Packer

This directory contains packer templates to create images from provisioned VMs

You can install packer using the steps in their documentation. For Fedora and Red Hat flavor distributions, be aware there can be another executable installed named packer, so you will have to install the packer executable under another name or call it with an absolute path. See their documentation for more info

Be aware that enabling the hashicorp repo will make an updated vagrant rpm available. If you are using the Fedora-supplied vagrant, disable this repository immediately after installing packer.

Local usage

From this directory, use packer build followed by the json packer template to create an image

For example: packer build centos7-katello-devel-stable.json

You can create a box image using the above command and then add that box to vagrant:

vagrant box add --name centos7-katello-devel-stable centos7-katello-devel-stable.box

Then you can use it in a box definition. For the box built with centos7-katello-devel-stable.json, you will need to use the stable hostname.

centos7-katello-devel-stable:
  box_name: centos7-katello-devel-stable
  hostname: centos7-katello-devel-stable.example.com

You can then vagrant up centos7-katello-devel-stable

If you want to completely remove the box, be sure to remove from both vagrant and virsh. This can be helpful if you have built a new packer box image and want to use it.

vagrant box remove centos7-katello-devel-stable
sudo virsh vol-delete --pool default centos7-katello-devel-stable_vagrant_box_image_0.img

Creating version specific Katello devel boxes

Versioned Katello devel boxes allow easier patch development on old versions of Katello. This could be used for creating a fix or updating a vcr cassette for an older release.

To create a version specific dev box, follow the directions above to install packer, then:

cd ./forklift/packer

and run this comand (replacing 3.18 with the correct version):

./scripts/build_stable_dev_box.rb 3.18

To test the newly created box:

1. add the printed box definition to vagrant/boxes.d/99-local.yaml
2. run printed 'vagrant box add' command
3. vagrant up centos7-katello-3.18-stable
4. Verify that 'rpm -q katello-repos' is correct and the foreman and katello git repos are on the correct branches

Uploading a versioned box to Vagrant Cloud

The version of Vagrant shipped with Fedora does not support Vagrant Cloud uploads (due to a library licensing issue):

1. Deploy a Centos 7 VM (vagrant up centos7)
2. Install latest vagrant from: https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/installation
3. scp the .box file over to the centos 7 vm
4. Run 'vagrant login' and login with your credentials
5. Ensure you are an owner of the katello organization in vagrant cloud
6. Use the command from the build_stable_dev_box.rb output to publish the box, it will look like:

vagrant cloud publish -d "katello-devel 3.18" -s "katello-devel 3.18" katello/katello-devel 3.18.0 libvirt centos7-katello-3.18-stable.box

NOTE: YOU WILL GET AN ERROR, BUT THE UPLOAD WILL ACTUALLY WORK. This only happens during large box uploads to vagrant cloud. The error will look like:

Failed to create box katello/katello-nightly
An error occurred while uploading the file. The error
message, if any, is reproduced below. Please fix this error and try
again.

exit code: 52
Empty reply from server

7. Since auto-releasing is somewhat broken, login to the webui (https://app.vagrantup.com/katello/boxes/katello-devel/) and release the version manually

Using a version specific box

Within your local vagrant boxes file, add:

centos7-katello-3.18-stable:
  box_name: katello/katello-devel
  box_version: 3.18.0

changing 3.18.0 to the version you desire. Then:

vagrant up centos7-katello-3.18-stable

Vagrant cloud usage

The centos7-katello-devel-stable box is published to Vagrant cloud on a nightly basis to ensure an image with the latest changes is available. This box is only published if the Katello install is successful.