The vSphere plugin is able to create vSphere virtual machines for use with any VMware product. To achieve this, the plugin comes with two builders, and two post-processors to build the VM depending on the strategy you want to use.
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vsphere-iso - This builder starts from an ISO file and utilizes the vSphere API to build on a remote esx instance. This allows you to build vms even if you do not have SSH access to your vSphere cluster.
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vsphere-clone - This builder clones a vm from an existing template, then modifies it and saves it as a new template. It uses the vSphere API to build on a remote esx instance. This allows you to build vms even if you do not have SSH access to your vSphere cluster.
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vsphere - The Packer vSphere post-processor takes an artifact and uploads it to a vSphere endpoint.
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vsphere-template - The Packer vSphere Template post-processor takes an artifact from the vmware-iso builder, built on ESXi (i.e. remote) or an artifact from the vSphere post-processor, marks the VM as a template, and leaves it in the path of your choice.