README

# Common Packer

A collection of common packer scripts and baseline used by Linux Foundation
projects as a central way to maintain and manage common VM configuration.

Documentation for common packer is available at this link
https://docs.releng.linuxfoundation.org/projects/common-packer

## Finding source AMI images

Source OS images published by upstream projects like Ubuntu and CentOS need to
be well specified, so that the correct images are used. Anyone can list in
the marketplace, so care should be taken to use the correct images.

This is done in Packer using
[source_ami_filter](https://packer.io/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html#source_ami_filter)
which is parameterized on the image `name`, `owner`, and `product-code` within
the `packer/vars/<os_name>.json` files that define the source images.

Upstream docs that specify AMIs:

- [CentOS](https://wiki.centos.org/Cloud/AWS)
- [Ubuntu](https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/locator/ec2/)

Unfortunately these filter parameters have conflicts - images with the official
Ubuntu owner (`099720109477`) doesn't specify a `product-code` field.

As an alternative, `aws-marketplace` owner is used, which also has the same
images. To find the `product-code`, go to the [AWS
Marketplace](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace) and find the image you want,
then click the button to launch the image. In the URL there will be a
`productId` UUID parameter - find this, and then use it search for a product
code using the [aws command
line](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/index.html):

    aws ec2 describe-images \
        --owners aws-marketplace \
        --filters "Name=name,Values=*aced0818-eef1-427a-9e04-8ba38bada306*"

Then look at the output for the `ProductCodeId` - this is what should go in
the OS json file in the `source_ami_filter_product_code` field.

Once you've determined the correct settings, the Packer filter can be tested
with this command:

    aws ec2 describe-images \
        --owners aws-marketplace \
        --filters "Name=name,Values=*ubuntu*20.04*" \
                  "Name=product-code,Values=a8jyynf4hjutohctm41o2z18m" \
                  "Name=architecture,Values=x86_64" \
                  "Name=virtualization-type,Values=hvm" \
                  "Name=root-device-type,Values=ebs"