vxsuite-build-system

Prerequisites

1. Parallels Pro for Mac: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/pro/
2. Parallels Virtualization SDK for Mac: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/download/
3. Xcode Command Line Tools (There are multiple ways to install this. A simple method: xcode-select --install
4. Install packer via homebrew (if you don't already have homebrew installed, you can install homebrew via instructions here: https://brew.sh/):
   1. brew tap hashicorp/tap
   2. brew install hashicorp/tap/packer
   3. (Optional, but recommended): brew upgrade hashicorp/tap/packer

Clone and initialize the vxsuite-build-system repository

1. Clone vxsuite-build-system via https or ssh
   1. Via https: git clone https://github.com/votingworks/vxsuite-build-system.git
   2. Via ssh: git clone git@github.com:votingworks/vxsuite-build-system.git
2. Initialize packer
   1. Be sure to cd into the newly cloned vxsuite-build-system repo
   2. Run: packer init parallels-debian12.pkr.hcl

Build a base Debian VM with VotingWorks repositories cloned

1. Run: packer build parallels-debian12.pkr.hcl (This will take 10-20 minutes, depending on your machine and internet speed. You can watch the progress by opening the VM from the Parallels Control Center.)
2. Once it completes, you will have a new VM available in your local Parallels directory. This is ~/Parallels by default. To start this VM, run: open ~/Parallels/debian-11.6-arm64.pvm/
3. The default username is vx with a default password of changeme

Additional Options

You can further customize your Parallels VM with various options provided to the packer build command. Unless otherwise noted, you can combine as many of these in a single command as you want.

Use a custom user account

If you'd like to change the default username, use the local_user variable.

For example: packer build -var "local_user=your_username" parallels-debian12.pkr.hcl

Share a folder from your Mac to the Parallels VM

It's possible to make a local folder accessible to this Parallels VM via two variables.

• shared_path - the full path on your local machine to make available in the VM (default is /tmp)
• enable_shared_path - whether to enable/disable sharing. The default is disable

For example, to share your home directory to the VM: packer build -var "shared_path=/Users/your_username" -var "enable_shared_path=enable" parallels-debian12.pkr.hcl

Define CPU and Memory (RAM) resources allocated to the VM:

Depending on your needs, you can increase or decrease the resources allocated to your VM.

• vm_cpus - This determines how many CPUs are available to the VM. The default is 2.
• vm_memory - This determines the amount of RAM (in megabytes) available to the VM. The default is 8192 (8GB).

For example, to allocate 4 CPUs and 16 GB of RAM to a VM: packer build -var "vm_cpus=4" -var "vm_memory=16384" parallels-debian12.pkr.hcl

Rename your VM

To change the name of the VM being built, use the vm_name variable (default is debian-11.6-arm64.pvm)

For example, to name your VM "MyVM": packer build -var "vm_name=MyVM" parallels-debian12.pkr.hcl