---
title: "Create a custom OpenStack image with Packer"
description: "- An OVHcloud Public Cloud project"
url: https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/compute/create-image-from-existing-image-with-packer
lang: en
---
> For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms.txt, the full documentation bundle is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms-full.txt.

# Create a custom OpenStack image with Packer

## Requirements

- An [OVHcloud Public Cloud project](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/cross-functional/create-a-public-cloud-project.md)
- A terminal

### OVHcloud Control Panel Access

- **Direct link:** [Public Cloud Projects](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/#/public-cloud/pci/projects/)
- **Navigation path:** `Public Cloud`

 

## Instructions

### Install Packer

Packer can be downloaded from the official website (currently [here](https://www.packer.io/downloads.html)), and you'll need to `unzip` it.

For Linux 64-bit

```
wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer/1.11.2/packer_1.11.2_linux_amd64.zip
unzip packer_1.11.2_linux_amd64.zip
```

 

### Install the OpenStack plugin for Packer

```
packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/openstack
```

 

### Install jq

`jq` is a command line tool for [parsing JSON document](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/manual/). It'll be used to automate the configuration file creation.

```
apt-get install jq
```

 

### Fetch your openrc.sh configuration

You can retrieve the `openrc.sh` file from the [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/) using the procedure documented in [this guide](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/compute/upload-own-image.md#using-cli).

 

### Install OpenStack command line client

The easiest way is to use a python virtual environment:

```
python3 -m venv venv3 # creates a virtualenv named venv3
. ./venv3/bin/activate # enter the virtualenv
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install python-openstackclient
```

or install your distribution package `apt-get install python-openstackclient`.

 

#### Verification

Sourcing the `openrc.sh` configuration file retrieved before, try your local setup with:

```
. ./openrc.sh
openstack token issue
```

 

### Packer configuration

First, source your `openrc.sh` file with:

```
. ./openrc.sh
```

Next, you'll need the ID of the image, flavor, and network. We'll build our image from `Ubuntu 24.04` on a `b2-7` hardware, with an interface connected on a public network `Ext-Net`.

```
export SOURCE_ID=`openstack image list -f json | jq -r '.[] | select(.Name == "Ubuntu 24.04") | .ID'`
export FLAVOR_ID=`openstack flavor list -f json | jq -r '.[] | select(.Name == "b2-7") | .ID'`
export NETWORK_ID=`openstack network list -f json | jq -r '.[] | select(.Name == "Ext-Net") | .ID'`
```

**Note:**

For `FLAVOR_ID`, you can directly use the name, e.g. `b2-7`.

Finally, create a `packer.json` file:

```
cat > packer.json <<EOF
{
    "variables": {
        "os_region_name": "{{env `OS_REGION_NAME`}}",
        "os_tenant_id": "{{env `OS_TENANT_ID`}}",
        "source_id": "{{env `SOURCE_ID`}}",
        "flavor_id": "{{env `FLAVOR_ID`}}",
        "network_id": "{{env `NETWORK_ID`}}"
    },
    "builders": [
        {
            "type": "openstack",
            "region": "{{user `os_region_name`}}",
            "tenant_id": "{{user `os_tenant_id`}}",
            "image_name": "My Custom Image",
            "ssh_username": "ubuntu",
            "source_image": "{{user `source_id`}}",
            "flavor": "{{user `flavor_id`}}",
            "ssh_ip_version": "4",
            "networks": [
                "{{user `network_id`}}"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "provisioners": [
        {
            "script": "setup_vm.sh",
            "type": "shell"
        }
    ]
}
EOF
```

In the last selection of the configuration file, we specify a `setup_vm.sh` shell script to be run:

```
#!/bin/sh

set -ex

if [ `id -u` -ne 0 ]; then
     sudo $0
    exit 0
fi

## your custom code below

apt-get install git
git clone ...
```

 

### Building the image

Using the configuration file created above, check it and build the image with:

```
packer validate packer.json
packer build packer.json
```

You should have a new image available. You can check with:

```
openstack image list | grep 'My Custom Image'
```

**Note:**

**TIP**: To enable debug information, use `export PACKER_LOG=1`.

 

## Go further

Browse all the [Compute guides](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/compute/landing-page-compute.md).

Browse the rest of the [OVHcloud US documentation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/index.md) for guides on our other products and services.

Learn more about [Public Cloud Compute](https://us.ovhcloud.com/public-cloud/compute/) on the OVHcloud US website.