--- title: "Template Deployment with Packer" description: "How I got HashiCorp Packer set up on macOS to automate VMware template deployment — including the vSphere datacenter error I hit and how I fixed it." date: 2021-01-21T22:26:10+00:00 modified: 2026-06-05T19:02:09+00:00 author: James Kilby categories: - Automation - Homelab - VMware - Networking - Personal - Veeam - Storage - Synology - Nutanix tags: - #Automation - #Hashicorp - #Homelab - #packer url: https://jameskilby.co.uk/2021/01/hashicorp-packer/ image: https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo_packer.png --- ![Logo Packer](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo_packer.png) [Automation](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/automation/) | [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) # Template Deployment with Packer By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 21, 2021 · Updated June 5, 2026 • 📖2 min read(366 words) 📅**Published:** January 21, 2021•**Updated:** June 05, 2026 Packer is one of those tools I have heard about, and some of the cool people on Twitter that I follow have been using it for a while. But until now I had never played with it. That was until I saw the below tweet by the legend that is [William Lam](https://williamlam.com/) > 🤩 THIS IS AWESOME 🤩 > > For those who ❤️ Automation, check out [@tenthirtyam](https://x.com/tenthirtyam?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) amazing repo w/working examples to build Photon OS 3/4, Ubuntu 18.04/20.04, RHEL 7/8, CentOS 7/8 & Windows Server 2016/2019 VM images using Packer & pushing to Cont Lib! Well done > > — William Lam (@lamw) [November 30, 2020](https://x.com/lamw/status/1333546472155987969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) ## Getting Packer Running That was the kicker I needed to go and have a look at getting Packer set up and running. As I run a Mac as my main machine it was easy to get deployed following the instructions using [brew](https://brew.sh) and the GitHub Repo that William had pointed to. ## Fixing the Packer Datacenter Error However, once I had added my vSphere credentials I was having a few issues. On execution, I was getting the error message “default datacenter resolves to multiple instances”. I did a bit of digging and discovered that the code didn’t specify a VMware datacenter and in my lab environment, I have 2 physical sites with a VMware datacenter in each, therefore, I needed to specify which one. Once this was fixed I started rolling out some Linux templates and it worked flawlessly until I got to the photon 4 server. I again spotted a typo and a syntax error on a command being passed into the photon VM. I corrected this and decided that actually, I should work out how to get this fixed upstream to help the wider community. Once this was working it was onto the Windows templates. Once all the relevant ISOs and configs were in place I was able to fully deploy 4 Windows servers that were patched and added to my content library in about 40 mins. So whenever I go to deploy an Image it is always up to date… Thanks to [Ryan](https://github.com/tenthirtyam) for an incredible piece of work I now lean on tools like this for wider [homelab automation](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/09/managing-my-homelab-with-semaphoreui/). ## 📚 Related Posts * [Automated VCF 9 Offline Depot](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/automated-vcf-9-offline-depot/) * [Automating vSphere Golden Images with Packer and GitHub Actions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/packer-vsphere-golden-images/) * [Automating the Deployment of my Homelab AI Infrastructure](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/02/automating-the-deployment-of-my-ai-homelab-and-other-improvements/) ## Similar Posts * [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [Networking](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/networking/) ### [Homelab Network Upgrade: DACs, 40Gb/s vMotion & pfSense](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-3-network/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 6, 2022 · Updated May 31, 2026 I have retired the WatchGuard Devices with the migration to PFSense running bare-metal in one of the Supermicro Nodes. * [![VMware – Going out with a Bang!](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/rnli-logo-768x384.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/10/going-out-with-a-bang/) [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) | [Personal](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/personal/) ### [VMware – Going out with a Bang!](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/10/going-out-with-a-bang/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)October 7, 2023 · Updated June 1, 2026 There is a lot of uncertainty with VMware at the moment. This is all due to the pending acquisition by Broadcom. * [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [Veeam](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/veeam/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [Lab Update – Desired Workloads](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-5-desired-workloads/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 6, 2022 · Updated June 1, 2026 My lab is always undergoing change. Partially as I want to try new things or new ways of doing things. * [![Homelab Compute Upgrade: SuperMicro BigTwin & vSphere Setup](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_4536-scaled-1-768x1024.jpg)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-1-compute/) [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [Homelab Compute Upgrade: SuperMicro BigTwin & vSphere Setup](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-1-compute/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 6, 2022 · Updated February 16, 2026 Quite a few changes have happened in the lab recently. I decided to do a multipart blog on the changes. * [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [Storage](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/storage/) | [Synology](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/synology/) ### [My First Homelab Storage Setup: HP Gen8 & Xpenology](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/01/lab-storage/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 6, 2018 · Updated June 1, 2026 I have been meaning to post around some of the lab setup for a while. Although it changes frequently at present it’s as below. * [![New Homelab Nodes: SuperMicro BigTwin for VMware & Nutanix](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_6629-768x149.jpeg)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/07/new-nodes/) [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [Nutanix](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/nutanix/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [New Homelab Nodes: SuperMicro BigTwin for VMware & Nutanix](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/07/new-nodes/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)July 2, 2024 · Updated June 5, 2026 I recently decided to update some of my homelab hosts and I managed to do this at very little cost by offloading 2 of my Supermicro e200’s to fellow vExpert Paul .