Vagrant

Type: vagrant Artifact BuilderId: vagrant

The Vagrant builder is intended for building new boxes from already-existing boxes. Your source should be a URL or path to a .box file or a Vagrant Cloud box name such as hashicorp/precise64.

Packer will not install vagrant, nor will it install the underlying virtualization platforms or extra providers; We expect when you run this builder that you have already installed what you need.

By default, this builder will initialize a new Vagrant workspace, launch your box from that workspace, provision it, call vagrant package to package it into a new box, and then destroy the original box. Please note that vagrant will not remove the box file from your system (we don't call vagrant box remove).

You can change the behavior so that the builder doesn't destroy the box by setting the teardown_method option. You can change the behavior so the builder doesn't package it (not all provisioners support the vagrant package command) by setting the skip package option. You can also change the behavior so that rather than initializing a new Vagrant workspace, you use an already defined one, by using global_id instead of source_box.

Please note that if you are using the Vagrant builder, then the Vagrant post-processor is unnecessary because the output of the Vagrant builder is already a Vagrant box; using that post-processor with the Vagrant builder will cause your build to fail. Similarly, since Vagrant boxes are already compressed, the Compress post-processor will not work with this builder.

Configuration Reference

Required

• source_path (string) - URL of the vagrant box to use, or the name of the vagrant box. hashicorp/precise64, ./mylocalbox.box and https://example.com/my-box.box are all valid source boxes. If your source is a .box file, whether locally or from a URL like the latter example above, you will also need to provide a box_name. This option is required, unless you set global_id. You may only set one or the other, not both.

  or

• global_id (string) - the global id of a Vagrant box already added to Vagrant on your system. You can find the global id of your Vagrant boxes using the command vagrant global-status; your global_id will be a 7-digit number and letter combination that you'll find in the leftmost column of the global-status output. If you choose to use global_id instead of source_box, Packer will skip the Vagrant initialize and add steps, and simply launch the box directly using the global id.

Optional

• output_dir (string) - The directory to create that will contain your output box. We always create this directory and run from inside of it to prevent Vagrant init collisions. If unset, it will be set to packer- plus your buildname.

• checksum (string) - The checksum for the .box file. The type of the checksum is specified within the checksum field as a prefix, ex: "md5:{$checksum}". The type of the checksum can also be omitted and Packer will try to infer it based on string length. Valid values are "none", "{$checksum}", "md5:{$checksum}", "sha1:{$checksum}", "sha256:{$checksum}", "sha512:{$checksum}" or "file:{$path}". Here is a list of valid checksum values:

  • md5:090992ba9fd140077b0661cb75f7ce13
  • 090992ba9fd140077b0661cb75f7ce13
  • sha1:ebfb681885ddf1234c18094a45bbeafd91467911
  • ebfb681885ddf1234c18094a45bbeafd91467911
  • sha256:ed363350696a726b7932db864dda019bd2017365c9e299627830f06954643f93
  • ed363350696a726b7932db864dda019bd2017365c9e299627830f06954643f93
  • file:http://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04/SHA256SUMS
  • file:file://./local/path/file.sum
  • file:./local/path/file.sum
  • none Although the checksum will not be verified when it is set to "none", this is not recommended since these files can be very large and corruption does happen from time to time.

• box_name (string) - if your sourcebox is a boxfile that we need to add to Vagrant, this is the name to give it. If left blank, will default to "packer" plus your buildname.

• insert_key (bool) - If true, Vagrant will automatically insert a keypair to use for SSH, replacing Vagrant's default insecure key inside the machine if detected. By default, Packer sets this to false.

• provider (string) - The vagrant provider. This parameter is required when source_path have more than one provider, or when using vagrant-cloud post-processor. Defaults to unset.

• vagrantfile_template (string) - What vagrantfile to use

• teardown_method (string) - Whether to halt, suspend, or destroy the box when the build has completed. Defaults to "halt"

• box_version (string) - What box version to use when initializing Vagrant.

• template (string) - a path to a golang template for a vagrantfile. Our default template can be found here. The template variables available to you are {{ .BoxName }}, {{ .SyncedFolder }}, and {{.InsertKey}}, which correspond to the Packer options box_name, synced_folder, and insert_key.

• synced_folder (string) - Path to the folder to be synced to the guest. The path can be absolute or relative to the directory Packer is being run from.

• skip_add (bool) - Don't call "vagrant add" to add the box to your local environment; this is necessary if you want to launch a box that is already added to your vagrant environment.

• add_cacert (string) - Equivalent to setting the --cacert option in vagrant add; defaults to unset.

• add_capath (string) - Equivalent to setting the --capath option in vagrant add; defaults to unset.

• add_cert (string) - Equivalent to setting the --cert option in vagrant add; defaults to unset.

• add_clean (bool) - Equivalent to setting the --clean flag in vagrant add; defaults to unset.

• add_force (bool) - Equivalent to setting the --force flag in vagrant add; defaults to unset.

• add_insecure (bool) - Equivalent to setting the --insecure flag in vagrant add; defaults to unset.

• skip_package (bool) - if true, Packer will not call vagrant package to package your base box into its own standalone .box file.

• output_vagrantfile (string) - Output Vagrantfile

• package_include ([]string) - Equivalent to setting the --include option in vagrant package; defaults to unset

Example

Sample for hashicorp/precise64 with virtualbox provider.

JSON

{
  "builders": [
    {
      "communicator": "ssh",
      "source_path": "hashicorp/precise64",
      "provider": "virtualbox",
      "add_force": true,
      "type": "vagrant"
    }
  ]
}

HCL2

source "vagrant" "example" {
  communicator = "ssh"
  source_path = "hashicorp/precise64"
  provider = "virtualbox"
  add_force = true
}

build {
  sources = ["source.vagrant.example"]
}

Regarding output directory and new box

After Packer completes building and provisioning a new Vagrant Box file, it is worth noting that the new box file will need to be added to Vagrant. For a beginner to Packer and Vagrant, it may seem as if a simple 'vagrant up' in the output directory will run the the newly created Box. This is not the case.

Rather, create a new directory (to avoid Vagarant init collisions), add the new package.box to Vagrant and init. Then run vagrant up to bring up the new box created by Packer. You will now be able to connect to the new box with provisioned changes.

'mkdir output2'
'cp package.box ./output2'
'vagrant box add new-box name-of-the-packer-box.box'
'vagrant init new-box'
'vagrant up'

A note on SSH connections

Currently this builder only works for SSH connections, and automatically fills in all information needed for the SSH communicator using vagrant's ssh-config.

If you would like to connect via a different username or authentication method than is produced when you call vagrant ssh-config, then you must provide the

ssh_username and all other relevant authentication information (e.g. ssh_password or ssh_private_key_file)

By providing the ssh_username, you're telling Packer not to use the vagrant ssh config, except for determining the host and port for the virtual machine to connect to.