14 lines
769 B
Plaintext
14 lines
769 B
Plaintext
Packer is an open source tool for creating identical machine images for
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multiple platforms from a single source configuration. Packer is
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lightweight, runs on every major operating system, and is highly
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performant, creating machine images for multiple platforms in
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parallel. Packer does not replace configuration management like Chef or
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Puppet. In fact, when building images, Packer is able to use tools like
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Chef or Puppet to install software onto the image.
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A machine image is a single static unit that contains a pre-configured
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operating system and installed software which is used to quickly create new
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running machines. Machine image formats change for each platform. Some
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examples include AMIs for EC2, VMDK/VMX files for VMware, OVF exports for
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VirtualBox, etc.
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