Packer

Packer automates the creation of Machine Images (AMI, VMDK, ISO) for multiple platforms from a single configuration. In 2025, HCL2 is the standard for configuration.

When to Use

• Immutable Infrastructure: Bake your app code into the OS image. Booting a pre-baked AMI is faster than running Ansible on boot.
• Golden Images: Create hardened, secure base images for your organization.
• Multi-Cloud: Build an AMI for AWS and a VHD for Azure from the same script.

Quick Start (HCL2)