github.com/hashicorp/packer@v1.14.3/website/content/docs/intro/use-cases.mdx (about)

     1  ---
     2  page_title: Packer use cases
     3  description: |-
     4    Learn about use cases for Packer, such as continuous delivery, dev/prod parity, and appliance and demo creation.
     5  ---
     6  
     7  # Packer use cases
     8  
     9  In this topic describes some of the use cases for Packer. This is a partial list of use cases intended to give you an idea of how Packer may improve your processes.
    10  
    11  ## Continuous delivery
    12  
    13  Packer is lightweight, portable, and command-line driven. This makes it the
    14  perfect tool to put in the middle of your continuous delivery pipeline. Packer
    15  can be used to generate new machine images for multiple platforms on every
    16  change to Chef/Puppet.
    17  
    18  As part of this pipeline, the newly created images can then be launched and
    19  tested, verifying the infrastructure changes work. If the tests pass, you can be
    20  confident that the image will work when deployed. This brings a new level of
    21  stability and testability to infrastructure changes.
    22  
    23  ## Environment parity
    24  
    25  Packer helps keep development, staging, and production as similar as
    26  possible. Refer to the following external article to learn more about parity between environments: ["X. Dev/prod parity"](http://www.12factor.net/dev-prod-parity). 
    27  
    28  You can use Packer to generate images for multiple platforms at the same time. So if you use AWS for production and VMware, perhaps with [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/), for
    29  development, you can generate both an AMI and a VMware machine using Packer at
    30  the same time from the same template.
    31  
    32  Mix this in with the continuous delivery use case above, and you have a pretty
    33  slick system for consistent work environments from development all the way
    34  through to production.
    35  
    36  ## Appliance and demo creation
    37  
    38  Because Packer creates consistent images for multiple platforms in parallel, it is
    39  perfect for creating
    40  [appliances](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_appliance) and disposable
    41  product demos. As your software changes, you can automatically create appliances
    42  with the software pre-installed. Potential users can then get started with your
    43  software by deploying it to the environment of their choice.
    44  
    45  Packaging up software with complex requirements has never been so easy. Or
    46  enjoyable, if you ask me.