IOiofiiiiiiiii·Jun 13, 2017
I am just now implementing Packer and Vagrant in our devops workflows. Terraform is next on the list.
So far, it leaves me rather anxious - Packer and Vagrant appear to offer the bare minimum of usable functionality, with any advanced scenario bumping into (sometimes intentional) walls.
For example, it takes me 15-20 minutes to transfer a 50 MB file to a Windows VM being created by Packer. The GitHub issue, filed nearly 2 years ago, is closed with a comment that this is by design: https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/2648#issuecomment...
Yet there is a PowerShell command that uses the same communication mechanism that can somehow do it in a matter of seconds. Of course, I cannot use this PowerShell command because Packer does not give me a variable with a machine's IP address because... it is improper somehow? https://github.com/has
Read the rest
hicorp/packer/issues/4993
What the hell, Hashicorp...
I have a list of 10+ issues I have found so far and I am only starting to use these tools. From the activity in GitHub, they seem to be abandonware.
Maybe if I submitted PRs they might be accepted (then again, maybe not: https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/pulls) but I expect more from software than just accepting PRs - I expect its authors to actually develop it and to show an interest in improving it.
There is unfortunately nothing better out there. I admit, I am forced to use these products even though I do not find them satisfactory and the authors do not seem helpful.
If I had to start all over again with my current knowledge, I might perhaps just write my own scripting and skip Packer/Vagrant altogether. The value they offer with VM management comes with the downside of being left in the mud and having the system work against you when you try something nontrivial.
I am scared of what I will find when I touch Terraform. As I write this, I think I will first see whether I can just script it manually.