packer-Win2022

What is packer-Win2022 ?

packer-Win2022 is a set of configuration files used to build automated Windows Server 2022 virtual machine images using Packer. This Packer configuration file allows you to build images for VMware Workstation, Oracle VM VirtualBox and QEMU (KVM).

Prerequisites

• Packer
  • https://www.packer.io/intro/getting-started/install.html
• A Hypervisor
  • VMware Workstation
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox

How to use Packer

Commands to create an automated VM image:

To create a Windows Server 2022 VM image using VMware Workstation use the following commands:

cd c:\packer-Win2022
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-gui.json #Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-core.json #Windows Server 2022 Core
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-gui_uefi.json #Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI using UEFI
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-core_uefi.json #Windows Server 2022 Core using UEFI

To create a Windows Server 2022 VM image using Oracle VM VirtualBox use the following commands:

cd c:\packer-Win2022
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2022-gui.json #Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2022-core.json #Windows Server 2022 Core
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2022-gui_uefi.json #Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI using UEFI
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2022-core_uefi.json #Windows Server 2022 Core using UEFI

To create a Windows Server 2022 VM image using QEMU (KVM) use the following commands:

cd packer-Win2022
wget https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.229-1/virtio-win-0.1.229.iso
packer build -only=qemu win2022-gui.json #Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI
packer build -only=qemu win2022-core.json #Windows Server 2022 Core
packer build -only=qemu win2022-gui_uefi.json #Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI using UEFI
packer build -only=qemu win2022-core_uefi.json #Windows Server 2022 Core using UEFI

If you omit the keyword "-only=" images for both Workstation and Virtualbox will be created.

By default the .iso of Windows Server 2022 is pulled from https://software-download.microsoft.com/download/sg/20348.169.210806-2348.fe_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso

You can change the URL to one closer to your build server. To do so change the "iso_url" parameter in the "variables" section of the win2022-*.json file.

{
  "variables": {
      "iso_url": "https://software-download.microsoft.com/download/sg/20348.169.210806-2348.fe_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso"
  }
}

Configuring Input/User Locale & Timezone

To set the input/user locale and timezone according to your preferences edit the following files:

• ".\packer-Win2022\scripts<bios|uefi>\core\autounattend.xml"
• ".\packer-Win2022\scripts<bios|uefi>\gui\autounattend.xml"

<settings pass="specialize">
    <component xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
        <InputLocale>fr-FR</InputLocale>
        <UserLocale>fr-FR</UserLocale>
    </component>
    <component xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
        <TimeZone>Romance Standard Time</TimeZone>
    </component>
</settings>

Default credentials

The default credentials for this VM image are:

Username	Password
administrator	packer