Packer

Expedite Machine Image Building With Packer

Every organization has different requirements. They need different machine architecture, different software and configurations to host or run their workload. As a result, the virtual infrastructure differs from organization to organization.

When we talk about virtual infrastructure, we mostly mean the machine image. The machine image consists of the OS and the software needed to run the service that your organization intends to. So, building a machine image entails installing the operating system, installing the software, configuring the system with scripts so that it works exactly the way it is intended to. It is a tiresome process. What if you need to create multiple such images? Wouldn’t it be extremely time consuming and annoying? This is where Packer comes in.

Packer lets you create multiple machine images from a single Json config file. What’s more, it can create machine images for all the major platforms using the same config file. Packer saves a lot of time and frustration by automating the machine-image building process.

Save Time. Create Machine-Images Automatically With Packer.

How Impressico Helps You With Packer

Packer is an automation tool. But to make that automation happen, Packer requires the user to know Hashicorp Configuration Language. Also, ideally, Packer should be a part of Jenkins. Hence you need to know how Jenkins works as well. On top of that, Packer leverages tools like Chef or Puppet to configure the machine image. These tools demand the knowledge of specific programming languages like Ruby.

A single organization might not have the necessary human resource to manage and orchestrate the Packer DevOps tool efficiently. This is where Impressico comes in. You can offload the task of configuring and operating Packer on us. We have dedicated experts having knowledge in Ruby and HCL who will help you automate the machine-image building process. Thus you can keep on focusing on your business while we handle all the nitty-gritty.

Consistency In Dev and Prod

We always talk about consistency in Docker applications. But what about the infrastructure where the Docker image runs. Shouldn’t the infrastructure be the same across the development, staging and production environments? That’s exactly what DevOps Packer does. It creates the exact same machine image using a fixed template (config file). This ensures that the application development environment, testing environment and production environment remain as identical as possible.

Automate Your Infrastructure-as-a-Code Journey

Hassle-Free Infrastructure Creation

The more abstracted the infrastructure is, the more configuration it needs. Hence modern cloud instances require a lot of configurations. Creating a server with all the configurations, applications along with the OS should not be a manual job. Packer not only automates this process, it mitigates the complexities involved in the process.

Reliable Infrastructure

When you create a machine image with Packer, all the config files and applications are installed right at that time. Hence, you can catch any bug while building the image. No need to wait for the machine to launch and then identify the bugs.

Applying DevOps at the Machine Level

We generally talk about CI/CD from an application deployment point of view. But with Packer, you can automate the creation of new machines whenever the configuration file changes. The process remains the same. You leverage Jenkins to pull the changes in the Packer build and build a new machine image out of it- automatically. Isn’t that awesome!?