Creates Chef Development Kit enhanced Amazon Machine Instances (AMI)

This project contains a number of Packer files, scripts and recipes that allow for the creation and configuration of AMI for the training interventions we offer at Chef.

Setup

This is a video that describes these setup procedures.

\1. Get AWS Credentials

You will need an AWS Access Key, AWS Secret Key, and a Key Pair (AKA access_key, secret_key, key pair)

\2. Add the AWS Access Key and AWS Secret Key to ~/.aws/config

This is an example of what the files looks like.

[default]
aws_access_key_id = ACCESS_KEY_ID
aws_secret_access_key = SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

\3. Setting up key pair name and local key (.pem file) Add the TRAINING_AWS_KEYPAIR_NAME environment variable labeled as your AWS.pem name as specified when lauching instances to connect to via SSH.

This is an example of setting up that environment variable

$ export TRAINING_AWS_KEYPAIR_NAME="Eric Heiser"
Windows:
$env:TRAINING_AWS_KEYPAIR_NAME="Eric Heiser"

Add the TRAINING_AWS_KEYPAIR environment variable pointing to the key filepath

This is an example of setting up that environment variable

$ export TRAINING_AWS_KEYPAIR=/Users/franklinwebber/.ssh/training-ec2-keypair.pem
Windows:
$env:TRAINING_AWS_KEYPAIR=/Users/franklinwebber/.ssh/training-ec2-keypair.pem

\4. Install Packer. At least 1.4.2. Older versions will not be able to accept Chef License.

Creating AMI

Run packer to create the AMI

This is an example of using packer to creating an image for CentOS.

NOTE: Each packer file contains a version number within it. When you need to create a new version of the Packer image you will need to update this packer file version or you may received an error because of a conflict of version numbers.

• Essentials - CentOS Workstation Image

# Validate and then build the Essentials - CentOS 6.7 Workstation
$ packer validate essentials-centos.json
$ packer build essentials-centos.json

• Essentials - Windows Workstation Image

NOTE: WARNING this is currently not working! This script is unable to execute; it FAILS!

# Validate and then build the Essentials - Windows Workstation
$ packer validate essentials-windows-workstation.json
$ packer build essentials-windows-workstation.json

• Essentials - Windows Node Image

# Validate and then build the Essentials - Windows Node
$ packer validate essentials-windows-node.json
$ packer build essentials-windows-node.json

• Compliance - CentOS Image

# Validate and then build the CentOS 6.7 Compliance Node
$ packer validate compliance-centos.json
$ packer build compliance-centos.json

• Compliance - Windows Image

NOTE: WARNING this is currently not working! This script is unable to execute; it FAILS!

# Validate and then build the Windows 2012 Compliance Node
$ packer validate compliance-windows.json
$ packer build compliance-windows.json

• TDD Cookbook Development - CentOS Image

# Validate and then build the TDD Cookbook Development CentOS 6.7 Workstation
$ packer validate tdd_cookbook_development-centos.json
$ packer build tdd_cookbook_development-centos.json

• Extending Cookbooks - CentOS Image

# Validate and then build the Extending Cookbooks CentOS 6.7 Workstation
$ packer validate extending_cookbooks-centos.json
$ packer build extending_cookbooks-centos.json

• Intermediate - CentOS Image

# Validate and then build the Intermediate CentOS 6.7 Workstation
$ packer validate intermediate-centos.json
$ packer build intermediate-centos.json

• Elegant Tests - CentOS Image

# Validate and then build the Elegant Tests CentOS 6.7 Workstation
$ packer validate elegant_tests-centos.json
$ packer build elegant_tests-centos.json

CentOS 7.4 Series

For the next series of images the project has opted to prepare them mostly through cloud-init scripts. A base image prepares the cloud-init file. Then each workshop/training image will pause to let the image complete and put the final touches.

• packer build base-centos-7.4.json
• packer build essentials-centos-7.4.json
• packer build intermediate-centos-7.4.json

Create an instance and you can ensure that it is installed correctly with the InSpec controls:

• inspec exec tests/essentials.rb --sudo -t ssh://chef:Cod3Can\!@address
• inspec exec tests/intermediate.rb --sudo -t ssh://chef:Cod3Can\!@address

Sharing Images

Once an AMI is created there are a number of individuals that will likely want access to those AMIs. To grant access to the AMI that was created you run:

$ rake ami:grant AMI_ID=ami-????????

This will iterate through the entire list of AMI subscribers

Known Issues

Windows Nodes and Workstations

The current version of Packer (0.8.6) does not successfully allow you to use Chef cookbook recipes in the creation of Windows AMIs. To address that issue I started to develop the configuration management in simple PowerShell scripts. However, one of the scripts that installs a lot of the necessary components fails to run when executed through Packer. This means to regenerate a Windows AMI one must:

• Launch a clean Windows 2012R2 Instance
• Login to that Instance
• Run the WinRM script (scripts/winrm.ps1)
• Run the specific script for the course (e.g. For Compliance, run scripts/compliance-windows.ps1)