Build Base Boxes with Packer

Warning: Advanced Topic! If you're not familiar with Packer, you should read the Packer documentation first.

Packer must be properly installed in order to build a new base box using templates. Read the installation instruction here: Install Packer

Packer Templates

Packer is shipped with parallels-iso builder, which can be used to create base Vagrant boxes for the Parallels provider.

There are two popular projects containing Packer templates for parallels-iso builder:

Bento
Boxcutter

Building a Box

This is an example how to build Vagrant box for Parallels provider:

$ packer build -only=parallels-iso template.json

Packer will done everything you need: it will download an ISO image, setup a VM, install Parallels Tools, make basic provisioning, and it will export the VM image to a *.box file

You can read more about options which all supported template options here: "parallels-iso" builder documentation