This builds Windows 2012R2/10/2016/2019 base Vagrant boxes using Packer.

Usage

Install VirtualBox (or libvirt on Linux based systems), packer, packer-provisioner-windows-update plugin and vagrant. If you are using Windows and Chocolatey, you can install everything with:

choco install -y virtualbox packer packer-provisioner-windows-update vagrant

To build the base box based on the Windows Server 2016 Evaluation ISO run:

make build-windows-2016-libvirt # or make build-windows-2016-virtualbox

If you want to use your own ISO, you need to manually run the packer command, e.g.:

packer build -var iso_url=<ISO_URL> -var iso_checksum=<ISO_SHA256_CHECKSUM> -only=windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox windows-2016.json

NB if the build fails with something like Post-processor failed: write /tmp/packer073329394/packer-windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox-1505050546-disk001.vmdk: no space left on device you need to increase your temporary partition size or change its location as described in the packer TMPDIR/TMP environment variable documentation.

NB if you are having trouble building the base box due to floppy drive removal errors try adding, as a workaround, "post_shutdown_delay": "30s", to the windows-2016.json file.

NB the packer logs are saved inside a *-packer.log file (e.g. windows-2016-amd64-libvirt-packer.log).

You can then add the base box to your local vagrant installation with:

vagrant box add -f windows-2016-amd64 windows-2016-amd64-virtualbox.box

And test this base box by launching an example Vagrant environment:

cd example
vagrant up --provider=virtualbox # or --provider=libvirt

NB if you are having trouble running the example with the vagrant libvirt provider check the libvirt logs in the host (e.g. sudo tail -f /var/log/libvirt/qemu/example_default.log) and in the guest (inside C:\Windows\Temp).

Then test with a more complete example:

git clone https://github.com/rgl/customize-windows-vagrant
cd customize-windows-vagrant
vagrant up --provider=virtualbox # or --provider=libvirt

libvirt

Build the base box for the vagrant-libvirt provider with:

make build-windows-2016-libvirt

If you want to access the UI run:

spicy --uri 'spice+unix:///tmp/packer-windows-2016-amd64-libvirt-spice.socket'

NB the packer template file defines qemuargs (which overrides the default packer qemu arguments), if you modify it, verify if you also need include the default packer qemu arguments (see builder/qemu/step_run.go or start packer without qemuargs defined to see how it starts qemu).

VMware vSphere

Download packer-builder-vsphere-iso.exe v2.3 from the jetbrains-infra/packer-builder-vsphere releases page and place it inside your %USERPROFILE%\packer.d\plugins or %APPDATA%\packer.d\plugins directory.

Download the Windows Evaluation ISO (you can find the full iso URL in the windows-2016-vsphere.json file) and place it inside the datastore as defined by the vsphere_iso_url user variable that is inside the packer template.

Download the VMware Tools VMware-tools-windows-<SAME_VERSION_AS_IN_PACKER_TEMPLATE>.iso file into the datastore defined by the vsphere_tools_iso_url user variable that is inside the packer template.

Build the base box with:

make build-windows-2016-vsphere

WinRM access

You can connect to this machine through WinRM to run a remote command, e.g.:

winrs -r:localhost:55985 -u:vagrant -p:vagrant "whoami /all"

NB the exact local WinRM port should be displayed by vagrant, in this case:

==> default: Forwarding ports...
    default: 5985 (guest) => 55985 (host) (adapter 1)

WinRM and UAC (aka LUA)

This base image uses WinRM. WinRM poses several limitations on remote administration, those were worked around by disabling User Account Control (UAC) (aka Limited User Account (LUA)) in autounattend.xml and UAC remote restrictions in winrm.ps1.

If needed, you can later enable them with:

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name EnableLUA -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name EnableLUA -Value 1
Remove-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
Restart-Computer

Or disable them with:

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name EnableLUA -Value 0
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name EnableLUA -Value 0
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System' -Name LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy -Value 1 -Force
Restart-Computer

Windows Unattended Installation

When Windows boots from the installation media its Setup application loads the a:\autounattend.xml file. It contains all the answers needed to automatically install Windows without any human intervention. For more information on how this works see OEM Windows Deployment and Imaging Walkthrough.

autounattend.xml was generated with the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) application that is included in the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).

Windows ADK

To create, edit and validate the a:\autounattend.xml file you need to install the Deployment Tools that are included in the Windows ADK.

If you are having trouble installing the ADK (adksetup) or running WSIM (imgmgr) when your machine is on a Windows Domain and the log has:

Image path is [\??\C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\DISM\wimmount.sys]
Could not acquire privileges; GLE=0x514
Returning status 0x514

It means there's a group policy that is restricting your effective permissions, for an workaround, run adksetup and imgmgr from a SYSTEM shell, something like:

psexec -s -d -i cmd
adksetup
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\WSIM"
imgmgr

For more information see Error installing Windows ADK.