packer-Win2019 is a set of configuration files used to build automated Windows Server 2019 virtual machine images using Packer. This Packer configuration file allows you to build images for VMware Workstation and Oracle VM VirtualBox.

• Packer
  • https://www.packer.io/intro/getting-started/install.html
• A Hypervisor
  • VMware Workstation
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox

Commands to create an automated VM image:

To create a Windows Server 2019 VM image using VMware Workstation use the following commands:

cd c:\packer-Win2019
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-gui.json #Windows Server 2019 w/ GUI
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-core.json #Windows Server 2019 Core
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-gui_uefi.json #Windows Server 2019 w/ GUI using UEFI
packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-core_uefi.json #Windows Server 2019 Core using UEFI

To create a Windows Server 2019 VM image using Oracle VM VirtualBox use the following commands:

cd c:\packer-Win2019
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2019-gui.json #Windows Server 2019 w/ GUI
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2019-core.json #Windows Server 2019 Core
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2019-gui_uefi.json #Windows Server 2019 w/ GUI using UEFI
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso win2019-core_uefi.json #Windows Server 2019 Core using UEFI

If you omit the keyword "-only=" images for both Workstation and Virtualbox will be created.

By default the .iso of Windows Server 2019 is pulled from https://software-download.microsoft.com/download/pr/17763.1.180914-1434.rs5_release_SERVER_EVAL_X64FRE_EN-US.ISO

You can change the URL to one closer to your build server. To do so change the "iso_url" parameter in the "variables" section of the win2019-*.json file.

{
  "variables": {
      "iso_url": "https://software-download.microsoft.com/download/pr/17763.1.180914-1434.rs5_release_SERVER_EVAL_X64FRE_EN-US.ISO"
  }
}

To set the input/user locale and timezone according to your preferences edit the following files:

• ".\packer-Win2019\scripts<bios|uefi>\core\autounattend.xml"
• ".\packer-Win2019\scripts<bios|uefi>\gui\autounattend.xml"

<settings pass="specialize">
    <component xmlns:wcm="http:https://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http:https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
        <InputLocale>fr-FR</InputLocale>
        <UserLocale>fr-FR</UserLocale>
    </component>
    <component xmlns:wcm="http:https://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http:https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
        <TimeZone>Romance Standard Time</TimeZone>
    </component>
</settings>

The default credentials for this VM image are: