Packer Windoze - jborean93/WindowsServer2016

Info

This is an image based on the evaluation ISO supplied by Microsoft. It has all the updates available for the host at the time applied and comes ready to be run by Vagrant. When Vagrant starts the box, sysprep will automatically run and create a brand new Windows instance with WinRM up and running.

Details on how to connect are;

• username: vagrant
• password: vagrant
• connector: winrm

Included programs (versions dependent on the Windows version);

• PowerShell v3.0 or higher
• .NET Framework 4.5 or higher
• VirtualBox or QEMU Guest Additions
• Chocolatey
• Sysinternals Suite
• Vim for Windows

Other configurations from the standard image;

• WinRM HTTP and HTTPS listener with Basic and CredSSP enabled
• Win32-OpenSSH V8.6.0.0p1-Beta
• PowerShell (pwsh.exe) with SSH remoting setup
• Default Administrator account disabled, password is also vagrant
• Hidden files and folders and file extensions are shown by default

Changes

v1.0.0 - 2021-06-19

• Removed Packer as part of the build process, this runs using Ansible only.
• Removed the Server 2008 and 2008 R2 builds as they are end of life.
• Disabled shutdown tracker UI by default.
• Added Server 2022 based on the latest preview ISO on the evaluation centre.
• Added pwsh to the image and configured PSRemoting of pwsh for both SSH and WinRM.
• Recreate RDP certificate to use SHA256 as SHA1 is being deprecated.
• Enable a few Hyper-V features for the default QEMU/Libvirt Vagrantfile.
• Updated OpenSSH version to v8.6.0.0p1-Beta.
• Updated VirtIO driver version to 0.1.185.
• Raised minimum Ansible version to 2.9.0.

v0.7.0 - 2019-12-20

• Added qemu/libvirt boxes and default template to use VirtIO drivers for better performance
• Pin the VirtIO driver version to a specific version that can be manually updated across version. Currently at the latest stable version of 0.1.171.
• Updated OpenSSH version to v8.0.0.0p1-Beta
• Raised minimum Ansible version to 2.7.0.
• Swapped the connection plugin from winrm to psrp for faster builds. The pypsrp Python library needs to be installed.

v0.6.0 - 2019-01-20

• Fix logic when setting the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy value when setting up the WinRM listener
• Added ability to override the base Chocolatey packages that are installed with the image, use the opt_package_setup_packages variable with -e when generating the template to configure
• Moved away from custom role to install the Win32-OpenSSH components, now using the jborean93.win_openssh role
• Updated OpenSSH version 7.9.0.0p1-Beta
• Installed the virtio-network driver on VirtualBox images

Specific changes to this host type

• Changed the default Windows Explorer window to show This PC instead of Quick access

v0.5.0 - 2018-08-08

• Disabled automatic Windows Update to eliminate post-startup thrash on older images - https://github.com/jborean93/packer-windoze/issues/10
• Updated Win32-OpenSSH to the latest release v7.7.2.0p1-Beta
• Ensure WinRM HTTPS listener and firewall is configured before allowing Vagrant to detect the host is up - https://github.com/jborean93/packer-windoze/issues/11
• Run ngen before sysprep process to try and speed up the Vagrant init time
• Clean up C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and C:\Recovery as part of the cleanup process

v0.4.0 - 2018-05-16

• Create a PS Module called PackerWindoze that stores the Reset-WinRMConfig cmdlet that recreates the WinRM configuration and keep that post sysprep for downstream users to call at any time
• Added support for the Server 1803 image
• Install the full sysinternals suite instead of just PsTools, ProcMon, and ProcExp
• Fixed issue where the WinRM HTTPS firewall rule was not created after sysprep
• Fixed issue where WinRM still allowed unencrypted data after sysprep

v0.3.0 - 2018-05-10

• Updated OpenSSH version to v7.6.1.0p1-Beta
• Set the builtin vagrant account password to never expire
• Stop using the Ansible ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1 script, swap over to custom script to support SHA256 and simplify steps
• Added Hyper-V builder support by specifying -e opt_packer_setup_builder=hyperv - This will only run on a Windows with WSL host and doesn't work for Server 2008

v0.2.0 - 2017-12-01

• Create a custom Vagrantfile template for the final image that includes the username and other required settings
• Moved sysprep process before the image is created
• Added slmgr.vbs /rearm to run just after Vagrant starts the image to get the full evaluation period possible
• Removed SSL certificates that were created during the packer build process
• Installed Win32-OpenSSH v0.0.23.0 on all images eacept Server 2008
• Added .travis-ci file to run ansible-lint on the Ansible files for some testing sanity
• Decided to install the VirtualBox guest additions tools as part fo the build process
• Added vim to the list of chocolatey packages to help with Core OS installs or connecting via SSH

Specific changes to this host type

• Will not remove Features on Demand until this is resolved

v0.0.1 - 2017-10-29

• First images built by this process