<Networking>
                <Interfaces>
                    <Interface wcm:action="add" wcm:keyValue="1">
                        <Ipv4Settings>
                            <IpAddress>192.168.1.100</IpAddress>
                            <SubnetMask>255.255.255.0</SubnetMask>
                            <Gateway>192.168.1.1</Gateway>
                            <DnsServers>
                                <DnsServer>8.8.8.8</DnsServer>
                                <DnsServer>8.8.4.4</DnsServer>
                            </DnsServers>
                        </Ipv4Settings>
                    </Interface>
                </Interfaces>
            </Networking>

Since we are already calling the autounattend file in the build, we should be good to just add the static config and be good to go.

network_adapters {
network = "${var.vsphere_portgroup_name}"
network_card = "vmxnet3"
}

Packer has moved from the JSON format which is the older format to a newer HCL extension and language for Packer to help consolidate on their syntax I believe with Terraform, etc. Let me take a look at the latest template I have locally and see what needs to be pushed up to the repo.

Also, do you have DHCP running in the network? This would be the easiest way to get the machine provisioned and converted to a template.

Also, to answer your question in the comment on the blog post, Packer will automatically convert the new build to a virtual machine template once the process completes.

Let me know if these tidbits make sense. Thanks Henry.