Sphere v6.5 not supporting VNC

[R Meus]

We currently build several linux images for VMware ESXi v5.5 but are upgrading to v6.5.  Vmware appears to have dropped support for VNC in the 6.5 version.  Looking for a work-around as packer transmits the boot_command over VNC only.  I tried 'export PACKER_ESXI_VNC_PROBE_TIMEOUT=30s' but that made no difference.  That's when I found the note about VNC no longer supported here: https://github.com/ManageIQ/manageiq/issues/13798

I am considering creating a custom ISO with the boot command built-in, but would prefer if packer worked over VMRC. 

Has anyone else encountered or overcome this issue?  I am considering filing a feature request but will wait to hear from others.

[Rickard von Essen]

If I remember correctly VMRC is proprietary protocol with only a Windows (binary) client. So that will probably not happen. 

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[Rickard von Essen]

According to this thread 6.5 seems to have VNC still: https://github.com/LibVNC/libvncserver/issues/141

Did you test with any other  VNC clients? 

[Stan Dorsett]

I am able to build linux vms on ESXi 6.5 without issue. You can find one of my Centos 7 templates for comparison here:
https://github.com/sdorsett/packer-centos7-esxi/blob/master/templates/centos-7-1708.01.json

One thing to mention is you will need to open the firewall on ESXi 6.x in order to allow inbound VNC traffic. The two commands I run on my ESXi packer targets are:

# enable GuestIpHack to allow packer to determine the vm IP address before vmtools are installed

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/GuestIPHack -i 1

# open inbound VNC connections on the firewall

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r gdbserver

Hope this helps.

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 10:19 AM, Rickard von Essen <rickard....@gmail.com> wrote:

According to this thread 6.5 seems to have VNC still: https://github.com/LibVNC/libvncserver/issues/141

Did you test with any other  VNC clients? 

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 17:07 Rickard von Essen <rickard....@gmail.com> wrote:

If I remember correctly VMRC is proprietary protocol with only a Windows (binary) client. So that will probably not happen. 

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 16:28 R Meus <rmeu...@gmail.com> wrote:

We currently build several linux images for VMware ESXi v5.5 but are upgrading to v6.5.  Vmware appears to have dropped support for VNC in the 6.5 version.  Looking for a work-around as packer transmits the boot_command over VNC only.  I tried 'export PACKER_ESXI_VNC_PROBE_TIMEOUT=30s' but that made no difference.  That's when I found the note about VNC no longer supported here: https://github.com/ManageIQ/manageiq/issues/13798

I am considering creating a custom ISO with the boot command built-in, but would prefer if packer worked over VMRC. 

Has anyone else encountered or overcome this issue?  I am considering filing a feature request but will wait to hear from others.

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[R Meus]

The two commands below worked - thanks for the hints. I had to wait for our virtualization team to open the ports.

Now I no longer get the VNC errors, however, the boot screen shows the installer going into GUI install mode instead of accepting the boot command.  I've got to work with the installer a bit to get it to drop to the boot> prompt.  

I'm using rhel-server-7.5-x86_64-boot.iso as my base image.   

On Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 2:15:31 PM UTC-7, Stan Dorsett wrote:

I am able to build linux vms on ESXi 6.5 without issue. You can find one of my Centos 7 templates for comparison here:
https://github.com/sdorsett/packer-centos7-esxi/blob/master/templates/centos-7-1708.01.json

One thing to mention is you will need to open the firewall on ESXi 6.x in order to allow inbound VNC traffic. The two commands I run on my ESXi packer targets are:

# enable GuestIpHack to allow packer to determine the vm IP address before vmtools are installed

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/GuestIPHack -i 1

# open inbound VNC connections on the firewall

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r gdbserver

Hope this helps.

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 10:19 AM, Rickard von Essen <rickard....@gmail.com> wrote:

According to this thread 6.5 seems to have VNC still: https://github.com/LibVNC/libvncserver/issues/141

Did you test with any other  VNC clients? 

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 17:07 Rickard von Essen <rickard....@gmail.com> wrote:

If I remember correctly VMRC is proprietary protocol with only a Windows (binary) client. So that will probably not happen. 

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 16:28 R Meus <rmeu...@gmail.com> wrote:

We currently build several linux images for VMware ESXi v5.5 but are upgrading to v6.5.  Vmware appears to have dropped support for VNC in the 6.5 version.  Looking for a work-around as packer transmits the boot_command over VNC only.  I tried 'export PACKER_ESXI_VNC_PROBE_TIMEOUT=30s' but that made no difference.  That's when I found the note about VNC no longer supported here: https://github.com/ManageIQ/manageiq/issues/13798

I am considering creating a custom ISO with the boot command built-in, but would prefer if packer worked over VMRC. 

Has anyone else encountered or overcome this issue?  I am considering filing a feature request but will wait to hear from others.

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[Rickard von Essen]

For a working boot command see this example:

https://github.com/chef/bento/blob/master/rhel/rhel-7.4-x86_64.json

But depending on you network setup if the VM on ESXi can't reach the machine running packer you have to put the kickstar.cfg on floppy instead and adjust the boot command accordingly.

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