Packer.Images

This OVA appliance allows deploying a Windows Server fully automated; either as a domain member or stand-alone server.

The included .ovf file has the following XML contents (simplified for clarity) to facilitate the different DeploymentOptions:

<Envelope [...]>
  [...]
  <DeploymentOptionSection>
    <Info>Deployment Type</Info>
    <Configuration ovf:id="domainmember">
      <Label>Domain member</Label>
      <Description>Windows Server joined to an Active Directory domain</Description>
    </Configuration>
    <Configuration ovf:id="standalone">
      <Label>Stand-alone</Label>
      <Description>Stand-alone Windows Server</Description>
    </Configuration>
  </DeploymentOptionSection>
  <VirtualSystem ovf:id="[...]">
    [...]
    <ProductSection>
      [...]
      <Category>1) Operating System</Category>
      <Property ovf:configuration="domainmember standalone" ovf:key="guestinfo.hostname" [...]>
        <Label>Hostname*</Label>
      </Property>
      <Property ovf:configuration="standalone" ovf:key="guestinfo.administratorpw" [...]>
        <Label>Local administrator password*</Label>
      </Property>
      [...]
      <Category>3) Active Directory membership</Category>
      <Property ovf:configuration="domainmember" ovf:key="addsconfig.domainname" [...]>
        <Label>Domain name*</Label>
      </Property>
      <Property ovf:configuration="domainmember" ovf:key="addsconfig.username" [...]>
        <Label>Domain account username*</Label>
      </Property>
      <Property ovf:configuration="domainmember" ovf:key="addsconfig.password" [...]>
        <Label>Domain account password*</Label>
      </Property>
    </ProductSection>
  </VirtualSystem>
</Envelope>

When provisioning the appliance through the vCenter 'Deploy OVF template...' wizard, or through vApp-compatible Infrastructure as code tooling (e.g. HashiCorp Terraform), it is possible to provide all relevant configuration through vApp properties.

vSphere 'Deploy OVF template...' wizard

HashiCorp Terraform vSphere provider

vapp { properties = { # "deployment.type" = "domainmember" "guestinfo.hostname" = "SRV01" # "guestinfo.administratorpw" = var.vm_adminpassword # "guestinfo.ntpserver" = "0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org,2.pool.ntp.org" "guestinfo.ipaddress" = "10.0.0.42" "guestinfo.prefixlength" = "24" "guestinfo.dnsserver" = "10.0.0.21" "guestinfo.gateway" = "10.0.0.1" "addsconfig.domainname" = "contoso.com" "addsconfig.username" = "CONTOSO\\domainjoin" "addsconfig.password" = var.adds_password } }

On first boot, the appliance will start configuring itself without any further user-input, by performing the following steps:

• Change hostname
• Configure network
• Join Active Directory domain -OR- Set password for local administrator
• Iterate through any payload scripts