Packer powershell provisioner sometimes fails to execute it's scripts on windows host; "Processing -File ''filename.ps1'' failed: The given path's format is not supported" #13502
Description
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Overview of the Issue
We are provisioning Windows vm templates using Packer and Ansible on vSphere. We run Packer in a container (alpine-based) in our gitlab CI/CD pipeline. One of the steps in this process behaves inconsistently; a script that we run using the Powershell provisioner which checks whether our other scripts have succeeded. It works most of the time, but fails for unknown reasons some of the time.
Reproduction Steps
This is the tricky part. As stated, it is an inconsistent issue that crops up in ~10% of our pipelines. When we run the exact same job again (so the same code and environment), it usually magically works all of a sudden. I would love to do some troubleshooting, but I will likely need some help with that as I have no clue where to start looking given the inconsistency of this issue.
Packer version
1.14.1
Simplified Packer Template
Packer source
source "vsphere-iso" "Windows" {
# Vcenter configuration
username = var.vcenter_username
password = var.vcenter_password
vcenter_server = var.vcenter_server
datacenter = var.datacenter
datastore = var.datastore
cluster = var.cluster
folder = var.folder
firmware = var.firmware
vm_name = local.vm_name
resource_pool = var.resource_pool
iso_paths = [
#D-Drive
var.iso_path_vsphere,
#E-Drive
var.vmware_tools
]
convert_to_template = false
# Communicator settings
communicator = "ssh"
ssh_username = var.ssh_user
ssh_private_key_file = "${var.ci_project_dir}/${var.ssh_privkey}"
# Image configuration
guest_os_type = var.guest_os_type
CPUs = var.numvcpus
RAM = var.memsize
RAM_reserve_all = true
network_adapters {
network_card = var.network_card
network = var.network_name
}
storage {
disk_size = var.disk_size
disk_thin_provisioned = true
}
disk_controller_type = var.disk_controller_type
# Boot configuration
##cd_content is used to load the user data onto a virtual CDROM
floppy_content = {
"setup/autounattend.xml" = local.autounattend
}
#F-Drive
cd_files = [
"scripts/",
"${var.ci_project_dir}/ca-certificates/"
]
cdrom_type = "sata"
## The boot command then loads the virtual CDROM into the boot process
boot_command = var.boot_command
boot_wait = var.boot_wait
shutdown_command = var.shutdown_command
}
build {
sources = ["source.vsphere-iso.Windows"]
provisioner "powershell" {
script = "post-build-scripts/check_scripts_outcome.ps1"
execute_command = "powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File '{{ .Path }}' -Directory 'C:\\Windows\\Setup\\Scripts'"
}
### There are other provisioners but they are unlikely to be useful here
}
We deliver several scripts to enable SSH, install VMware tools etc. as these are all necessary to let Packer and Ansible do their work. The step that fails is a script that checks the output of these scripts to see if any have failed. However, the issue seems to me to be with Packer, given that it complains of not finding a script named with random letters and numbers.
Operating system and Environment details
The Windows versions are Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. Packer version is 1.14.1. We run packer from our gitlab CI/CD pipeline using a container built from the official Docker image (so alpine-based "host").
Log Fragments and crash.log files
Sometimes, this job fails:
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Running local shell script: /tmp/packer-shell3516734848
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Provisioning with Powershell...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Provisioning with powershell script: post-build-scripts/check_scripts_outcome.ps1
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Processing -File ''c:/Windows/Temp/script-68f8c678-ecb1-3848-cc9a-0ea20a365bc6.ps1'' failed: The given path's format is not supported. Specify a valid path for the -File parameter.
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Windows PowerShell
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
==> vsphere-iso.Windows:
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Install the latest PowerShell for new features and improvements! https://aka.ms/PSWindows
==> vsphere-iso.Windows:
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Provisioning step had errors: Running the cleanup provisioner, if present...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Clearing boot order...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Powering off virtual machine...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Deleting floppy image...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Destroying VM...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Removing [IFS_ISA_PP01] packer_cache/packer3339943028.iso...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Closing sessions ....
Build 'vsphere-iso.Windows' errored after 7 minutes 23 seconds: Script exited with non-zero exit status: 4294770688. Allowed exit codes are: [0]
==> Wait completed after 7 minutes 23 seconds
==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
--> vsphere-iso.Windows: Script exited with non-zero exit status: 4294770688. Allowed exit codes are: [0]
==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.
Other times, it works just fine:
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Provisioning with Powershell...
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: Provisioning with powershell script: post-build-scripts/check_scripts_outcome.ps1
==> vsphere-iso.Windows: All .err files are empty.