I recently had a need to create a custom ESXi VIB using the VIB Author Fling for a project that I was working on. As part of the project's deliverables, I wanted to also provide an ESXi VIB which would need to be built against any new updates for the project. Given this would be an infrequent operation, I thought why not use a Docker Container for this operation? I could just spin up a Docker Container on-demand and not have to worry about managing a local VM for just running this particular task.
With that I have created a VIB Author Docker Container which can be used to author custom ESXi VIBs. I have also made this container available on the Docker Registry for others to use which you can find more details here: https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/lamw/vibauthor/
If you already have a Docker host running, you can pull down the VIB Author Docker Container by jumping to Step 5 in the instructions below. If you do not and you are running Mac OS X like I am, you can follow the instructions below using Docker Machine and VMware Fusion to try out my VIB Author Docker Container.
Step 1 - Install the Docker client by running the following command:
brew install docker
Step 2 - Download and install Docker Machine by running the following commands:
curl -L https://github.com/docker/machine/releases/download/v0.2.0/docker-machine_darwin-amd64 > /usr/local/bin/docker-machine
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-machine
Step 3 - Create Docker Machine using the VMware Fusion driver by running the following command:
docker-machine create --driver vmwarefusion osxdock --vmwarefusion-memory-size 1024
eval "$(docker-machine env osxdock)"
Note: Thanks to Omer Kushmaro for his blog post here on how to quickly get started with Docker Machine with VMware Fusion
Step 4 - Once the Docker Machine is booted up, we can now connect to it using SSH by running the following command:
docker-machine ssh osxdock
At this point, we are now logged into our Docker Machine which has both the Docker client/server running and we are now ready to pull down the VIB Author container from the Docker registry.
Step 5 - To pull down the VIB Author Docker Container that I have built, run the following command within the Docker Machine:
docker pull lamw/vibauthor
Step 6 - Once the Docker Container has been successfully downloaded, you can now run the VIB Author Container by running the following command:
docker run --rm -it lamw/vibauthor
Once logged into the VIB Author Container, you confirm that the VIB Author Fling has been installed by running the "vibauthor" command as shown in the screenshot above. In the next blog post, I will go through an example of building a custom ESXi VIB using the VIB Author Container as well as transferring the outputted files from the Docker host back onto your desktop. Stay tuned!