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Create Images with Image Builder

You can create and deploy custom images to most infrastructure providers using various tools. Many infrastructure providers have tools that you can use to create custom images for the platform, such as AWS EC2 Image Builder for AWS or Azure VM Image Builder for Azure. You can also use platform agnostic tools, such as HashiCorp Packer, or something more tailored to Kubernetes, such as the Kubernetes Image Builder (KIB) project.

Kubernetes Image Builder​

KIB is a project designed to help users create images for various platforms. The project is a consolidation of multiple tools that together work to create an artifact, or in simpler terms, a custom image.

You can use the custom images created by KIB with Palette, assuming the infrastructure provider is supported by Palette. Use the following diagram to understand how you can use KIB to create custom images that you can use with Palette.

A diagram displaying the steps for creating a custom image

  1. Download the KIB project and configure the image builder's packer.json file.

  2. Use the make command to create a custom image containing a specific Operating System (OS) version and flavor.

  3. The custom image is created and distributed to the target regions you specified in the packer.json file.

  4. Create a cluster profile that points to your custom image.

  5. Deploy a host cluster using your cluster profile that contains the custom image.

Get Started​

Refer to the generic Build Image guide for instructions on how to build custom OS images.

Additionally, check out the Build Image for VMware vSphere page for specific guides on how to build custom OS images for Kubernetes clusters that use VMware vSphere as the infrastructure platform.

Resources​