Procedure

To build Photon OS using the Packer template, set the variables that the template uses and run the build commands.

• Set Variables
• Kick Start Build
• Build VMware Workstation or Fusion Vagrant Box

Set Variables

To use the Packer template, you must set the variables that the template uses. You can set the variables through command line or a JSON file.

Set the following variables:

- `iso_file` - The photon ISO for the build. This file can be local or remote.
- `iso_sha1sum` – The SHA1 sum of the ISO you want to build.
- `product_version` - The Photon OS release version that you want to build. This version is added to the image filename. 

Preset JSON files with the required parameters are located in the photon-packer-templates/vars folder.

Kick Start Build

To kick start a build using the JSON file, run the following command:

packer build -var-file=vars/iso-3.0GA.json packer-photon.json

To build Photon OS manually, run the following:

packer build \
        -var 'iso_file=http://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/3.0/GA/iso/photon-3.0-26156e2.iso' \
        -var 'iso_sha1sum=1c38dd6d00e11d3cbf7768ce93fc3eb8913a9673' \
        -var 'product_version=3.0GA' \
        packer-photon.json

Build VMware Workstation or Fusion Vagrant Box

To build only a VMware Workstation or Fusion vagrant box, run:

packer build -only=vagrant-vmware_desktop -var-file=vars/iso-3.0GA.json packer-photon.json

or:

packer build \
       -only=vagrant-vmware_desktop \
       -var 'iso_file= http://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/3.0/GA/iso/photon-3.0-26156e2.iso ' \
       -var 'iso_sha1sum= 1c38dd6d00e11d3cbf7768ce93fc3eb8913a9673' \
       -var 'product_version=3.0GA' \
       packer-photon.json

You can build to one of the following targets:

• vagrant-vmware_desktop - Generates the vmware_desktop compatible box found on Atlas as vmware/photon.
• vagrant-virtualbox - Generates the virtualbox compatible box found on Atlas as vmware/photon.