packer template to create aws ami using ansible provisioner

packer-aws-ami-template.json

{
    "variables": {
        "aws_access_key": "", // This helps me connect to AWS
        "aws_secret_key": ""
    },
    "builders": [{
        "type": "amazon-ebs",
        "access_key": "{{user `aws_access_key`}}",
        "secret_key": "{{user `aws_secret_key`}}",
        "region": "us-east-1",
        "source_ami": "SECRET_MASK",
        "instance_type": "t2.micro",
        "ssh_username": "root",
        "ami_name": "vimn_drupal_base_{{timestamp}}",
        "vpc_id": "SECRET_MASK",
        "subnet_id": "SECRET_MASK"
    }],
    "provisioners": [{
        "type": "shell",
        "inline": ["sleep 10"] // At first you want the shell to sleep for sometime, so that SSH is available
    }, {
        "type": "shell",
        "inline": [
            "yum install -y epel-release", // I needed this to be able to install extra yum packages
            "yum install -y ansible" // You need to install ansible on your AWS box. Because ansible playbook would run locally
        ]
    }, {
        "type": "ansible-local",
        "playbook_file": "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/packer-ec2-ami.yml", // This runs your plays / roles locally
        "role_paths": [ // This copies the roles to newly created AWS ec2
            "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/roles/common",
            "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/roles/apache",
            "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/roles/drush",
            "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/roles/mysql",
            "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/roles/php",
            "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/roles/site"
        ],
        "group_vars": "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal/group_vars/all", // useful to tell ansible, not must
        "playbook_dir": "../ansible/single_vbox_drupal" // useful to tell ansible, not must
    }, {
        "type": "shell",
        "inline": [
            "rm -rf /root/.ssh/authorized_keys" // I need this so that the new AMI would work with the KEY I create in my AWS account. This is because of a CentOS bug.
        ]

    }]
}

Thanks for sharing ;)