{"id":721,"date":"2018-02-01T15:51:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T13:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/us\/2018\/02\/01\/custom-cloud-servers-upcloud-packer-builder\/"},"modified":"2018-02-01T15:51:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T13:51:39","slug":"custom-cloud-servers-upcloud-packer-builder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/blog\/custom-cloud-servers-upcloud-packer-builder\/","title":{"rendered":"Templating custom cloud servers with UpCloud Packer builder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Templating your server configurations can be a huge time saver, but creating and managing server images manually can quickly become tedious. The way to avoid pitfalls in many tasks is to get the&nbsp;right tools&nbsp;for the right job. One of the best options for templating is Packer the open-source, easy to use, automation solution for custom cloud servers. It is a lightweight, modern way for managing&nbsp;server images on multiple platforms in parallel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/signup.upcloud.com\/\">Test hosting on UpCloud!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introducing the UpCloud Packer builder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On <a href=\"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/\">UpCloud<\/a>,\u00a0you have the options to deploy servers from the provided public templates, CD images, as well as from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hub.upcloud.com\/storage\/images\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">private custom server images<\/a>. Helping to create private templates faster, we are proud to highlight the\u00a0UpCloud Packer builder.\u00a0It works as a plugin for Packer to\u00a0streamline template configuration and makes deploying custom cloud servers easier.<br>Using Packer to build private templates provides many advantages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fast infrastructure deployment that allows you to launch ready provisioned and configured servers in seconds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Portability between multiple platforms from local virtual machines to the cloud.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Improved stability\u00a0when any possible issues in the configuration scripts can be caught already at the build stage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Easy testing thanks to fast deployment from the private templates to verify everything is working as it should.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Packer, you can boost your workflow through development, staging, and deployment.<br>You can find the UpCloud Packer builder plugin at our GitHub:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/UpCloudLtd\/upcloud-packer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/github.com\/UpCloudLtd\/upcloud-packer<\/a><br>The repository includes quick instructions for installing and running Packer on UpCloud as well as example configuration files that will help you get up to speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Getting started with Packer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you would like to learn more about Packer and the builder plugin for UpCloud, head over to our support pages. We&#8217;ve&nbsp;written an in-depth guide to installing Packer and the UpCloud builder plugin straight from the source. Follow the linked page below to get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-upcloud wp-block-embed-upcloud\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"61RsGJIWlV\"><a href=\"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/resources\/tutorials\/upcloud-packer-builder\/\">How to create custom images using UpCloud Packer builder<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;How to create custom images using UpCloud Packer builder&#8221; &#8212; UpCloud Global\" src=\"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/resources\/tutorials\/upcloud-packer-builder\/embed\/#?secret=G1KgnmmsCx#?secret=61RsGJIWlV\" data-secret=\"61RsGJIWlV\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best options for templating is Packer the open-source, easy to use, automation solution for custom servers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"649,262,250,784,6959,883","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Blocked by a filter function","footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-analyses"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}