Packer Builder for Anka

This is a Packer Builder for building images that work with Veertu Anka, a macOS virtualization tool.

Note that this builder does not manage images. Once it creates an image, it is up to you to use it or delete it.

Compatibility

Packer Version	Builder for Anka Version
Up to 1.4.5	1.1.0
1.5.x and above	1.2.0

Installing from Binary

1. Install Packer
2. Install Veertu Anka
3. Download the latest release for your host environment
4. Unzip the plugin binaries to a location where Packer will detect them at run-time, such as any of the following:
   • The directory where the packer binary is.
   • The ~/.packer.d/plugins directory.
   • The current working directory.
5. Change to a directory where you have packer templates, and run as usual.

Usage

The most basic json file you can build from is:

{
  "builders": [
    {
      "installer_app": "/Applications/Install macOS Big Sur.app",
      "type": "veertu-anka"
    }
  ]
}

This will create a base VM template using the .app you specified in installer_app with a name like anka-packer-base-{macOSVersion}. Once the base VM template is created, it will create a clone from it (that shares the underlying layers from the base VM template, minimizing the amount of disk space used).

When using installer_app, you can modify the base VM default resource values with disk_size, ram_size, and cpu_count. Otherwise, defaults will be used (see "Configuration" section).

You can also skip the creation of the base VM template and use an existing VM template (10.15.6):

{
  "provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "shell",
      "inline": [
        "sleep 5",
        "echo hello world",
        "echo llamas rock"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "builders": [{
    "type": "veertu-anka",
    "cpu_count": 8,
    "ram_size": "10G",
    "disk_size": "150G",
    "source_vm_name": "10.15.6"
  }]
}

Or, create a variable inside for the source_vm_name and then run: packer build -var 'source_vm_name=10.15.6' examples/macos-catalina-existing.json.

The installer_app is ignored if you've specified source_vm_name and it does not exist already

This will clone 10.15.6 to a new VM and, if there are differences from the base VM, modify CPU, RAM, and DISK.

Check out the examples directory to see how port-forwarding and other options are used.

If you'd like for the base packer VM to be in a stopped state on creation, you can use ANKA_CREATE_SUSPEND=0 packer build . . .

Configuration

• type (required) (string)

Must be veertu-anka.

• installer_app (optional) (string)

The path to a macOS installer. This must be provided if source_vm_name isn't provided. This process takes about 20 minutes. The resulting VM template name will be anka-packer-base-{macOSVersion}.

• disk_size (optional) (string)

The size in "[0-9]+G" format, defaults to 25G.

We will automatically resize the internal disk for you by executing: diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1 0

• ram_size (optional) (string)

The size in "[0-9]+G" format, defaults to 2G.

• cpu_count (optional) (integer)

The number of CPU cores, defaults to 2.

• source_vm_name (optional) (string)

The VM to clone for provisioning, either stopped or suspended.

• vm_name (optional) (string)

The name for the VM that is created. One is generated if not provided (anka-packer-{10RandomCharacters}).

• boot_delay (optional) (string)

The time to wait before running packer provisioner commands, defaults to 10s.

• hw_uuid (optional) (string)

The Hardware UUID you wish to set (usually generated with uuidgen).

• port_forwarding_rules (optional)

If port forwarding rules are already set and you want to not have them fail the packer build, use packer build --force

  "builders": [{
    "type": "veertu-anka",
    "cpu_count": 8,
    "ram_size": "10G",
    "source_vm_name": "anka-packer-base-10.15.7",
    "port_forwarding_rules": [
      {
        "port_forwarding_guest_port": 80,
        "port_forwarding_host_port": 12345,
        "port_forwarding_rule_name": "website"
      },
      {
        "port_forwarding_guest_port": 8080
      }
    ]
  }]

• update_addons (optional) (boolean)

Whether or not to update addons when starting the cloned VM.

This will force stop the VM, causing your suspended state to be lost.

Development

You will need a recent golang installed and setup. See go.mod for which version is expected.

make packer-test

If you've already built a base macOS VM, you can use:

make packer-test-existing SOURCE_VM_NAME=11.1.0

-or-

make build-and-install && PACKER_LOG=1 packer build examples/macos-catalina-existing.json