Create an AMI on AWS with Packer

This repository describes the steps to create an AWS image using Packer. In this example the AMI will be an Ubuntu image with nginx installed and enabled.

Prerequisites

Install Packer

See the following documentation How to install Packer

AWS

You need access to AWS and have the following credentials

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
AWS_SESSION_TOKEN

How to

1. Clone the repository to your local machine

git clone https://github.com/munnep/PackerAWSUbuntuNginx.git

2. Change your directory

cd PackerAWSUbuntuNginx

3. Open the packer file ubuntunginx.prk.hcl and change the region variable to match your preference

variable "region" {
  type    = string
  default = "us-west-2"
}

4. Set your AWS environment settings in the terminal with your own credentials

linux/macOS

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=

Windows

set AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
set AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
set AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=

5. Execute the Packer initialization

packer init .

6. Execute the Packer build. This will create the AMI in AWS

packer build .

7. For the next 5 minutes you'll see output like the following

...
    ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
    ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Setting up nginx-light (1.10.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.5) ...
    ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Setting up nginx (1.10.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.5) ...
    ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19.1) ...
    ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu21.31) ...
    ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Processing triggers for ufw (0.35-0ubuntu2) ...
==> ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Synchronizing state of nginx.service with SysV init with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install...
==> ubuntunginx.amazon-ebs.ubuntunginx: Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable nginx
...

8. You should see the AMI now under the AWS AMI Management page