github.com/aclaygray/packer@v1.3.2/website/source/docs/builders/vmware.html.md (about) 1 --- 2 description: | 3 The VMware Packer builder is able to create VMware virtual machines for use 4 with any VMware product. 5 layout: docs 6 page_title: 'VMware - Builders' 7 sidebar_current: 'docs-builders-vmware' 8 --- 9 10 # VMware Builder 11 12 The VMware Packer builder is able to create VMware virtual machines for use with 13 any VMware product. 14 15 Packer actually comes with multiple builders able to create VMware machines, 16 depending on the strategy you want to use to build the image. Packer supports 17 the following VMware builders: 18 19 - [vmware-iso](/docs/builders/vmware-iso.html) - Starts from an ISO file, 20 creates a brand new VMware VM, installs an OS, provisions software within the 21 OS, then exports that machine to create an image. This is best for people who 22 want to start from scratch. 23 24 - [vmware-vmx](/docs/builders/vmware-vmx.html) - This builder imports an 25 existing VMware machine (from a VMX file), runs provisioners on top of that 26 VM, and exports that machine to create an image. This is best if you have an 27 existing VMware VM you want to use as the source. As an additional benefit, 28 you can feed the artifact of this builder back into Packer to iterate on a 29 machine.