Proxmox Builder (from an image)

Type: proxmox-clone

The proxmox-clone Packer builder is able to create new images for use with Proxmox. The builder takes a virtual machine template, runs any provisioning necessary on the image after launching it, then creates a virtual machine template. This template can then be used as to create new virtual machines within Proxmox.

The builder does not manage templates. Once it creates a template, it is up to you to use it or delete it.

Configuration Reference

There are many configuration options available for the builder. They are segmented below into two categories: required and optional parameters. Within each category, the available configuration keys are alphabetized.

In addition to the options listed here, a communicator can be configured for this builder.

If no communicator is defined, an SSH key is generated for use, and is used in the image's Cloud-Init settings for provisioning.

Required:

proxmox_url (string) - URL to the Proxmox API, including the full path, so https://<server>:<port>/api2/json for example. Can also be set via the PROXMOX_URL environment variable.
username (string) - Username when authenticating to Proxmox, including the realm. For example user@pve to use the local Proxmox realm. Can also be set via the PROXMOX_USERNAME environment variable.
password (string) - Password for the user. Can also be set via the PROXMOX_PASSWORD environment variable.
node (string) - Which node in the Proxmox cluster to start the virtual machine on during creation.
clone_vm (string) - The name of the VM packer should clone and build from.

Optional:

insecure_skip_tls_verify (bool) - Skip validating the certificate.
pool (string) - Name of resource pool to create virtual machine in.
vm_name (string) - Name of the virtual machine during creation. If not given, a random uuid will be used.
vm_id (int) - The ID used to reference the virtual machine. This will also be the ID of the final template. If not given, the next free ID on the node will be used.
memory (int) - How much memory, in megabytes, to give the virtual machine. Defaults to 512.
cores (int) - How many CPU cores to give the virtual machine. Defaults to 1.
sockets (int) - How many CPU sockets to give the virtual machine. Defaults to 1
cpu_type (string) - The CPU type to emulate. See the Proxmox API documentation for the complete list of accepted values. For best performance, set this to host. Defaults to kvm64.
os (string) - The operating system. Can be wxp, w2k, w2k3, w2k8, wvista, win7, win8, win10, l24 (Linux 2.4), l26 (Linux 2.6+), solaris or other. Defaults to other.
vga (object) - The graphics adapter to use. Example:
```
{
  "type": "vmware",
  "memory": 32
}
```
- type (string) - Can be cirrus, none, qxl,qxl2, qxl3, qxl4, serial0, serial1, serial2, serial3, std, virtio, vmware. Defaults to std.
- memory (int) - How much memory to assign.
network_adapters (array of objects) - Network adapters attached to the virtual machine. Example:
```
[
  {
    "model": "virtio",
    "bridge": "vmbr0",
    "vlan_tag": "10",
    "firewall": true
  }
]
```
- bridge (string) - Required. Which Proxmox bridge to attach the adapter to.
- model (string) - Model of the virtual network adapter. Can be rtl8139, ne2k_pci, e1000, pcnet, virtio, ne2k_isa, i82551, i82557b, i82559er, vmxnet3, e1000-82540em, e1000-82544gc or e1000-82545em. Defaults to e1000.
- mac_address (string) - Give the adapter a specific MAC address. If not set, defaults to a random MAC.
- vlan_tag (string) - If the adapter should tag packets. Defaults to no tagging.
- firewall (bool) - If the interface should be protected by the firewall. Defaults to false.
- packet_queues (int) - Number of packet queues to be used on the device. Values greater than 1 indicate that the multiqueue feature is activated. For best performance, set this to the number of cores available to the virtual machine. CPU load on the host and guest systems will increase as the traffic increases, so activate this option only when the VM has to handle a great number of incoming connections, such as when the VM is operating as a router, reverse proxy or a busy HTTP server. Requires virtio network adapter. Defaults to 0.
disks (array of objects) - Disks attached to the virtual machine. Example:
```
[
  {
    "type": "scsi",
    "disk_size": "5G",
    "storage_pool": "local-lvm",
    "storage_pool_type": "lvm"
  }
]
```
- storage_pool (string) - Required. Name of the Proxmox storage pool to store the virtual machine disk on. A local-lvm pool is allocated by the installer, for example.
- storage_pool_type (string) - Required. The type of the pool, can be lvm, lvm-thin, zfspool, cephfs, rbd or directory.
- type (string) - The type of disk. Can be scsi, sata, virtio or ide. Defaults to scsi.
- disk_size (string) - The size of the disk, including a unit suffix, such as 10G to indicate 10 gigabytes.
- cache_mode (string) - How to cache operations to the disk. Can be none, writethrough, writeback, unsafe or directsync. Defaults to none.
- format (string) - The format of the file backing the disk. Can be raw, cow, qcow, qed, qcow2, vmdk or cloop. Defaults to raw.
template_name (string) - Name of the template. Defaults to the generated name used during creation.
template_description (string) - Description of the template, visible in the Proxmox interface.
onboot (boolean) - Specifies whether a VM will be started during system bootup. Defaults to false.
disable_kvm (boolean) - Disables KVM hardware virtualization. Defaults to false.
scsi_controller (string) - The SCSI controller model to emulate. Can be lsi, lsi53c810, virtio-scsi-pci, virtio-scsi-single, megasas, or pvscsi. Defaults to lsi.
full_clone (bool) - Whether to run a full or shallow clone from the base clone_vm. Defaults to true.
boot - (string) - Override default boot order. Format example order=virtio0;ide2;net0. Prior to Proxmox 6.2-15 the format was cdn (c:CDROM -> d:Disk -> n:Network)

Example: Cloud-Init enabled Debian

Here is a basic example creating a Debian 10 server image. This assumes that there exists a Cloud-Init enabled image on the Proxmox server named debian-10-4.

{
  "variables": {
    "proxmox_url": "{{env `PROXMOX_URL`}}",
    "proxmox_username": "{{env `PROXMOX_USERNAME`}}",
    "proxmox_password": "{{env `PROXMOX_PASSWORD`}}"
  },

  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "proxmox-clone",
      "proxmox_url": "{{user `proxmox_url`}}",
      "username": "{{user `proxmox_username`}}",
      "password": "{{user `proxmox_password`}}",
      "node": "pve",
      "insecure_skip_tls_verify": true,
      "clone_vm": "debian-10-4",
      "template_name": "debian-scaffolding",
      "template_description": "image made from cloud-init image",

      "pool": "api-users",
      "os": "l26",
      "cores": 1,
      "sockets": 1,
      "memory": 2048,
      "network_adapters": [
        {
          "bridge": "vmbr0"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "description": "A template for building a base"
}