How Packer and Ansible Together Automate Repeatable AWS Machine Provisioning

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A DevOps engineer describes how inconsistent, manual EC2 instance setup — where no two machines were truly identical — prompted a search for a standardized, auditable solution. The approach combines HashiCorp Packer to orchestrate Amazon Machine Image (AMI) builds with Ansible running in local mode directly inside the temporary build instance, eliminating the need for an external control node. Packer spins up a base instance, copies Ansible playbooks into it, executes roles for hardening and configuration, runs a cleanup script, and then snapshots the result as a versioned golden AMI. The setup can also leverage AWS Systems Manager Session Manager instead of direct SSH, removing the need for public network routes or open Security Group rules on port 22. The result is a fully repeatable, version-controlled provisioning pipeline that removes human memory as a dependency in infrastructure setup.

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