Retail Windows 10 Templates for Packer

Introduction

This repository contains Windows templates that can be used to create boxes for Vagrant using Packer (Website) (Github).

This repo is a modified fork of the popular StefanScherer/packer-windows repo.

Some of my changes are:

• Focus only on Windows 10
• Changes to support use of retail Windows 10 iso

TODO Need like a quick-start / how-to-make-it-go section...

Packer Version

Packer 1.1.3 is recommended.

Windows Versions

TODO Provide equivalent copy...

Windows Editions

TODO Provide equivalent copy

Product Keys

TODO Provide updated copy

Windows Updates

The scripts in this repo will install all Windows updates – by default – during Windows Setup. This is a very time consuming process, depending on the age of the OS and the quantity of updates released since the last service pack. You might want to do yourself a favor during development and disable this functionality, by commenting out the WITH WINDOWS UPDATES section and uncommenting the WITHOUT WINDOWS UPDATES section in Autounattend.xml:

<!-- WITHOUT WINDOWS UPDATES -->
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
    <CommandLine>cmd.exe /c C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File a:\openssh.ps1 -AutoStart</CommandLine>
    <Description>Install OpenSSH</Description>
    <Order>99</Order>
    <RequiresUserInput>true</RequiresUserInput>
</SynchronousCommand>
<!-- END WITHOUT WINDOWS UPDATES -->
<!-- WITH WINDOWS UPDATES -->
<!--
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
    <CommandLine>cmd.exe /c a:\microsoft-updates.bat</CommandLine>
    <Order>98</Order>
    <Description>Enable Microsoft Updates</Description>
</SynchronousCommand>
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
    <CommandLine>cmd.exe /c C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File a:\openssh.ps1</CommandLine>
    <Description>Install OpenSSH</Description>
    <Order>99</Order>
    <RequiresUserInput>true</RequiresUserInput>
</SynchronousCommand>
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
    <CommandLine>cmd.exe /c C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File a:\win-updates.ps1</CommandLine>
    <Description>Install Windows Updates</Description>
    <Order>100</Order>
    <RequiresUserInput>true</RequiresUserInput>
</SynchronousCommand>
-->
<!-- END WITH WINDOWS UPDATES -->

Doing so will give you hours back in your day, which is a good thing.

WinRM

These boxes use WinRM. There is no OpenSSH installed.

Hyper-V Support

If you are running Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 or later, then you can also use these packerfiles to build a Hyper-V virtual machine. I have the ISO already downloaded to save time, and only have Hyper-V installed on my laptop, so I run:

packer build --only hyperv-iso -var 'hyperv_switchname=Ethernet' -var 'iso_url=./server2016.iso' .\windows_2016_docker.json

You then can use this box with Vagrant to spin up a Hyper-V VM.

Generation 2 VMs

Some of these images use Hyper-V "Generation 2" VMs to enable the latest features and faster booting. However, an extra manual step is needed to put the needed files into ISOs because Gen2 VMs don't support virtual floppy disks.

• windows_server_insider.json
• windows_server_insider_docker.json
• windows_10_insider.json

Trial versions of Windows 2008 R2 / 2012 / 2012 R2 / 2016 are used by default. These images can be used for 180 days without activation.

Alternatively – if you have access to MSDN or TechNet – you can download retail or volume license ISO images and place them in the iso directory. If you do, you should supply appropriate values for iso_url (e.g. ./iso/<path to your iso>.iso) and iso_checksum (e.g. <the md5 of your iso>) to the Packer command. For example, to use the Windows 2008 R2 (With SP1) retail ISO:

1. Download the Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (x64) - DVD (English) ISO (en_windows_server_2008_r2_with_sp1_x64_dvd_617601.iso)

2. Verify that en_windows_server_2008_r2_with_sp1_x64_dvd_617601.iso has an MD5 hash of 8dcde01d0da526100869e2457aafb7ca (Microsoft lists a SHA1 hash of d3fd7bf85ee1d5bdd72de5b2c69a7b470733cd0a, which is equivalent)

3. Clone this repo to a local directory

4. Move en_windows_server_2008_r2_with_sp1_x64_dvd_617601.iso to the iso directory

5. Run:

   packer build \
       -var iso_url=./iso/en_windows_server_2008_r2_with_sp1_x64_dvd_617601.iso \
       -var iso_checksum=8dcde01d0da526100869e2457aafb7ca windows_2008_r2.json
   

Variables

The Packer templates support the following variables:

Name	Description
iso_url	Path or URL to ISO file
iso_checksum	Checksum (see also iso_checksum_type) of the ISO file
iso_checksum_type	The checksum algorithm to use (out of those supported by Packer)
autounattend	Path to the Autounattend.xml file

• Secondary Dvd image does not exist: CreateFile ./iso/windows_server_insider_unattend.iso: The system cannot find the file specified.

### Using .box Files With Vagrant

The generated box files include a Vagrantfile template that is suitable for use
with Vagrant 1.7.4+, but the latest version is always recommended.

Example Steps for Hyper-V:

vagrant box add windows_2016_docker windows_2016_docker_hyperv.box vagrant init windows_2016_docker vagrant up --provider hyperv