Packer

Packer can read on single configuration file and create identical machine/server images for multiple platforms at once.

It's great for quickly deploying operating systems, apps, server setups, etc. for various platforms.

What is new in this release:

• WinRM: You can now connect via WinRM with almost every builder. See the docs for more info.
• Windows AWS Support: Windows AMIs can now be built without any external plugins: Packer will start a Windows instance, get the admin password, and can use WinRM (above) to connect through.
• Disable SSH: Set communicator to "none" in any builder to disable SSH connections. Note that provisioners won't work if this is done.
• SSH Agent Forwarding: SSH Agent Forwarding will now be enabled to allow access to remote servers such as private git repos.
• SSH Bastion Hosts: You can now specify a bastion host for SSH access (works with all builders).
• OpenStack v3 Identity: The OpenStack builder now supports the v3 identity API.
• Docker builder supports SSH: The Docker builder now supports containers with SSH, just set communicator to "ssh"
• File provisioner can download: The file provisioner can now download files out of the build process.
• New config function: build_name: The name of the currently running build.
• New config function: build_type: The type of the currently running builder. This is useful for provisioners.
• New config function: template_dir: The directory to the template being built. This should be used for template-relative paths.
• New provisioner: shell-local: Runs a local shell script.
• New provisioner: powershell: Provision Windows machines with PowerShell scripts.
• New provisioner: windows-shell: Provision Windows machines with batch files.
• New provisioner: windows-restart: Restart a Windows machines and wait for it to come back online.
• Compress post-processor supports multiple algorithms: The compress post-processor now supports lz4 compression and compresses gzip in parallel for much faster throughput.

What is new in version 0.7.5:

• New command: packer push: Push template and files to HashiCorp's Atlas for building your templates automatically.
• New post-processor: atlas: Send artifact to HashiCorp's Atlas for versioning and storing artifacts. These artifacts can then be queried using the API, Terraform, etc.

What is new in version 0.7.0:

• New Post-Processor: `compress`** - Gzip compresses artifacts with files.
• New Post-Processor: `docker-save`** - Save an image. This is similar to export, but preserves the image hierarchy.
• New Post-Processor: `docker-tag`** - Tag a created image.
• New Template Functions: `upper`, `lower`** - See documentation for more details.

What is new in version 0.6.1:

• FEATURES:
• New post processor: vagrant-cloud - Push box files generated by vagrant post processor to Vagrant Cloud.
• Vagrant post-processor can now packer Hyper-V boxes.
• IMPROVEMENTS:
• Support for enhanced networking on HVM images.
• Support encrypted EBS volumes.
• Added playbook_dir option.
• Added ability to configure networks.
• Skip certificate verification.
• Added ability to select interface to connect to.

What is new in version 0.5.1:

• BUG FIXES:
• If a stream ID loops around, don't let it use stream ID 0.
• Issue where large writes to plugins would result in stream corruption.
• `shutdown_timeout` config works.
• Remote driver works properly again.

What is new in version 0.4.0:

• Docker builder: build and export Docker containers, easily provisioned with any of the Packer built-in provisioners.
• QEMU builder: builds a new VM compatible with KVM or Xen using QEMU.
• Remote ESXi builder: builds a VMware VM using ESXi remotely using only SSH to an ESXi machine directly.
• vSphere post-processor: Can upload VMware artifacts to vSphere.
• Vagrant post-processor can now make DigitalOcean provider boxes.

What is new in version 0.3.10:

• Ansible provisioner.

What is new in version 0.3.9:

• The Amazon chroot builder is now able to run without any `sudo` privileges by using the "command_wrapper" configuration.
• Chef provisioner supports environments.

What is new in version 0.3.8:

• Can now specify `only` and `except` configurations on any provisioner or post-processor to specify a list of builds that they are valid for.
• builders/virtualbox: Guest additions can be attached rather than uploaded, easier to handle for Windows guests.
• Provisioner/chef-solo: Ability to specify a custom Chef configuration template.
• Provisioner/chef-solo: Roles and data bags support.

What is new in version 0.3.6:

• User variables can now be specified as "required", meaning the user MUST specify a value. Just set the default value to "null".