packer build does not complete using builder-xenserver-iso

[lgw4]

First, I want to thank everyone involved with this project. I am so close to being able to automate my XenServer VM build process. However, after successfully building and shutting down the VM, the packer build process never completes. I'm running on Debian 8 with Go 1.3.3 linux/amd64. My target XenServer version is 6.2.

packer build output: https://gist.github.com/lgw4/83fa958b6f75823b6cc6
Packer template: https://gist.github.com/lgw4/94de124dc60c961087d3
Kickstart file: https://gist.github.com/lgw4/34876ac51baff283050b

Thank you in advance for any ideas on how I can correct this.

[rdobson]

Hi @lgw4,

Have you tried removing the shutdown parameter:
"shutdown_command": "/sbin/halt",

In which case you'll probably need to add a delay on the shutdown (to prevent it from leaving the connection in a hung state).

[lgw4]

Thanks for the quick reply, @rdobson.

However, when I add a value for shutdown_timeout to my template JSON file per the docs, I get an error.

$ packer validate centos-7.1.json 
Template validation failed. Errors are shown below.

Errors validating build 'xenserver-iso'. 1 error(s) occurred:

* Unknown configuration key: "shutdown_timeout"

I'm sure I'm missing something painfully obvious.

[rdobson]

Hmm, perhaps the docs could be clearer. That timeout is actually for how long packer should wait before it reports a failure to shutdown the VM. I.e. after its executed the command in question.

Did you try removing the shutdown command from the template all together?

[lgw4]

Thanks again for the quick reply.

I did, and I get this error:

==> xenserver-iso: Waiting for SSH to become available...
==> xenserver-iso: Connected to SSH!
==> xenserver-iso: Step: Shutting down VM
    xenserver-iso: Attempting to cleanly shutdown the VM...
==> xenserver-iso: Could not shut down VM: API Error: [VM_MISSING_PV_DRIVERS OpaqueRef:cb46fcbd-8baa-9d22-e869-f3cd672cb503]
==> xenserver-iso: WARNING: Forcing hard shutdown of the VM...
    xenserver-iso: Successfully shut down VM
==> xenserver-iso: Step: Start VM Paused
==> xenserver-iso: Unpausing VM 08da6f8f-2cfe-b934-5ce9-fb40598f46a3
==> xenserver-iso: Waiting 10s for boot...
==> xenserver-iso: Waiting for SSH to become available...
==> xenserver-iso: Timeout waiting for SSH.
==> xenserver-iso: Destroying VM
==> xenserver-iso: Destroying VDI
==> xenserver-iso: Deleting output directory...
Build 'xenserver-iso' errored: Timeout waiting for SSH.

==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
--> xenserver-iso: Timeout waiting for SSH.

==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.

[rdobson]

Looks like SSH is not working when the VM is restarted:

==> xenserver-iso: Waiting for SSH to become available...
==> xenserver-iso: Timeout waiting for SSH.

Were you able to have a look at the console to see what was going on? Did the VM boot? Could you SSH in manually? (check the IP address Packer tried to connect to from the logs and make sure that hasn't changed too).