104 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
104 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "docs"
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page_title: "Creating a Base Box - Hyper-V Provider"
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sidebar_current: "providers-hyperv-boxes"
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description: |-
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As with every Vagrant provider, the Vagrant Hyper-V provider has a custom box
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format that affects how base boxes are made.
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---
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# Creating a Base Box
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As with [every Vagrant provider](/docs/providers/basic_usage.html), the
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Vagrant Hyper-V provider has a custom box format that affects how base boxes are made.
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Prior to reading this, you should read the
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[general guide to creating base boxes](/docs/boxes/base.html). Actually,
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it would probably be most useful to keep this open in a separate tab
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as you may be referencing it frequently while creating a base box. That
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page contains important information about common software to install
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on the box.
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Additionally, it is helpful to understand the
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[basics of the box file format](/docs/boxes/format.html).
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<div class="alert alert-warning">
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<strong>Advanced topic!</strong> This is a reasonably advanced topic that
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a beginning user of Vagrant does not need to understand. If you are
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just getting started with Vagrant, skip this and use an available
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box. If you are an experienced user of Vagrant and want to create
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your own custom boxes, this is for you.
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</div>
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## Additional Software
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In addition to the software that should be installed based on the
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[general guide to creating base boxes](/docs/boxes/base.html),
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Hyper-V base boxes require some additional software.
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### Hyper-V Kernel Modules
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You will need to install Hyper-V kernel modules. While this improves performance,
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it also enables necessary features such as reporting its IP address so that
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Vagrant can access it.
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You can verify Hyper-V kernel modules are properly installed by
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running `lsmod` on Linux machines and looking for modules prefixed with
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`hv_`. Additionally, you will need to verify that the "Network" tab for your
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virtual machine in the Hyper-V manager is reporting an IP address. If it
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is not reporting an IP address, Vagrant will not be able to access it.
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For most newer Linux distributions, the Hyper-V modules will be available
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out of the box.
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Ubuntu 12.04 requires some special steps to make networking work. These
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are reproduced here in case similar steps are needed with other distributions.
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Without these commands, Ubuntu 12.04 will not report an IP address to
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Hyper-V:
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```
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$ sudo apt-get install linux-tools-3.11.0-15-generic
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$ sudo apt-get install hv-kvp-daemon-init
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$ sudo cp /usr/lib/linux-tools/3.11.0-15/hv_* /usr/sbin/
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```
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## Packaging the Box
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To package a Hyper-V box, export the virtual machine from the
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Hyper-V Manager using the "Export" feature. This will create a directory
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with a structure similar to the following:
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```
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.
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|-- Snapshots
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|-- Virtual Hard drives
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|-- Virtual Machines
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```
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Delete the "Snapshots" folder. It is of no use to the Vagrant Hyper-V
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provider and can only add to the size of the box if there are snapshots
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in that folder.
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Then, create the "metadata.json" file necessary for the box, as documented
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in [basics of the box file format](/docs/boxes/format.html). The proper
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provider value to use for the metadata is "hyperv".
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Finally, create an archive of those contents (but _not_ the parent folder)
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using a tool such as `tar`:
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```
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$ tar cvzf ~/custom.box ./*
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```
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A common mistake is to also package the parent folder by accident. Vagrant
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will not work in this case. To verify you've packaged it properly, add the
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box to Vagrant and try to bring up the machine.
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## Additional Help
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There is also some less structured help available from the experience of
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other users. These are not official documentation but if you are running
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into trouble they may help you:
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* [Ubuntu 14.04.2 without secure boot](https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/5419#issuecomment-86235427)
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