Reintroduce SSH to Windows boxes?

[StefanScherer]

With the problem in #83 to mount the shared folder for some Serverspec tests in a Jenkins build agent environment I also tried another option.

I changed the default shared folder to an rsync synced folder

config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "rsync", rsync__exclude: ".git/"

But then the next Jenkins build aborts with an error. Oh man, of course, the Windows VM does not have SSH and rsync installed. 😅

[windows_2016_docker]     tst: Setting VM Integration Services
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: Successfully imported a VM with name: WindowsServer2016Docker
[windows_2016_docker] ==> tst: Starting the machine...
[windows_2016_docker] ==> tst: Waiting for the machine to report its IP address...
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: Timeout: 120 seconds
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: IP: 192.168.0.11
[windows_2016_docker] ==> tst: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: WinRM address: 192.168.0.11:5985
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: WinRM username: vagrant
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: WinRM execution_time_limit: PT2H
[windows_2016_docker]     tst: WinRM transport: negotiate
[windows_2016_docker] ==> tst: Machine booted and ready!
[windows_2016_docker] ==> tst: Rsyncing folder: /cygdrive/c/Windows/workspace/packer-windows_my-PH7VQTN6RDUL23PJXSNDIGZXF5YME4XP2R3GVKXGJIWL7LIVCX5A/boxtest/ => /vagrant
[windows_2016_docker] ==> tst:   - Exclude: [".vagrant/", ".git/"]
[windows_2016_docker] There was an error when attempting to rsync a synced folder.
[windows_2016_docker] Please inspect the error message below for more info.
[windows_2016_docker] 
[windows_2016_docker] Host path: /cygdrive/c/Windows/workspace/packer-windows_my-PH7VQTN6RDUL23PJXSNDIGZXF5YME4XP2R3GVKXGJIWL7LIVCX5A/boxtest/
[windows_2016_docker] Guest path: /vagrant
[windows_2016_docker] Command: "rsync" "--verbose" "--archive" "--delete" "-z" "--copy-links" "--chmod=ugo=rwX" "--no-perms" "--no-owner" "--no-group" "-e" "ssh -p 22 -o LogLevel=FATAL   -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -i 'C:/Users/demo/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key'" "--exclude" ".vagrant/" "--exclude" ".git/" "/cygdrive/c/Windows/workspace/packer-windows_my-PH7VQTN6RDUL23PJXSNDIGZXF5YME4XP2R3GVKXGJIWL7LIVCX5A/boxtest/" "vagrant@192.168.0.11:/vagrant"
[windows_2016_docker] Error: This rsync lacks old-style --compress due to its external zlib.  Try -zz.
[windows_2016_docker] Continuing without compression.
[windows_2016_docker] 
[windows_2016_docker] rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
[windows_2016_docker] rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at io.c(226) [sender=3.1.2]
[windows_2016_docker] 

Well, the upstream repo still has the (non-Microsoft) OpenSSH as communicator and you also can install an rsync binary. Microsoft's OpenSSH native port has reached 1.0.0 (still not production ready).

2018 - the return of SSH in packer-windows boxes? 😂

[StefanScherer]

Upstream packer-windows uses OpenSSH, eg.

• windows_10.json: https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows/blob/master/windows_10.json
• win-updates.ps1 calls a:\openssh.ps1: https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows/blob/master/scripts/win-updates.ps1#L36
• openssh.ps1 installs the 3rd party OpenSSH service: https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows/blob/master/scripts/openssh.ps1

The steps highlighted in the following script install and configure the Microsoft native port of OpenSSH

• https://github.com/StefanScherer/packer-builder/blob/a682212376ac157672c3c263ab0056b1537c7a29/hyperv/provision.ps1#L64-L109

Packer could still use WinRM communicator and just additionally install the SSH service.

[StefanScherer]

Currently the WinRM communicator is the better way to do it.