm qemu virt-manager virt-viewer  libvirt-bin bridge-utils

3. Verify the KVM installation.

   1. Run the following command to check whether the KVM kernel modules are loaded.

      sudo lsmod | grep kvm

      Output that contains kvm and either kvm_intel or kvm_amd indicates that the KVM kernel modules are loaded.

      dZ:~# sudo lsmod | grep kvm
      kvm_intel            176128  0
      kvm                  561152  1 kvm_intel
      irqbypass             16384  1 kvm

   2. Run the following command to check whether libvirt is installed.

      sudo dpkg -l libvirt-bin

      If the output contains libvirt-bin, libvirt is installed.

      d0dZ:~# sudo dpkg -l libvirt-bin
      Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
      | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/half-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
      |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
      ||/ Name                    Version             Architecture        Description
      +++-=======================-===================-===================-===============================
      ii  libvirt-bin             1.3.1-1ubuntu10.31  amd64               programs for the libvirt library

   3. Run the following command to check whether QEMU is installed.

      sudo dpkg -l qemu-kvm

      If the output contains qemu-kvm, QEMU is installed.

      @dZ:~# sudo dpkg -l qemu-kvm
      Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
      | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/half-conf/Half-inst/trig-await/Trig-pend
      |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
      ||/ Name                    Version              Architecture         Description
      +++-=======================-====================-====================-============================================
      ii  qemu-kvm                1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.51    amd64                QEMU Full virtualization

   If all commands produce the expected output, KVM is installed correctly. Otherwise, you may need to reinstall KVM.

Step 2: Install Packer

Install Packer on your on-premises server. For more information, see Install Packer.

Step 3: Define a Packer template

The following example commands are for CentOS 6.9. To create an image for a different operating system, customize the centos.json Packer template. For more information, see Customize the Packer template.

1. On the on-premises server, run the following command to change the current directory.

   cd /usr/local

2. Run the following command to download the official centos.json configuration file for Alibaba Cloud.

   sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-alicloud/main/builder/examples/local/centos.json

3. Run the following command to download the official ks.cfg configuration file for Alibaba Cloud.

   sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-alicloud/main/builder/examples/local/http/centos-6.8/ks.cfg

4. Run the following command to create a directory, for example, http/centos-6.9.

   sudo mkdir -p http/centos-6.9

5. Run the following command to move the ks.cfg configuration file to the http/centos-6.9 directory.

   sudo mv ks.cfg http/centos-6.9/

Step 4: Build and import the image

1. On the on-premises server, run the following command to export your AccessKey ID.

   export ALICLOUD_ACCESS_KEY=<AccessKey ID>

   Replace <AccessKey ID> with your actual AccessKey ID.

2. Run the following command to export your AccessKey secret.

   export ALICLOUD_SECRET_KEY=<AccessKey secret>

   Replace <AccessKey secret> with your actual AccessKey secret.

3. Run the following command to build the on-premises image and import it to Alibaba Cloud.

   sudo packer build centos.json

   The following sample output shows a custom image being created in the China (Beijing) region.

   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

4. Go to the Images page in the ECS console.

5. In the top navigation bar, select the region that is specified in the centos.json file, for example, China (Beijing).

6. On the Custom images tab, find the generated CentOS 6.9 image in the image list.

Customize the Packer template

{"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"
        }
      ]
}

QEMU builder parameters

Post-processor parameters