Self service systems - how to build templates?

davx8342

Hey there,

I've recently started looking into xen orchestra+xcp-ng as a self service vm portal for users to provision their own Windows and Linux vms. One thing I'm missing though is a good primer on what's required to make those base templates and in the case of windows do an active directory domain join.

With VMware I'm used to making templates from code with packer, and then the vm cloned from the template is customised with some ansible scripts.

I'm having a bit of a hard time find some good end to end references on how to do this in xcp-ng. Any links with reading material or general advice from people who have already achieved this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

ruskofd

@davx8342 There is a Packer plugin for XCP-ng : https://github.com/ddelnano/packer-plugin-xenserver

I use it in my homelab, I have some manifests in public on my GitHub profile if you want some examples : https://github.com/ruskofd/xcp-ng-images

davx8342

@ruskofd Awesome, thank you!

olivierlambert

We'd love to have a packer plugin for XO to be even more flexible (allow building templates across multiple pools at the same time). But we lack the resources to do it now

olivierlambert

And thanks @ruskofd for the examples!

olivierlambert

@marcungeschikts we probably need a card in our backlog to find resources to move Packer using XO API

marcungeschikts

@olivierlambert Done

dydomby

@ruskofd have you removed this examples? i got 404.

antoniolfdacruz

I would like some examples too.

My latest (first) try gives me:

alfcruz-adm@local.hcpa.ufrgs.br@volt-ampere:~/packer-plugin-xenserver$ packer build ./ubuntu-2004.pkr.hcl
xenserver-iso.ubuntu-2004: output will be in this color.

Build 'xenserver-iso.ubuntu-2004' errored after 8 seconds 155 milliseconds: API Error: SESSION_AUTHENTICATION_FAILED root Authentication failure

==> Wait completed after 8 seconds 155 milliseconds

==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
--> xenserver-iso.ubuntu-2004: API Error: SESSION_AUTHENTICATION_FAILED root Authentication failure

==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.
alfcruz-adm@local.hcpa.ufrgs.br@volt-ampere:~/packer-plugin-xenserver$

Using root user. This user/pass works over SSH.