Hello,

Packer and vagrant are both software made by hashicorp, so they work very
well.

For packer,

the webpage is:
http://www.packer.io/

vmware section is this:
http://www.packer.io/docs/builders/vmware.html

the vm to vm section goes here:
http://www.packer.io/docs/builders/vmware-vmx.html

the google groups group for packer is:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/packer-tool

To read about packer and vcentre/vcenter check this query (sort by date)
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/packer-tool/vcenter|sort:date

this will be a nice reading as they share some json templates for
packer-vcenter


if you use packer, packer may connect to the vcentre and create the vm there

Packer resolve the the problem of creating the VM for you.. you can create
a vm, or many vms as you want, is a pretty nice tool.


As you have already have a template, perhaps in this case the vagrant
option is the best :)

in order to convert that template to a box, you basically need this

1. Create a VM
2. Do all the steps to make that box suitable for vagrant
http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/boxes/base.html

3. Package that VM as box
http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/cli/package.html

start on the 2nd suggestion, that is package the vm as box, just remeber go
to all the steps in step 2








On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 3:47 PM, varun umesh <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the reply!
>
> I am pretty new to tools like Packer and Vagrant and please correct me if
> i am wrong. This is what i have understood from your first comment:
>
> Step 1: I would have to decompress the existing ova file that i have.
> Step 2: Then use packer to create a VM [is this VM going to be in the .box
> file format, which would be compatible with Vagrant ]
> Step 3: Use vagrant to deploy the VM that was just created.
>
> It would be very helpful if you could point me to documents related to
> creating a .box file using packer.
>
> I could not really understand the second solution clearly, could you
> please explain it one again?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> -varun
>
> On Monday, 28 July 2014 20:28:18 UTC-7, Alvaro Miranda Aguilera wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> One potential idea will be decompress the ova and have the files, and
>> work from there with packer.
>>
>> http://www.packer.io/docs/builders/vmware-vmx.html
>>
>> you may use packer to take that VM and create a new one
>>
>> you can use packer with an ISO or with other VM, so in this case you will
>> feeding the VM, doing nothing, and use it to push it and make it
>> vagrant-aware
>>
>> you may use the same process in case you want
>>
>> - update the kernel
>> - update the os
>> - create vagrant user and vagrant keys
>> - create the box file
>>
>> Other way will be open the ova in vmware on your desktop, and then using
>> vagrant package to create a new box from there
>>
>>
>> From memory, and theory, you may use other methods like decompress the
>> ova and do manual stuff, but I will avoid manual hacks until the proper
>> paths have been exhausted, in this way you will end with a proven and
>> tested method.. rather than something that just works.
>>
>> Let me know if you need any help on this,
>> Alvaro.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 3:00 PM, varun umesh <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am planning to use vagrant and vagrant-vcenter plugin to deploy an OVA
>>> file in vCenter. I am unable to figure out a method to convert the .ova
>>> file to .box format [once i get the .box format file, i would be using it
>>> as an input to the vmware-vagrant plugin and deploy it on vCenter]. Could
>>> anybody let me know how i could convert the .OVA file to .box file format?
>>> Are there any tools available to do this? Please suggest me any other
>>> alternative methods that are available.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>>
>>> -varun
>>>
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