Building a Custom Pipelines Build Plane VM Image using Hashicorp Packer 

A custom Pipelines build plane VM image can be built to include your own artifacts. In this example we'll reference Hashicorp packer and Ubuntu 20, but any VM image build process (AWS cloud formation, PowerShell, or others) can be used with any OS that we support.

To build the custom build plane VM image:

1. Download the buildplane package (RPM for Centos or a tar file for Windows) to the machine that will be used to build the VM image. 

   This API can be used by authenticated users only.

   
   

   curl --request GET  --url https://my-pipelines-api-url/v1/passthrough/artifacts/buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_20.04.deb --output buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_20.04.deb buildPlane package names: buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_18.04 buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_20.04.deb buildPlane-x86_64-Centos_7.rpm buildPlane-x86_64-CentOS_8.rpm buildPlane-x86_64-WindowsServer_2019.tar.gz

2. Update your packer (or cloud formation) template to:
   1. Copy the buildplane file to /tmp/ 
   2. Install it (using dpkg, yum, or untar, depending on the type) 
      
   3. Run the boot.sh (or boot.ps1 if creating a W19 image). Path to this file is /var/opt/jfrog/pipelines/nodeInit/x86_64/<OS>/boot.sh 
3. Build your VM image.
4. Use the resulting VM image id in the next step.
   This step should be performed with every new pipelines version.

  "provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "file",
      "source": "buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_20.04.deb",
      "destination": "/tmp/buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_20.04.deb"
    },
    {
      "type": "shell",
      "inline": [
        "sudo dpkg -i /tmp/buildPlane-x86_64-Ubuntu_20.04.deb",
        "sudo /var/opt/jfrog/pipelines/nodeInit/x86_64/Ubuntu_20.04/boot.sh"
      ]
    }

Adding the VM Image to Pipelines using API

To add the VM image to Pipelines, use the POST /v1/buildPlaneImages API.

Sample Request:

curl --location --request POST 'http://<pipelines_url>:8082/pipelines/api/v1/buildPlaneImages' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
 "name": "eu-centrall-1 image for x86_64 Ubuntu_20.04",
 "masterIntegrationId": 46,
 "imageId": "ami-07f469736e6545c8a",
 "region": "eu-central-1",
 "isAvailable": true,
 "architecture": "x86_64",
 "operatingSystem": "Ubuntu_20.04"
}'

Sample Response:

  {
        "metadataPropertyBag": {},
        "id": 8,
        "name": "eu-centrall-1 image for x86_64 Ubuntu_20.04",
        "masterIntegrationId": 46,
        "imageId": "ami-07f469736e6545c8a",
        "region": "eu-central-1",
        "isAvailable": true,
        "architecture": "x86_64",
        "operatingSystem": "Ubuntu_20.04",
        "createdAt": "2021-01-06T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updatedAt": "2021-01-06T00:00:00.000Z"
  }

Adding the VM Image to Pipelines using UI

Perform the following steps to add an VM image to Pipelines using the UI:

1. Go to Administration → Pipelines → Node Pools and click the Build Images tab.

2. Click Add Build Image.
   In the resulting Create Build Image screen, provide the following information:

   Name	An alphanumeric friendly name for the node pool
   Cloud Provider Type	AWS, Azure or GCP
   Image ID	VM image id. In AWS, this would be the AMI id
   Region	Cloud provider region that the VM image is available in
   Architecture	x86_64 architecture
   Operating System	An OS we support

   
   

3. Click Save.
   The newly added build image appears in the list.
   

4. Now create a node pool using the above buildplane image Id. The build image you created is available for selection in the Build Image drop-down. For more information, see Managing Pipelines Node Pools.