I wanted to start using Vagrant, to create a virtual machine that would allow me to test different ArchLinux install scripts, window manager settings, etc… without messing up my machine. That would make me start by loading the archlinux/archlinux box with the libvirt integration, which needed me to install libvirt. I wanted to use KVM as an hypervisor for that, so I needed to install QEMU for it, since KVM is a special operating mode of QEMU. Read more

When deploying Virtual Appliances (VA), you want the process to be automated and repeatable, not just a one shot configured and exported manually. Thanks to Packer, automating this is just a question of creating a JSON configuration file and letting it do its magic. Packer is used by giving it an ISO image of a base distribution, installing the distribution and running the modifications you want. This is good when creating new VAs, but what can you do if you already have an existing one? Read more