Packer

Packer deployment files for Azure

How to use the files in this repo.

1. Install Packer - I would recommend using Chocolatey to do this:

   choco install packer

   choco install azure-cli

2. Identify the image you wish to deploy using the Azure CLI. For example, the below finds all the Windows Desktop Offers, and then finds the Windows 11 SKUs - change this as required for your needs/locations:

   az vm image list-offers -l uksouth -p MicrosoftWindowsDesktop --query [].name -o tsv

   az vm image list-skus -l uksouth -f windows-11 -p MicrosoftWindowsDesktop --query [].name -o tsv

3. Create the required Resource Group for Packer:

   az group create -n packer-images -l uksouth

   az group create -n packer-build -l uksouth

4. Create a Service Principal for Packer to use:

   az ad sp create-for-rbac --name packer --role contributor --scopes /subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx --query "{ client_id: appId, client_secret: password, tenant_id: tenant }"

This will output something similar to the below:

{ "client_id": “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"client_secret": “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"tenant_id": “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" }

Within the packer file you wish to use, you will need to add this information to the file:

  "client_id": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "client_secret": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "subscription_id": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",

5. We are now ready to run Packer. To run packer use the following command:

   ./ packer build packer-file.json

Packer will now run and create your image!