Creating Packer templates for Azure VMs with scripts

As mentioned in the introduction, to create a VM image, Packer is based on a file (template) that is written in JSON format or in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), which was introduced in Packer from version 1.5.0 (read the following blog post for more information: https://www.packer.io/guides/hcl). We will first see the structure and composition of this template, and then we will put into practice how to create a template that will create a VM image in Azure.

The structure of the Packer template

The Packer template is composed of several main sections, such as builders, provisioners, and variables. The JSON format of the template is as follows:

{
     "variables": {
     // list of variables
     ...
     },
     "builders": [
        ...