Building VMs with Packer (QEMU builder)

Packer is an excellent tool for automating the process of building virtual machine images. The QEMU builder is an ideal choice because it's supported across all platforms, including Apple Silicon.

Prerequisites

The following packages need to be installed on the system:

• Packer
• Vagrant
• QEMU

Build

vagrant plugin install vagrant-qemu # required vagrant plugin
packer init <PACKER_TEMPLATE>
packer build <PACKER_TEMPLATE>

Start VM

cd build/<TIMESTAMP>
vagrant up