Timeout waiting for WinRM

[tpetchel]

First, I just want to say that this is a great contribution, and something that will make it easy for folks to create Windows Server boxes that they can use with Vagrant and Test Kitchen.

I downloaded the .iso and ran packer. It was taking a long time (hours) for the Windows Updates to complete, so I walked away from my computer for awhile. When I came back, the process completed with errors.

Here's my output. Did I miss something along the way?

packer build -force vbox-2012r2.json
virtualbox-iso output will be in this color.

==> virtualbox-iso: Downloading or copying ISO
    virtualbox-iso: Downloading or copying: file:///iso/9600.17050.WINBLUE_REFRESH.140317-1640_X64FRE_SERVER_EVAL_EN-US-IR3_SSS_X64FREE_EN-US_DV9.ISO
==> virtualbox-iso: Creating floppy disk...
    virtualbox-iso: Copying: answer_files/2012_r2/Autounattend.xml
    virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/postunattend.xml
    virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/boxstarter.ps1
    virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/package.ps1
==> virtualbox-iso: Creating virtual machine...
==> virtualbox-iso: Creating hard drive...
==> virtualbox-iso: Attaching floppy disk...
==> virtualbox-iso: Creating forwarded port mapping for SSH (host port 2322)
==> virtualbox-iso: Executing custom VBoxManage commands...
    virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1438092104 --natpf1 guest_winrm,tcp,,55985,,5985
    virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1438092104 --memory 2048
    virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1438092104 --cpus 2
==> virtualbox-iso: Starting the virtual machine...
==> virtualbox-iso: Waiting 10s for boot...
==> virtualbox-iso: Typing the boot command...
==> virtualbox-iso: Waiting for WinRM to become available...
==> virtualbox-iso: Timeout waiting for WinRM.
==> virtualbox-iso: Unregistering and deleting virtual machine...
==> virtualbox-iso: Deleting output directory...
Build 'virtualbox-iso' errored: Timeout waiting for WinRM.

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

==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.

[mwrock]

Yeah it takes almost 5 hours on my test host box. I've seen it complete just 10 minutes short of the 5 hour timeout so it might be a good idea to extend to 8h (ugh). I do think there are things to be done to speed up the updates. However the dism and file zapping take a while too but clearly the updates take the longest by far.

The idea here is that building images is an infrequent event as opposed to provisioning VMs. So I'm willing to put up with the wait but it does suck that packer deletes the artifacts on failure making it difficult to troubleshoot.

[tpetchel]

Hi Matt,

My feedback wasn't about the length of time it takes to run so much as the error that I'm getting. Notice above that it fails with this error:

Build 'virtualbox-iso' errored: Timeout waiting for WinRM.

I don't see any other instructions in the README besides downloading the .iso and running packer. Any idea whether there's another step involved?

[mwrock]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I go into alot more detail in my blog post.

The packer flow is that once it can connect via winrm, it shuts down the box and starts the provisioners. I dont put all the setup stuff in a provisioner because boxstarter reboots would cause that to fail. So instead, I leave winrm off until everything is done. This way packer just waits until the whole process is complete and thats why I was talking about the timeout.

If it does not complete before the timeout. Packer fails the entire build.

[tpetchel]

Got it now! I'll give that a shot and close the issue after confirming. Thanks Matt :)

[tpetchel]

OK, I tried again and it worked great! Sounds like it didn't complete in the timeout period the first time (computer went to sleep perhaps?), but did the second time.

@mwrock: thanks for the help.

[jeauxbleaux]

Pardon for the late entry, I've rather basic question. my packer build hosts are on redhat and debian. Is the winrm communicator for when the build host is a windows box?

thx

[mwrock]

These still use a winrm communicator even though they are linux hosts. The main difference on linux hosts (assuming you are running as a server and not desktop) is that the VirtualBox build is headless and therefore you cant see into what the VM is doing while the host is waiting for WinRM to connect.

[jeauxbleaux]

OK. So the communicators (winrm, ssh) are truly build host agnostic. That's what I was hoping. Thanks!

[prashant645]

Hi Matt Sorry again for the late entry. Iam facing the same issue of winrm getting timed out .Please suggest any solution in regards with this since I have been lingering on the step for nearly 2 days. I have also set the winrm timeout to 8 hrs but also the winrm is timing out. Below is the output which I have attached please check it and let me know a solution

PS C:\Users\panugpr1\Desktop\chef-repo\packer-templates-master> .\packer.exe build -force -only virtualbox-iso vbox-2012r2.json virtualbox-iso output will be in this color.

==> virtualbox-iso: Downloading or copying Guest additions virtualbox-iso: Downloading or copying: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Oracle/VirtualBox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso ==> virtualbox-iso: Downloading or copying ISO virtualbox-iso: Downloading or copying: file:///C:/Users/panugpr1/Desktop/chef-repo/packer-templates-master/iso/9600.17050.WIN BLUE_REFRESH.140317-1640_X64FRE_SERVER_EVAL_EN-US-IR3_SSS_X64FREE_EN-US_DV9.ISO ==> virtualbox-iso: Creating floppy disk... virtualbox-iso: Copying: answer_files/2012_r2/Autounattend.xml virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/oracle.cer virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/postunattend.xml virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/boxstarter.ps1 virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/PackerShutdown.bat virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/package.ps1 virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/SetupComplete-2012.cmd virtualbox-iso: Copying: scripts/Test-Command.ps1 ==> virtualbox-iso: Creating virtual machine... ==> virtualbox-iso: Creating hard drive... ==> virtualbox-iso: Attaching floppy disk... ==> virtualbox-iso: Creating forwarded port mapping for communicator (SSH, WinRM, etc) (host port 2781) ==> virtualbox-iso: Executing custom VBoxManage commands... virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1459396712 --natpf1 guest_winrm,tcp,,55985,,5985 virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1459396712 --memory 2048 virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1459396712 --vram 48 virtualbox-iso: Executing: modifyvm packer-virtualbox-iso-1459396712 --cpus 2 ==> virtualbox-iso: Starting the virtual machine... ==> virtualbox-iso: Waiting 10s for boot... ==> virtualbox-iso: Typing the boot command... ==> virtualbox-iso: Waiting for WinRM to become available...

==> virtualbox-iso: Timeout waiting for WinRM. ==> virtualbox-iso: Unregistering and deleting virtual machine... ==> virtualbox-iso: Deleting output directory... Build 'virtualbox-iso' errored: Timeout waiting for WinRM.

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