Build Base Boxes with Veewee

Veewee must be properly installed in order to build a new base box using one of the existing Veewee templates. If you haven't installed it yet, please refer to the Veewee Installation instructions.

Parallels Virtualization SDK

Veewee requires the 'prlsdkapi' Python module from the Parallels Virtualization SDK to interact with Parallels Desktop and virtual machines. To use Veewee with the Parallels provider you need to download and install this SDK package: The Parallels Virtualization SDK for Mac

You can also install it with Homebrew package manager:

$ brew install parallels-virtualization-sdk

Preparing a definition

List available Veewee templates, choose what you want to use and create a definition:

$ veewee parallels templates
$ veewee parallels define 'my_centos' 'CentOS-6.5-x86_64-minimal'

Since most of the default templates are not ready to be used with the Parallels provider, you need to customize the definition manually.

Navigate to the definition folder and create a parallels.sh script with the following content:

$ vi ./definition/my_centos/parallels.sh

# Install the Parallels Tools
PARALLELS_TOOLS_ISO=prl-tools-lin.iso
mkdir -p /media/cdrom
mount -o loop $PARALLELS_TOOLS_ISO /media/cdrom
/media/cdrom/install --install-unattended-with-deps --progress
umount /media/cdrom

Open the definition.rb file for editing, find the ':postinstall_files' array and add the "parallels.sh" string to it. It should now look like this:

$ vi ./definition/my_centos/definition.rb

...
  :postinstall_files => [
     "base.sh",
     "ruby.sh",
     "chef.sh",
     "puppet.sh",
     "vagrant.sh",
     "parallels.sh",
     "cleanup.sh",
  ],
...

Please observe the following important rules:

• You can insert "parallels.sh" on any position of this array, but it's necessary to place it between "base.sh" and "cleanup.sh"
• You also have to comment (or delete) strings like "vbox.sh" or "virtualbox.sh", to prevent VirtualBox customization.

Building a VM Image

After customizing the definition you can start building a vm image:

$ veewee parallels build 'my_centos'

This action can take a long time to complete because it involves downloading the ISO image, installing the OS, and configuring it after the installation.

Exporting

$ veewee parallels export 'my_centos'

The virtual machine will be shut down, exported, and packed in the my_centos.box file inside the current directory. When it's done, you can use it as any other box for the Parallels provider.