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Packer

Example of an AMI build with Packer and provisioned with Ansible

The name of your Packer configuration file must be <file_name>.pkr.hcl or <file_name>.pkr.json.

config.pkr.hcl
packer {
  required_plugins {
    amazon = {
      version = ">= 1.2.8"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"
    }
    ansible = {
      version = "~> 1"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/ansible"
    }
  }
}


source "amazon-ebs" "ubuntu" {
  ami_name      = "ansible-ami"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
  region        = "us-east-2"
  ssh_username  = "ubuntu"
  source_ami_filter {
    filters = {
      name                = "ubuntu/images/hvm-ssd/ubuntu-focal-20.04-amd64-server-*"
      root-device-type    = "ebs"
      virtualization-type = "hvm"
    }
    most_recent = true
    owners      = ["099720109477"]
  }
}


build {
  name = "test-packer"
  sources = [
    "source.amazon-ebs.ubuntu"
  ]


  provisioner "ansible" {
    user            = "ubuntu"
    playbook_file   = "playbook.yml"
    extra_arguments = ["--scp-extra-args", "'-O'"]
  }
}

Export your AWS credentials

Terminal window
$ export  access_key    = "<aws_access_key>"
$ export  secret_key    = "<aws_secret_key>"

Create your Ansible playbook to provision the AMI

playbook.yml
---
- name: "Apache configuration"
  hosts: all
  remote_user: ubuntu


  tasks:
    - name: Ensure Apache is at the latest version
      apt:
        name: apache2
        state: latest
        update_cache: yes
      become: true


    - name: enabled mod_rewrite
      become: true
      apache2_module: name=rewrite state=present


    - name: apache2 listen on port 443
      become: true
      lineinfile: dest=/etc/apache2/ports.conf regexp="^Listen 80" line="Listen 443" state=present


    - name: apache2 virtualhost on port 443
      become: true
      lineinfile: dest=/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf regexp="^<VirtualHost \*:80>" line="<VirtualHost *:443>" state=present


    - name: Remove default /var/www/html/
      become: true
      file:
        path: /var/www/html
        state: absent


    - name: Git checkout website
      become: true
      git:
        repo: https://github.com/cloudacademy/static-website-example
        dest: /var/www/html
      notify:
        - start apache2


  handlers:
    - name: start apache2
      service: name=apache2 state=started

Run Packer

Check your Packer version

Terminal window
$ packer version
> Packer v1.7.2

Initialize your Packer configuration

This command will install the required plugins.

Terminal window
$ packer init .

Format the Packer configuration

Terminal window
$ packer fmt config.pkr.hcl
> config.pkr.hcl

Validate your Packer configuration

Terminal window
$ packer validate config.pkr.hcl
> The configuration is valid.

Build your AMI

Terminal window
$ packer build config.pkr.hcl


test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: output will be in this color.


==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Prevalidating any provided VPC information
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Prevalidating AMI Name: ansible-ami
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Found Image ID: ami-07e4e8101a24d7fb5
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Creating temporary keypair: packer_65b91c67-9340-c65b-6326-50779d27cd81
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Creating temporary security group for this instance: packer_65b91c69-bfaa-0870-164b-017b74dc3ee7
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Authorizing access to port 22 from [0.0.0.0/0] in the temporary security groups...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Launching a source AWS instance...
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Instance ID: i-0f720d4a051b98d80
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Waiting for instance (i-0f720d4a051b98d80) to become ready...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Using SSH communicator to connect: 18.118.130.55
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Waiting for SSH to become available...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Connected to SSH!
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Provisioning with Ansible...
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Setting up proxy adapter for Ansible....
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Executing Ansible: ansible-playbook -e packer_build_name="ubuntu" -e packer_builder_type=amazon-ebs --ssh-extra-args '-o IdentitiesOnly=yes' --scp-extra-args '-O' -e ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/var/folders/rp/hnntscqx44n4gc658zqbwg1r0000gn/T/ansible-key249877241 -i /var/folders/rp/hnntscqx44n4gc658zqbwg1r0000gn/T/packer-provisioner-ansible2320871080 /Users/badr/Documents/Personnal_Project/Portfolio/packer_test/ansible/playbook.yml
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: PLAY [Apache configuration] ****************************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: ok: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [Ensure Apache is at the latest version] **********************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: changed: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [enabled mod_rewrite] *****************************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: changed: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [apache2 listen on port 443] **********************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: changed: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [apache2 virtualhost on port 443] *****************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: changed: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [Remove default /var/www/html/] *******************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: changed: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: TASK [Git checkout website] ****************************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: changed: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: RUNNING HANDLER [started apache2] **********************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: ok: [default]
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: default                    : ok=8    changed=6    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu:
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Stopping the source instance...
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Stopping instance
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Waiting for the instance to stop...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Creating AMI ansible-ami from instance i-0f720d4a051b98d80
    test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: AMI: ami-0daea26f520e2cfce
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Waiting for AMI to become ready...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Skipping Enable AMI deprecation...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Terminating the source AWS instance...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Cleaning up any extra volumes...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: No volumes to clean up, skipping
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Deleting temporary security group...
==> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: Deleting temporary keypair...
Build 'test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu' finished after 5 minutes 27 seconds.


==> Wait completed after 5 minutes 27 seconds


==> Builds finished. The artifacts of successful builds are:
--> test-packer.amazon-ebs.ubuntu: AMIs were created:
us-east-2: ami-0daea26f520e2cfce

Your AMI is now available in your AWS account ami_id: ami-0daea26f520e2cfce, in the region us-east-2.

Automate your AMI build with Terraform

ec2.tf
module "ec2_instance" {
  source  = "terraform-aws-modules/ec2-instance/aws"


  for_each = toset(["dev", "staging", "prod"])


  name = "instance-${each.key}"


  ami                    = "ami-0daea26f520e2cfce"
  instance_type          = "t2.micro"
  key_name               = "user1"
  monitoring             = true
  vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.nat_instance_sg.id]
  subnet_id              = module.vpc.public_subnets[0]


  tags = {
    Terraform   = "true"
    Environment = "${each.key}"
  }


  depends_on = [
    aws_security_group.nat_instance_sg
  ]
}

Execute Terraform

Method 1: Using CLI

Terminal window
$ terraform init
$ terraform apply

Method 2: Using Github Actions / Gitlab CI / Jenkins

Here is an example of a Gitlab CI/CD to automate the AMI build.

.gitlab-ci.yml
# Define the stages
stages:
  - init
  - format
  - validate
  - plan
  - apply


# If the commit starts with "deploy/", then run the pipeline
.rules_deploy: &rules_deploy
  - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TITLE =~ /^deploy/'


# Export AWS credentials
.script_export_key: &script_export_key
  - |
    export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID} # AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID is a Gitlab CI/CD variable
    export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY} # AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY is a Gitlab CI/CD variable


# Define the jobs
default:
  image:
    name: hashicorp/terraform:latest
    entrypoint: [""]
  before_script:
    - *script_export_key


init:
  stage: init
  rules:
    - *rules_deploy
  script:
    - terraform init
  artifacts: # artifacts define, which files will be stored in Gitlab, to download any artifacts you need to use instead 'dependencies: []' because all artifacts are downloaded by default
    paths:
      - ".terraform"
      - ".terraform.lock.hcl"
    expire_in: 1 day # expire_in define, how long the artifacts will be stored in Gitlab


format:
  stage: format
  rules:
    - *rules_deploy
  script:
    - terraform fmt


validate:
  stage: validate
  rules:
    - *rules_deploy
  script:
    - terraform validate


plan:
  stage: plan
  rules:
    - *rules_deploy
  script:
    - terraform init
    - terraform plan -out "plan.json" # Save the plan in a file
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - "plan.json"
    expire_in: 1 day


apply:
  stage: apply
  rules:
    - *rules_deploy
  script:
    - terraform init
    - terraform apply -auto-approve "plan.json"
  dependencies:
    - plan
  when: manual # This job will be executed manually in order to avoid any mistake