skilly. Buy ad slot
All skills
Azure · Devops / AGENT SKILL

azure-image-builder

hashicorp/agent-skills
2.5K installs 873 GitHub stars
0

Build custom Azure VM images with Packer.
Build Azure managed images and Azure Compute Gallery images with Packer. Use when creating custom images for Azure VMs.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL

Understand the trade-offs.

SECURITY REVIEW

Not yet assessed

Review the original instructions and requested permissions before installing.

No security review is available for this catalog entry yet.

SKILL QUALITY

Not yet assessed

How clearly the skill guides your agent, how complete its workflow is, and how you can check the outcome.

No quality assessment is available for this catalog entry yet.

The full skill.

Original instructions from the publisher’s SKILL.md

# Azure Image Builder

Build Azure managed images and Azure Compute Gallery images using Packer's `azure-arm` builder.

**Reference:** [Azure ARM Builder](https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/integrations/hashicorp/azure/latest/components/builder/arm)

> **Note:** Building Azure images incurs costs (compute, storage, data transfer). Builds typically take 15-45 minutes depending on provisioning and OS.

## Basic Managed Image

```hcl
packer {
  required_plugins {
    azure = {
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/azure"
      version = "~> 2.0"
    }
  }
}

variable "client_id" {
  type      = string
  sensitive = true
}

variable "client_secret" {
  type      = string
  sensitive = true
}

variable "subscription_id" {
  type = string
}

variable "tenant_id" {
  type = string
}

variable "resource_group" {
  type    = string
  default = "packer-images-rg"
}

locals {
  timestamp = regex_replace(timestamp(), "[- TZ:]", "")
}

source "azure-arm" "ubuntu" {
  client_id       = var.client_id
  client_secret   = var.client_secret
  subscription_id = var.subscription_id
  tenant_id       = var.tenant_id

  managed_image_resource_group_name = var.resource_group
  managed_image_name                = "my-app-${local.timestamp}"

  os_type         = "Linux"
  image_publisher = "Canonical"
  image_offer     = "0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy"
  image_sku       = "22_04-lts-gen2"

  location = "East US"
  vm_size  = "Standard_B2s"

  azure_tags = {
    Name      = "my-app"
    BuildDate = local.timestamp
  }
}

build {
  sources = ["source.azure-arm.ubuntu"]

  provisioner "shell" {
    inline = [
      "sudo apt-get update",
      "sudo apt-get upgrade -y",
    ]
  }
}
```

## Azure Compute Gallery

```hcl
source "azure-arm" "ubuntu" {
  client_id       = var.client_id
  client_secret   = var.client_secret
  subscription_id = var.subscription_id
  tenant_id       = var.tenant_id

  os_type         = "Linux"
  image_publisher = "Canonical"
  image_offer     = "0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy"
  image_sku       = "22_04-lts-gen2"

  location = "East US"
  vm_size  = "Standard_B2s"

  shared_image_gallery_destination {
    resource_group       = "gallery-rg"
    gallery_name         = "myImageGallery"
    image_name           = "ubuntu-webapp"
    image_version        = "1.0.${formatdate("YYYYMMDD", timestamp())}"
    replication_regions  = ["East US", "West US 2"]
    storage_account_type = "Standard_LRS"
  }
}
```

## Authentication

### Service Principal
```bash
# Create service principal
az ad sp create-for-rbac \
  --name "packer-sp" \
  --role Contributor \
  --scopes /subscriptions/<subscription-id>

# Set environment variables
export ARM_CLIENT_ID="<client-id>"
export ARM_CLIENT_SECRET="<client-secret>"
export ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID="<subscription-id>"
export ARM_TENANT_ID="<tenant-id>"
```

### Managed Identity
```hcl
source "azure-arm" "ubuntu" {
  use_azure_cli_auth = true
  subscription_id    = var.subscription_id
  # ... rest of configuration
}
```

## Build Commands

```bash
# Set authentication
export ARM_CLIENT_ID="your-client-id"
export ARM_CLIENT_SECRET="your-client-secret"
export ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID="your-subscription-id"
export ARM_TENANT_ID="your-tenant-id"

# Initialize plugins
packer init .

# Validate template
packer validate .

# Build image
packer build .
```

## Common Issues

**Authentication Failed**
- Verify service principal credentials
- Ensure Contributor role on resource group
- Check subscription and tenant IDs

**Compute Gallery Version Exists**
- Image versions are immutable
- Use unique version numbers with date/build number
- Cannot overwrite existing versions

**Timeout During Provisioning**
- Check network connectivity from build VM
- Verify NSG rules allow required traffic
- Increase timeout if needed

## References

- [Azure ARM Builder](https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/integrations/hashicorp/azure/latest/components/builder/arm)
- [Azure Compute Gallery](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/azure-compute-gallery)