Packer crash - Unable to build an image in Azure using SSH communicator

[Kiran]

Overview of the Issue
Here are my environment details:
-Windows Server 2019 LTSC English(This is the system from where the Packer is run)
-Packer version: 1.6.0
-Go lang 1.14.4

I would like to know if anyone has been able to successfully use the ssh communicator for building Azure Windows images.

I am trying to create a Windows server 2019 image on Azure using Packer. I have been able to get it working with WinRM. However, my experience has been that WinRM is flaky and I would like to build the image over SSH. We have a large number of chocolatey packages to install (in excess of 50). A lot of them require reboots(we make use of the windows-restart provisioner). All of these packages are installed via PowerShell provisioners. It's been my experience that installing such a large number of packages using WinRM is error-prone. In the past, I have had success using SSH for creating golden images on XenServer. I have successfully used SSH for communication as well as running the provisioners in my XenServer environment. Hence, I am trying to use SSH for initial communication with Azure as well as installing all of the different packages using Powershell provisioners. When I try using SSH communication to build a Windows server 2019 image on Azure, the ssh_username and ssh_password parameters are being completely ignored by Packer. Ultimately, the packer run terminates with a crash in Packer.exe. In the logs, I see an error of the following nature:
"The secret retrieved from https://pkrkvfxfgy2w60v.vault.azure.net/secrets/packerKeyVaultSecret/b55be864bc3e482cb7e8284b6c63953f is an empty string

This is happening in spite of specifying a ssh username and ssh password.

What I am trying to do is something like this:
Step 1: Using Packer, I create an image that has Microsoft port of OpenSSH installed. In this step, I create a windows username and a password for this user name. I add this user to the "Administrators" group on the local system.
An image is created. I use WinRM for step 1(i have to use WinRM here as SSH is not enabled by default on Windows servers)
Step 2: In step 2, I reference this image built-in step #1 to create another image. I use the .json file pasted earlier for this step.
As part of this step, I did like to use SSH.

The packer log file can be found at:
https://gist.github.com/kirannhegde/4db1296be5bfddcc9823b0d37952196a

Here is my .json file used for step 1 of the Packer run:

{
  "builders": [{
    "type": "azure-arm",
  
    "client_id": "{{user `client_id`}}",
    "client_secret": "{{user `client_secret`}}",
    "subscription_id": "{{user `subscription_id`}}",
    "tenant_id": "{{user `tenant_id`}}",
    
    "build_resource_group_name": "{{user `build_resource_group_name`}}", 
    "managed_image_resource_group_name": "{{user `managed_image_resource_group_name`}}",
    "managed_image_name": "Packer-BuildAgent-cvad-step1-EnableSSH-{{isotime \"200601020304\"}}",
	  
    "os_type": "{{user `os_type`}}",
    "image_publisher": "{{user `image_publisher`}}",
    "image_offer": "{{user `image_offer`}}",
    "image_sku": "{{user `image_sku`}}",
    "image_version": "{{user `image_version`}}",
  
  
    "communicator": "winrm",
    "winrm_use_ssl": true,
    "winrm_insecure": true,
    "winrm_timeout": "3h",
    "winrm_username": "packer",
	
     "azure_tags": {
        "dept": "Packer-Engineering",
	 "org": "Packer-SES-Build",
        "task": "Packer-SES Build agent"
    },
  
    "os_disk_size_gb": "{{user `os_disk_size_gb`}}",
    "vm_size": "{{user `vm_size`}}",
    "virtual_network_name": "{{user `virtual_network_name`}}",
    "virtual_network_subnet_name": "{{user `virtual_network_subnet_name`}}",
    "virtual_network_resource_group_name": "{{user `virtual_network_resource_group_name`}}"
	
	
  }],

  "provisioners": [
	   {
		  "type": "powershell",
		  "inline": [
		    "net user kiranh abcdefg@12345 /add",
		     "net localgroup administrators kiranh /add",
		     "Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0",
		     "Start-Service sshd",
		     "Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'",
		     "New-NetFirewallRule -Name sshd -DisplayName 'OpenSSH Server (sshd)' -Enabled True -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 22"
		   ],
		   "elevated_user": "packer",
		   "elevated_password": "{{.WinRMPassword}}",
		   "execution_policy": "unrestricted"
	   },
	   {
		  "type": "powershell",
		  "inline": [
		    "Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server",
		    "& $env:SystemRoot\\System32\\Sysprep\\Sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /quiet /quit",
		    "while($true) { $imageState = Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Setup\\State | Select ImageState; if($imageState.ImageState -ne 'IMAGE_STATE_GENERALIZE_RESEAL_TO_OOBE') { Write-Output $imageState.ImageState; Start-Sleep -s 10  } else { break } }"
		]
	   }
  ]
}

Here is my .json file used for step 2 of the Packer run:

{
  "builders": [{
    "type": "azure-arm",
  
    "client_id": "{{user `client_id`}}",
    "client_secret": "{{user `client_secret`}}",
   "subscription_id": "{{user `subscription_id`}}",
    "tenant_id": "{{user `tenant_id`}}",
    
    "build_resource_group_name": "{{user `build_resource_group_name`}}", 
    "managed_image_resource_group_name": "{{user `managed_image_resource_group_name`}}",
    "managed_image_name": "Packer-BuildAgent-cvad-step2-InstallPackages-{{isotime \"200601020304\"}}",
	  
    "os_type": "{{user `os_type`}}",
    "custom_managed_image_name": "{{user `custom_managed_image_name`}}",
    "custom_managed_image_resource_group_name": "{{user `build_resource_group_name`}}", 
  
    "communicator": "ssh",
    "ssh_username": "{{user `ssh_username`}}",
    "ssh_password": "{{user `ssh_password`}}",
    "ssh_wait_timeout": "3h",
		
    "azure_tags": {
        "dept": "Engineering",
	"org": "SES-Build",
        "task": "SES Build agent"
    },
  
    "os_disk_size_gb": "{{user `os_disk_size_gb`}}",
    "vm_size": "{{user `vm_size`}}",
     "virtual_network_name": "{{user `virtual_network_name`}}",
     "virtual_network_subnet_name": "{{user `virtual_network_subnet_name`}}",
     "virtual_network_resource_group_name": "{{user `virtual_network_resource_group_name`}}"
	
	
  }]