github.com/phobos182/packer@v0.2.3-0.20130819023704-c84d2aeffc68/website/source/intro/index.html.markdown (about)

     1  ---
     2  layout: "intro"
     3  page_title: "Introduction"
     4  prev_url: "#"
     5  next_url: "/intro/why.html"
     6  next_title: "Why Use Packer?"
     7  ---
     8  
     9  # Introduction to Packer
    10  
    11  Welcome to the world of Packer! This introduction guide will show you what
    12  Packer is, explain why it exists, the benefits it has to offer, and how
    13  you can get started with it. If you're already familiar with Packer, the
    14  [documentation](/docs) provides more of a reference for all available features.
    15  
    16  ## What is Packer?
    17  
    18  Packer is an open source tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms
    19  from a single source configuration. Packer is lightweight, runs on every major
    20  operating system, and is highly performant, creating machine images for
    21  multiple platforms in parallel. Packer does not replace configuration management
    22  like Chef or Puppet. In fact, when building images, Packer is able to use tools
    23  like Chef or Puppet to install software onto the image.
    24  
    25  A _machine image_ is a single static unit that contains a pre-configured operating
    26  system and installed software which is used to quickly create new running machines.
    27  Machine image formats change for each platform. Some examples include
    28  [AMIs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Machine_Image) for EC2,
    29  VMDK/VMX files for VMware, OVF exports for VirtualBox, etc.