templating Linux distros

[1nerdyguy]

I've been using the built in templating for Windows machines for ages, and love it. However, I'd like to learn how to do it for the Linux based distros as well. Could someone point me in the right direction for an idiots setup guide? I've done research into oem-installs on Ubuntu, which seems broken in 14.04, and looking at virt-sysprep, which seems to be more focused on Openstack.

My goal is to be able to have a Debian and/or Ubuntu server template I can just deploy from as needed, to save me the time. I decided with 4.0 being released, I was doing a fresh-start on my home lab and integrating it all with Ansible, so I basically just want to be able to clone, set the hostname and make sure the ansible user exists, and get the ssh-keys installed, all automatically.

Any help would be huge!

 

[ScOut3R]

Create a VM and convert it to a template. I have an in-house ansible module which uses the Proxmox API to create a VM from this template and make some configurations. If you are interested I can share it with you.

 

[1nerdyguy]

Create a VM and convert it to a template. I have an in-house ansible module which uses the Proxmox API to create a VM from this template and make some configurations. If you are interested I can share it with you.

I'd be interested in that. I've been doing what you say currently, but I want to be able to like change the hostname and such afterwards, to keep my OCD in check.

 

[ScOut3R]

I'd be interested in that. I've been doing what you say currently, but I want to be able to like change the hostname and such afterwards, to keep my OCD in check.

Yeah that can be done with ansible or any other config management framework. I will scan through the module and clean out any private stuff and upload it to github.

If you are interested in a more robust way of deploying new VMs you might want to take a look at http://fai-project.org and integrate it with ansible or puppet or something.

I am using fai, ansible and puppet to do the hard work for me.

 

[ScOut3R]

So here it is: https://github.com/ScOut3R/cd-proxmox-ansible-vm-deployment

It was created ages ago and I was still a rookie with Ansible so forgive me for anything stupid you might find there. I have removed any confidential information (at least I hope so), but our whole infrastructure has moved since, so nothing is up to date.

 

[1nerdyguy]

Fantastic. Thanks for this!