github.com/yoctocloud/packer@v0.6.2-0.20160520224004-e11a0a18423f/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 with 4 any VMware product. 5 layout: docs 6 page_title: VMware Builder 7 ... 8 9 # VMware Builder 10 11 The VMware Packer builder is able to create VMware virtual machines for use with 12 any VMware product. 13 14 Packer actually comes with multiple builders able to create VMware machines, 15 depending on the strategy you want to use to build the image. Packer supports 16 the following VMware builders: 17 18 - [vmware-iso](/docs/builders/vmware-iso.html) - Starts from an ISO file, 19 creates a brand new VMware VM, installs an OS, provisions software within 20 the OS, then exports that machine to create an image. This is best for 21 people who want to start from scratch. 22 23 - [vmware-vmx](/docs/builders/vmware-vmx.html) - This builder imports an 24 existing VMware machine (from a VMX file), runs provisioners on top of that 25 VM, and exports that machine to create an image. This is best if you have an 26 existing VMware VM you want to use as the source. As an additional benefit, 27 you can feed the artifact of this builder back into Packer to iterate on 28 a machine.