Packer build for Rocky Linux 8/9 core Vagrant base box

Prerequisites

Packer >= 1.7.x, Vagrant >= 2.2.x and VirtualBox >= 6.1.x must be installed (beyond the scope of this document).

Description

This Packer build generates a minimal Rocky Linux 8 or 9 core image using the virtualbox-iso builder and a Vagrant box based on it using the vagrant post-processor.

Steps

1. Adjust the contents of variables-8.json or variables-9.json accordingly. It's a good idea to always grab the latest upstream ISO.

2. Build the box (e.g. for Rocky Linux 9):

   packer build -var-file variables-9.json packer.json
   

3. Test the box locally:

   vagrant box add --name rocky-9.3-core-20231121 rocky-9.3-core-20231121.box
   vagrant init --minimal rocky-9.3-core-20231121
   vagrant up
   # test here
   vagrant destroy -f
   rm -f Vagrantfile
   vagrant box remove rocky-9.3-core-20231121
   

4. Upload the box to Vagrant Cloud: dhml/rocky-9.3-core-20231121

5. Test the box from Vagrant Cloud:

   vagrant init --minimal dhml/rocky-9.3-core-20231121
   vagrant up
   # test here
   vagrant destroy -f
   rm -f Vagrantfile
   vagrant box remove dhml/rocky-9.3-core-20231121
   

6. Update box names/versions/URLs in Vagrantfiles in other repositories that reference this box.