This builds an up-to-date Proxmox VE Vagrant Base Box.

Currently this targets Proxmox VE 8.

Usage

Create the base box as described in the section corresponding to your provider.

If you want to troubleshoot the packer execution see the .log file that is created in the current directory.

After the example vagrant environment is started, you can access the Proxmox Web Interface with the default root user and password vagrant.

For a cluster example see rgl/proxmox-ve-cluster-vagrant.

libvirt

Create the base box:

make build-libvirt

Add the base box as suggested in make output:

vagrant box add -f proxmox-ve-amd64 proxmox-ve-amd64-libvirt.box

Start the example vagrant environment with:

cd example
vagrant up --no-destroy-on-error --provider=libvirt

Proxmox

Set the Proxmox VE details:

cat >secrets-proxmox.sh <<EOF
export PROXMOX_URL='https://192.168.1.21:8006/api2/json'
export PROXMOX_USERNAME='root@pam'
export PROXMOX_PASSWORD='vagrant'
export PROXMOX_NODE='pve'
EOF
source secrets-proxmox.sh

Create the template:

make build-proxmox

NB There is no way to use the created template with vagrant (the vagrant-proxmox plugin is no longer compatible with recent vagrant versions). Instead, use packer or terraform.

Hyper-V

Follow the rgl/debian-vagrant Hyper-V Usage section.

Create a vSwitch for proxmox:

PowerShell -NoLogo -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass <<'EOF'
$switchName = 'proxmox'
$networkAdapterName = "vEthernet ($switchName)"
$networkAdapterIpAddress = '10.10.10.1'
$networkAdapterIpPrefixLength = 24

# create the vSwitch.
New-VMSwitch -Name $switchName -SwitchType Internal | Out-Null

# assign it an host IP address.
$networkAdapter = Get-NetAdapter $networkAdapterName
$networkAdapter | New-NetIPAddress `
    -IPAddress $networkAdapterIpAddress `
    -PrefixLength $networkAdapterIpPrefixLength `
    | Out-Null

# remove all virtual switches from the windows firewall.
Set-NetFirewallProfile `
    -DisabledInterfaceAliases (
            Get-NetAdapter -name "vEthernet*" | Where-Object {$_.ifIndex}
        ).InterfaceAlias
EOF

Create the base box:

make build-hyperv

Add the base box as suggested in make output:

vagrant box add -f proxmox-ve-amd64 proxmox-ve-amd64-hyperv.box

Start the example vagrant environment with:

cd example
vagrant up --provider=hyperv

VMware vSphere usage

Download govc and place it inside your /usr/local/bin directory.

Set your VMware vSphere details and test the connection:

sudo apt-get install build-essential patch ruby-dev zlib1g-dev liblzma-dev
vagrant plugin install vagrant-vsphere
cat >secrets-vsphere.sh <<'EOF'
export GOVC_INSECURE='1'
export GOVC_HOST='vsphere.local'
export GOVC_URL="https://$GOVC_HOST/sdk"
export GOVC_USERNAME='administrator@vsphere.local'
export GOVC_PASSWORD='password'
export GOVC_DATACENTER='Datacenter'
export GOVC_CLUSTER='Cluster'
export GOVC_DATASTORE='Datastore'
export VSPHERE_OS_ISO="[$GOVC_DATASTORE] iso/proxmox-ve_8.2-1.iso"
export VSPHERE_ESXI_HOST='esxi.local'
export VSPHERE_TEMPLATE_FOLDER='test/templates'
export VSPHERE_TEMPLATE_NAME="$VSPHERE_TEMPLATE_FOLDER/proxmox-ve-amd64-vsphere"
export VSPHERE_VM_FOLDER='test'
export VSPHERE_VM_NAME='proxmox-ve-example'
# NB for the nested VMs to access the network, this VLAN port group security
#    policy MUST be configured to Accept:
#      Promiscuous mode
#      Forged transmits
export VSPHERE_VLAN='packer'
export VSPHERE_IP_WAIT_ADDRESS='0.0.0.0/0'
# set the credentials that the guest will use
# to connect to this host smb share.
# NB you should create a new local user named _vagrant_share
#    and use that one here instead of your user credentials.
# NB it would be nice for this user to have its credentials
#    automatically rotated, if you implement that feature,
#    let me known!
export VAGRANT_SMB_USERNAME='_vagrant_share'
export VAGRANT_SMB_PASSWORD=''
EOF
source secrets-vsphere.sh
# see https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/blob/master/govc/USAGE.md
govc version
govc about
govc datacenter.info # list datacenters
govc find # find all managed objects

Download the Proxmox ISO (you can find the full iso URL in the proxmox-ve.json file) and place it inside the datastore as defined by the iso_paths property that is inside the packer template file.

See the example Vagrantfile to see how you could use a cloud-init configuration to configure the VM.

Type make build-vsphere and follow the instructions.

Try the example guest:

source secrets-vsphere.sh
cd example
vagrant up --provider=vsphere --no-destroy-on-error --no-tty
vagrant ssh
exit
vagrant destroy -f

Packer build performance options

To improve the build performance you can use the following options.

Accelerate build time with Apt Caching Proxy

To speed up package downloads, you can specify an apt caching proxy (e.g. apt-cacher-ng) by defining the environment variables APT_CACHE_HOST (default: undefined) and APT_CACHE_PORT (default: 3124).

Example:

APT_CACHE_HOST=10.10.10.100 make build-libvirt

Decrease disk wear by using temporary memory file-system

To decrease disk wear (and potentially reduce io times), you can use /dev/shm (temporary memory file-system) as output_directory for Packer builders. Your system must have enough available memory to store the created virtual machine.

Example:

PACKER_OUTPUT_BASE_DIR=/dev/shm make build-libvirt

Remember to also define PACKER_OUTPUT_BASE_DIR when you run make clean afterwards.

Variables override

Some properties of the virtual machine and the Proxmox VE installation can be overridden. Take a look at proxmox-ve.pkr.hcl, variable blocks, to get an idea which values can be overridden. Do not override iso_url and iso_checksum as the boot_commands might be tied to a specific Proxmox VE version. Also take care when you decide to override country.

Create the base box:

make build-libvirt VAR_FILE=example.pkrvars.hcl

The following content of example.pkrvars.hcl:

• sets the initial disk size to 128 GB
• sets the initial memory to 4 GB
• sets the Packer output base directory to /dev/shm
• sets the country to Germany (timezone is updated by Proxmox VE installer) and changes the keyboard layout back to "U.S. English" as this is needed for the subsequent boot_command statements
• sets the hostname to pve-test.example.local
• uses all default shell provisioners (see ./provisioners) and a custom one for german localisation

disk_size = 128 * 1024
memory = 4 * 1024
output_base_dir = "/dev/shm"
step_country = "Ger<wait>m<wait>a<wait>n<wait><enter>"
step_hostname = "pve-test.example.local"
step_keyboard_layout = "<end><up><wait>"
shell_provisioner_scripts = [
  "provisioners/apt_proxy.sh",
  "provisioners/upgrade.sh",
  "provisioners/network.sh",
  "provisioners/localisation-de.sh",
  "provisioners/reboot.sh",
  "provisioners/provision.sh",
]

Packer boot_command

As Proxmox does not have any way to be pre-seeded, this environment has to answer all the installer questions through the packer boot_command interface. This is quite fragile, so be aware when you change anything. The following table describes the current steps and corresponding answers.

step	boot_command
select "Install Proxmox VE"	<enter>
wait for boot	<wait1m>
agree license	<enter><wait>
target disk	<enter><wait>
type country	United States<wait><enter><wait><tab><wait>
timezone	<tab><wait>
keyboard layout	<tab><wait>
advance to the next button	<tab><wait>
advance to the next page	<enter><wait5>
password	vagrant<tab><wait>
confirm password	vagrant<tab><wait>
email	pve@example.com<tab><wait>
advance to the next button	<tab><wait>
advance to the next page	<enter><wait5>
hostname	pve.example.com<tab><wait>
ip address	<tab><wait>
netmask	<tab><wait>
gateway	<tab><wait>
DNS server	<tab><wait>
advance to the next button	<tab><wait>
advance to the next page	<enter><wait5>
install	<enter><wait5>

NB Do not change the keyboard layout. If you do, the email address will fail to be typed.