User provided Packer template to Build immutable image in VSTS

Question

I am using "Build immutable image" deploy task in VSTS with user provided Packer template to build a custom Azure ami to deploy to VMSS (similar to what instructed in this link)

In the provisioner section of my packer template there's a folder named Deploy (which is in same directory as the template) that needs to be uploaded which contains all the scripts and certificates that will run by packer provisioners to create custom image.

"provisioners": [
{
    "type": "windows-shell",
    "inline": [
        "cmd /c \"mkdir c:\\\\PackerTemp\""
    ]
},
{
    "type": "file",
    "source": "./Deploy",
    "destination": "c:\\PackerTemp"
},
{
    "type": "powershell",
    "inline": [
        "Start-Process powershell -ArgumentList \"C:\\\\PackerTemp\\\\Deploy\\\\InstallIIS.ps1\" -NoNewWindow -Wait"
    ]
},
{
    "type": "powershell",
    "inline": [
        "Start-Process powershell -ArgumentList \"C:\\\\PackerTemp\\\\Deploy\\\\InstallCertificate.ps1\" -NoNewWindow -Wait"
    ]
}

Above works fine when building locally. However, when building with VSTS, VSTS copies only the template file to temporary location and executes from temporary location without actually copying the entire directory.

2017-06-26T04:16:15.4579904Z Original template location: 
d:\a\r1\a\PackerExperiment\drop\PackerTemplate\firstPackerTry.json
2017-06-26T04:16:15.4579904Z Copying original template from 
d:\a\r1\a\PackerExperiment\drop\PackerTemplate\firstPackerTry.json to 
temporary location d:\a\_temp\1498450573956
2017-06-26T04:16:15.4599904Z Copied template file to a temporary location: 
d:\a\_temp\1498450573956

Hence the image building task fails with the error

* Bad source './Deploy': GetFileAttributesEx ./Deploy: The system cannot find the file specified.

I couldn't find much information. Is there a way around this problem? I'm new to VSTS and Packer

Any help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Do you refer to this blog: blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/manibindra/2016/12/26/… — starian chen-MSFT

Eddie Chen - MSFT Eddie Chen - MSFT · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-27T07:38:20

The build task only copy the template file for now, there is no setting to configure it to copy other folders/files together.

The workaround is adding a "Copy Files" task in your build definition to copy the "Deploy" folder to "d:\a_temp" folder before the "Build immutable image" task run.

User provided Packer template to Build immutable image in VSTS

1 Answers