JamLab Packer Builds

Packer configurations for building homelab images.

Configuration with Proxmox Builder (ISO).

Usage

(Optional) Set up API access to Proxmox if you do not wish to use cluster admin to execute tasks. Follow the Telmate Proxmox Terraform Provider Docs.

1. Set up sensitive PVE connection variables using pve.hvl.sample as a reference.
2. Build images with:

cd <DISTRO DIR>
PACKER_LOG=1 packer build -var-file <PATH TO PVE VAR FILE> <PACKER FILE>.pkr.hcl

Output is a VM template in PVE.

Preseed

Preseed should be started over http from the boot_command in the packer configuration.

Preseeding provides a way to answer questions asked during the installation process without having to manually enter the answers while the installation is running. Read more about this method in the preseed documentation.

Cloud-init

Cloud-init is for post-installation configuration and should be enabled in packer configuration with the variable cloud_init set to true and then the cloud-config file copied using the file provisioner to /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.

Cloud-init is used for initial machine configuration like creating users, installing packages, custom scripts or preseeding authorized_keys file for SSH authentication. Read more about this in cloud-init documentation.