. Power on the VM and allow customisation to run (it'll auto-shut down when done, as we specified in user-data) this should take around 0-0 minutes, maximum: Oct 00, 0000 · Automated VMWare Templates with HashiCorp Packer Within all the cloud providers you get automated built template based virtual machines - what about doing this on your own to build your custom Templates for VMWare vSphere? In this case HashiCorp Packer is the tool you want to go for. 