packer-WinSrv2012r2

This packer workflow is very dated at this point. It will not work out of the box with current versions of packer. Additionaly it doesn't use winrm which is highly advised for building windows images. Take a look at this newer repo for a current template for windows.

---> https://github.com/trodemaster/packer-win-pc

packer.io template and related scripts for building Windows Server 2012 r2 ESXi virtual machines.

Based off of https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows

This is a simplified version of our Windows Server 2012 r2 packer template for ESXi/vCloud Director. I'm posting this to share some different approaches to building the windows image and related code.

Interesting parts of this template

Boot from pvscsi virtual disk adapter
Use vmxnet3 virtual network adapter
Build the image using a commercial ssh server from http://www.bitvise.com/ssh-server
Running windows updates from a packer shell provisioner
Using -var-file to hold final password and wsus server settings per packer build machine
Uninstalling the SSH server on shutdown
Improved cleanup of the disk using dism for smaller vmdk size
Setting a wsus group and local IP to speed up build time
Installing VMware tools from a specific installer with powershell

Populating the FILES directory

├── SDelete.zip              http://download.sysinternals.com/files/SDelete.zip
├── certmgr.exe              Part of VMware tools install
├── pvscsi                   Extract from VMware tools installer http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2032184
│   ├── pvscsi.cat
│   ├── pvscsi.inf
│   ├── pvscsi.sys
│   └── txtsetup.oem
├── setup64.exe              VMware tools installer
├── ultradefrag-portable-6.0.4.bin.amd64.zip    http://sourceforge.net/projects/ultradefrag/files/stable-release/6.0.4/ultradefrag-portable-6.0.4.bin.amd64.zip
├── vmware.cer               Part of VMware tools install
└── vmxnet3                  Extract from VMware tools installer http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2032184
    ├── vmxnet3n61x64.sys
    ├── vmxnet3n61x86.sys
    ├── vmxnet3ndis6.cat
    ├── vmxnet3ndis6.inf
    └── vmxnet3ndis6ver.dll

VMware tools install info

This doc will tell you how to get all the drivers and needed components for populating the FILES directory. http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-7E1225DC-9CC6-401A-BE40-D78110F9441C.html

Windows .iso file

I recommend getting ahold of a Windows Server 2012 r2 with update .iso to use. You will need to place the .iso into the ISO directory and make sure the checksum and file names match the template .json file.

Building the image

To specify your local wsus Server you will need to make a copy of the Example-privatedata.json file. In this privatedata.json file add your windows image password, wsus IP and wsus group. You will need to have a wsus server setup with the groups and configured to allow the registry settings of the client to specify the group.

Building the image will require the var file as shown below.