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win-iac-lab

This project can be used to create ad-hoc Windows labs. The included sample configurations create 3 virtual machines running Windows Server 2016 (2 domain controllers and a file server), but you can easily customize and extend it. Project workflow consists of three stages:

  • creation of Windows VM templates
  • deployment of VMs out of those templates
  • applying OS configurations It uses Packer Builder for VMware vSphere by JetBrains, Terraform and Ansible. VMware vSphere serves as a virtualization platform.

Prerequisites

Setup

  • Clone this repo to your workstation (git clone https://github.com/dteslya/win-iac-lab)
  • Make sure Packer, Terraform and Ansible binaries are all in PATH
  • Download Packer Builder plugin from Releases and place it in packer dir
  • Remove .example extension from all the configuration files and adjust the variables according to your environment

Packer

Packer setup consists of 3 main components:

  • windows-server-2016.json
  • vars.json
  • setup dir containing files necessary for automatic Windows installation

windows-server-2016.json describes the connection parameters for vSphere, VM hardware including paths to Windows ISO and vmtools, and which files to put on virtual floppy drive. Those files are:

  • autounattend.xml windows setup answer file
  • setup.ps1 powershell script which enables WinRM access for packer
  • vmtools.cmd batch file which installs vmware tools

vars.json file contains all the values of the variables defined in windows-server-2016.json, including vSphere user and password. These two variables are marked as sensitive in windows-server-2016.json so that Packer doesn't reveal them during its run.

Terraform

I tend to use one .tf file per VM for better readability.

  • 01-PDC.tf Primary Domain Controller VM
  • 02-ReplicaDC.tf Replica Domain Controller VM
  • 03-FileServer.tf File Server VM
  • base.tf vCenter connection parameters
  • variables.tf all variables are defined here
  • terraform.tfvars variables' values (I keep this file in .gitignore)

Ansible

I put 3 plays in one playbook: each for every server role.

  • winlab.yml playbook
  • inventory.yml all the hosts are defined here
  • ansible.cfg ansible reads this file by default to find inventory and vault password files
  • groupvars/all.yml all variables are defined here. I use Ansible Vault to encrypt sensitive data such as passwords (ansible-vault encrypt_string string_to_encrypt)

How to use

Build VM template

  1. cd to packer dir
  2. run packer build -var-file=vars.json windows-server-2016.json

Deploy VMs

  1. cd to terraform dir
  2. run terraform init
  3. run terraform plan
  4. run terraform apply

Configure VMs

  1. cd to ansible dir
  2. run ansible-playbook winlab.yml

Acknowledgments

This project was initially inspired by SDBrett's MCSA Lab