Elastic Compute Service:Use Packer to create and import an on-premises image

Procedure

In this example, the following software versions are used. Operations may vary based on your software version.

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

• Operating system for which you want to create an image: CentOS 6.9

Step 1: Install Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

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

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

   The following sample command output indicates that the source 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 the on-premises server supports KVM, run the following command to install KVM and relevant controls:

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

3. Check whether KVM is installed as expected.

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

      sudo lsmod | grep kvm

      If the KVM kernel modules are loaded, a command output that contains kvm and kvm_intel or kvm and kvm_amd is returned.

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

      sudo dpkg -l libvirt-bin

      If libvirt is installed, a command output that contains libvirt-bin is returned.

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

      sudo dpkg -l qemu-kvm

      If QEMU is installed, a command output that contains qemu-kvm is returned.

   If the command outputs are as expected, KVM is installed. If one of the command outputs is not as expected, you may need to re-install KVM.

Step 2: Install Packer

Install Packer on the on-premises server. For more information, see the "Step 1: Install Packer" section in the Use Packer to create a custom image topic.

Step 3: Define a Packer template

In this example, a CentOS 6.9 image is created. To create images for other operating systems, modify the Packer template configuration file centos.json based on your needs. For more information, see Create a Packer template.

1. Run the following command on the source server to change the working directory to the /usr/local directory:

   cd /usr/local

2. Run the following command to download the centos.json configuration file that is provided by 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 ks.cfg configuration file that is provided by 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. In this example, the http/centos-6.9 directory is created.

   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: Use Packer to create an on-premises image and import the image

1. Run the following command on the on-premises server to import your AccessKey ID:

   export ALICLOUD_ACCESS_KEY=<AccessKey ID>

   In the preceding command, replace <AccessKey ID> with your actual AccessKey ID.

2. Run the following command to import your AccessKey secret:

   export ALICLOUD_SECRET_KEY=<AccessKey Secret>

   In the preceding command, replace <AccessKey Secret> with your actual AccessKey secret.

3. Run the following command to create an on-premises image and import the image to Alibaba Cloud:

   sudo packer build centos.json

   The following sample command output indicates that the on-premises image is imported as a custom image to 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. Log on to the ECS console.

5. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Images.

6. In the upper-left corner of the top navigation bar, select the region where the centos.json configuration file is located. In this example, China (Beijing) is selected.

7. On the Custom Images tab, view the CentOS 6.9 image.

Create a 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"
        }
      ]
}

Required parameters for the QEMU Packer builder

Required parameters for the Packer provisioner