This project can be used to create ad-hoc Windows labs. The included sample configurations create 3 virtual machines running Windows Server 2016 (2 domain controllers and a file server), but you can easily customize and extend it. Project workflow consists of three stages:

• creation of Windows VM templates
• deployment of VMs out of those templates
• applying OS configurations It uses Packer Builder for VMware vSphere by JetBrains, Terraform and Ansible. VMware vSphere serves as a virtualization platform.

• Packer
• Packer Builder for VMware vSphere
• Terraform
• Ansible
• pywinrm module (pip install pywinrm)
• vSphere vCenter accessible from your workstation
• DHCP server for VM template building
• Windows Server 2016 ISO

• Clone this repo to your workstation (git clone https://github.com/dteslya/win-iac-lab)
• Make sure Packer, Terraform and Ansible binaries are all in PATH
• Download Packer Builder plugin from Releases and place it in packer dir
• Remove .example extension from all the configuration files and adjust the variables according to your environment

Packer setup consists of 3 main components:

• windows-server-2016.json
• vars.json
• setup dir containing files necessary for automatic Windows installation

windows-server-2016.json describes the connection parameters for vSphere, VM hardware including paths to Windows ISO and vmtools, and which files to put on virtual floppy drive. Those files are:

• autounattend.xml windows setup answer file
• setup.ps1 powershell script which enables WinRM access for packer
• vmtools.cmd batch file which installs vmware tools

vars.json file contains all the values of the variables defined in windows-server-2016.json, including vSphere user and password. These two variables are marked as sensitive in windows-server-2016.json so that Packer doesn't reveal them during its run.

I tend to use one .tf file per VM for better readability.

• 01-PDC.tf Primary Domain Controller VM
• 02-ReplicaDC.tf Replica Domain Controller VM
• 03-FileServer.tf File Server VM
• base.tf vCenter connection parameters
• variables.tf all variables are defined here
• terraform.tfvars variables' values (I keep this file in .gitignore)

I put 3 plays in one playbook: each for every server role.

• winlab.yml playbook
• inventory.yml all the hosts are defined here
• ansible.cfg ansible reads this file by default to find inventory and vault password files
• groupvars/all.yml all variables are defined here. I use Ansible Vault to encrypt sensitive data such as passwords (ansible-vault encrypt_string string_to_encrypt)

1. cd to packer dir
2. run packer build -var-file=vars.json windows-server-2016.json

1. cd to terraform dir
2. run terraform init
3. run terraform plan
4. run terraform apply

1. cd to ansible dir
2. run ansible-playbook winlab.yml

This project was initially inspired by SDBrett's MCSA Lab