GCP Custom Image

This is the hands-on lab for Section 8 of Packer 101. You write a googlecompute template that builds from Canonical's Ubuntu 24.04 LTS family in ubuntu-os-cloud, launches an e2-small builder in us-east1-b with a public IP (no IAP), provisions a marker file with a shell provisioner, and registers a uniquely named custom image in family packer-101-lab stored in us-east1 (image_storage_locations). You intentionally break the template, read the validate error, and fix it. After the bake you prove the image with gcloud compute images describe. Cleanup deletes the custom image and any leftover Packer disks so failed or completed builds do not leak cost.

You will:

• Confirm Packer 1.16.0 and GCP identity on the lab host
• Write gcp-ubuntu.pkr.hcl with required_plugins googlecompute ~> 1 and the

locked Ubuntu 24.04 family pins

• Run packer init, fmt, and validate, then recover from a deliberate family

and communicator mistake

• Build the image, prove it with gcloud compute images describe
• Delete the custom image and leftover disks