Documentation
What is HCP Packer?
HCP Packer is a multi-cloud image registry for Packer. It uses metadata to track images, their iterations, and their build artifacts across clouds.
Use case
Golden image pipeline
Integrate image management with provisioning workflows to automate updates across downstream builds.
Challenge
Tracking image and build artifacts is cumbersome and time consuming
Tracking base images, their iterations, and their build artifacts across downstream builds and provisioning pipelines can be challenging, particularly when using multiple clouds. Operations and security teams have to cross-reference spreadsheets, personally inform downstream developers, and manually update build files when new base images are released.
Solution
Automate image updates across downstream builds and provisioning pipelines
DevOps teams can trigger updates across downstream builds and provisioning pipelines by codifying golden images. They need to generate new machine images for multiple platforms and verify the functionality of changes. The HCP Packer registry improves this process by automatically tracking image metadata and storage location and automatically providing the correct image to developers through Packer and Terraform integrations. Ancestry tracking provides visibility into parent/child relationships.
Resources
Docs
Documentation
HCP Packer data source
The HCP Packer data source retrieves information about an upstream image from the HCP Packer registry.
Guide
Build immutable infrastructure with Packer in CI/CD
Automate a Packer workflow for building images from a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.
Tutorials
Push image metadata to the HCP Packer registry
Use Packer to build an AWS Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and push the image's metadata to the HCP Packer registry.
Build a golden image pipeline with HCP Packer
Use HCP Packer to define a golden image pipeline and build base and application images, then deploy the application image to AWS using Terraform.
Create child image from registry image
Use Packer to query a specific base image's build iteration and build a new image using that base image.
Automating image pipelines with HCP Packer
Learn how HashiCorp leverages HCP Packer and GitHub Actions in production to help automate our image build, test, and deployment pipeline.
Caleb Albers
Infrastructure Engineer, HashiCorp