Packer Windows Imaging Tools

This repo contains Packer templates for generating Windows images usable with MAAS, a bare-metal hardware provisioning tool. Currently, it supports QEMU on MacOS but Linux and VirtualBox support is planned. For now, this is just a quick install guide for those who wish to experiment with the alpha version.

Installing

1. git clone https://github.com/cagyirey/packer-windows-imaging-tools.git
2. Run install.sh. This will brew install the relevant system dependencies and pull down drivers and an EFI firmware for QEMU.
3. Download a Windows ISO from Microsoft Evaluation Center or elsewhere (remember to verify your hashes!)
4. Double-check the parameters at the top of qemu_template_efi.json. By default it expects that you have at least 4 CPU cores and hyperthreading (threads_per_core). It currently emulates an Icelake CPU but if you wish to use Skylake or are somehow running an AMD macbook, see the QEMU CPU model docs.
5. Run build_qemu.sh <path/to/windows.iso>. This process takes ~15 minutes on an i7-9750H.
6. Check the output folder for windows-server-dd.gz or the filename you defined in the Packer template. This image is ready to deploy with MAAS or another tool, such as dd.
7. Please open an issue or let me know when something inevitably breaks.