Create Amazon Machine Image (AMI) using Packer

Authored by AppBleed (Open Source)

Appbleed provides a set of DevOps enabler ready to use tools.

Objective

Build Ubuntu AMI using Packer and provision software
Build Windows 2016 AMI using Packer and provision software
Create EC2 instance using the build images and test provision software

Prerequisites

Packer is installed and you know what it does
You have an active AWS account (Free tier account is fine)
git is installed
Understand JSON file structure
Basics of bash command
Basics of powershell

Packer is a tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. What is packer? How to install? Learn Packer template.

File Structure

Read below section to understand the purpose of each file in this repo:

FileName	Purpose
ubuntu-ami.json	A json file which is used by packer to build ubuntu based AMI
windows-ami.json	A json file which is used by packer to build windows based AMI
scripts/ubuntu	Folder to keep provisioning bash script and dependencies for ubuntu OS
scripts/windows	Folder to keep provisioning Powershell script and dependencies for windows OS
scripts/ubuntu/bootstrap.sh	bash script to povision softwares in image
scripts/windows/bootstrap.ps1	Powershell script to povision softwares in image

Create ubuntu AMI

Make sure packer is installed and it's path is set by running packer command

$ packer

Make sure git is installed and then clone this repo

$ git
$ git clone https://github.com/appbleed/build-ami-packer.git
$ cd build-ami-packer

Run below command to create ubuntu AMI

$ packer validate unbuntu-ami.json

You should see validation output

Template validated successfully.

Run below command to create ubuntu AMI

$ packer build unbuntu-ami.json

Supply your AWS aws_access_key and aws_secret_key in prompt.

This will create a new EC2 instanace based on the source_ami, does the software provisioning, stops the instance, creates an AMI based on new instance and then terminates the EC2 instance.

Output

C:\Projects\AppBleed\DevOps\build-ami-packer>packer build ubuntu-ami.json
amazon-ebs output will be in this color.

==> amazon-ebs: Prevalidating AMI Name: ubuntu-aws-base-1527489477
    amazon-ebs: Found Image ID: ami-963cecf4
==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary keypair: packer_5b0ba3c6-c57a-c000-adad-368415bd943d
==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary security group for this instance: packer_5b0ba3d0-a168-d641-c8e2-e044043276eb
==> amazon-ebs: Authorizing access to port 22 from 0.0.0.0/0 in the temporary security group...
==> amazon-ebs: Launching a source AWS instance...
==> amazon-ebs: Adding tags to source instance
    amazon-ebs: Adding tag: "Name": "Packer Builder"
    amazon-ebs: Instance ID: i-0f604c2b9f453f5ac
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for instance (i-0f604c2b9f453f5ac) to become ready...
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for SSH to become available...
==> amazon-ebs: Connected to SSH!
==> amazon-ebs: Uploading ./scripts/ubuntu/welcome.txt => /home/ubuntu/
==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with shell script: C:\Users\shravan.jha\AppData\Local\Temp\packer-shell843963935
    amazon-ebs: total 32
    amazon-ebs: drwxr-xr-x 4 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 28 06:38 .
    amazon-ebs: drwxr-xr-x 3 root   root   4096 May 28 06:38 ..
    amazon-ebs: -rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu  220 Aug 31  2015 .bash_logout
    amazon-ebs: -rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 3771 Aug 31  2015 .bashrc
    amazon-ebs: drwx------ 2 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 28 06:38 .cache
    amazon-ebs: -rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu  655 May 16  2017 .profile
    amazon-ebs: drwx------ 2 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 28 06:38 .ssh
    amazon-ebs: -rw-rw-r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu   18 May 28 06:38 welcome.txt
    amazon-ebs: WELCOME TO PACKER!
==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with shell script: ./scripts/ubuntu/bootstrap.sh
    amazon-ebs:  ***You can add bash scripts to install prerequisite software in you image in bootstrap.sh file ***
==> amazon-ebs: Stopping the source instance...
    amazon-ebs: Stopping instance, attempt 1
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for the instance to stop...
==> amazon-ebs: Creating the AMI: ubuntu-aws-base-1527489477
    amazon-ebs: AMI: ami-705f8c12
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for AMI to become ready...
==> amazon-ebs: Terminating the source AWS instance...
==> amazon-ebs: Cleaning up any extra volumes...
==> amazon-ebs: No volumes to clean up, skipping
==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary security group...
==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary keypair...
Build 'amazon-ebs' finished.

==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
--> amazon-ebs: AMIs were created:
ap-southeast-2: ami-705f8c12

Validate Result

Login to aws console. Go to Services>EC2>Images>AMIs. Make sure you select the right aws region at top right corner. You should see your newly created AMI with AMI name starts with ubuntu-aws-base.

Create windows AMI

Make sure you have packer and git installed and you have already cloned this repo.

Run below command to create ubuntu AMI

$ cd build-ami-packer
$ packer validate windows-ami.json

You should see validation output

Template validated successfully.

Run below command to create windows AMI

$ packer build windows-ami.json

Supply your AWS aws_access_key and aws_secret_key in prompt.

This will create a new EC2 instanace based on the source_ami, does the software provisioning, stops the instance, creates an AMI based on new instance and then terminates the EC2 instance.

Output

C:\Projects\AppBleed\DevOps\build-ami-packer>packer build windows-ami.json
amazon-ebs output will be in this color.

==> amazon-ebs: Prevalidating AMI Name: windows-aws-base-1527493663
    amazon-ebs: Found Image ID: ami-c971a6ab
==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary keypair: packer_5b0bb41f-ade9-6642-1f75-4ceccd1076b4
==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary security group for this instance: packer_5b0bb425-bf0a-4fbd-ff3a-1968debd5aa8
==> amazon-ebs: Authorizing access to port 5985 from 0.0.0.0/0 in the temporary security group...
==> amazon-ebs: Launching a source AWS instance...
==> amazon-ebs: Adding tags to source instance
    amazon-ebs: Adding tag: "Name": "Packer Builder"
    amazon-ebs: Instance ID: i-0d8680ea0547f3729
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for instance (i-0d8680ea0547f3729) to become ready...
==> amazon-ebs: Skipping waiting for password since WinRM password set...
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for WinRM to become available...
    amazon-ebs: WinRM connected.
==> amazon-ebs: Connected to WinRM!
==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with Powershell...
==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with powershell script: C:\Users\shravan.jha\AppData\Local\Temp\packer-powershell-provisioner682797843
    amazon-ebs: HELLO NEW USER; WELCOME TO PACKER
    amazon-ebs: You need to use backtick escapes when using
    amazon-ebs: characters such as DOLLAR$ directly in a command
    amazon-ebs: or in your own scripts.
==> amazon-ebs: Restarting Machine
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for machine to restart...
    amazon-ebs: WIN-P2694GMJUT9 restarted.
==> amazon-ebs: Machine successfully restarted, moving on
==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with Powershell...
==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with powershell script: ./scripts/windows/bootstrap.ps1
    amazon-ebs: PACKER_BUILD_NAME is an env var Packer automatically sets for you.
    amazon-ebs: ...or you can set it in your builder variables.
    amazon-ebs: The default for this builder is: amazon-ebs
    amazon-ebs: The PowerShell provisioner will automatically escape characters
    amazon-ebs: considered special to PowerShell when it encounters them in
    amazon-ebs: your environment variables or in the PowerShell elevated
    amazon-ebs: username/password fields.
    amazon-ebs: For example, VAR1 from our config is: A$Dollar
    amazon-ebs: Likewise, VAR2 is: A`Backtick
    amazon-ebs: VAR3 is: A'SingleQuote
    amazon-ebs: Finally, VAR4 is: A"DoubleQuote
    amazon-ebs: None of the special characters needed escaping in the template
==> amazon-ebs: Stopping the source instance...
    amazon-ebs: Stopping instance, attempt 1
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for the instance to stop...
==> amazon-ebs: Creating the AMI: windows-aws-base-1527493663
    amazon-ebs: AMI: ami-4b5c8f29
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for AMI to become ready...
==> amazon-ebs: Terminating the source AWS instance...
==> amazon-ebs: Cleaning up any extra volumes...
==> amazon-ebs: No volumes to clean up, skipping
==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary security group...
==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary keypair...
Build 'amazon-ebs' finished.

==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
--> amazon-ebs: AMIs were created:
ap-southeast-2: ami-4b5c8f29

Validate Result

Login to aws console. Go to Services>EC2>Images>AMIs. Make sure you select the right aws region at top right corner. You should see your newly created AMI with AMI name starts with windows-aws-base.

Todos

Use the created base AMI to create another AMI with developers tools installed in it
Create a Vargant box for developer based on above newly created image.

License

MIT

Free Software, Hell Yeah!