Packer windows installer never finishes

[Gomsy]

Hi,

I am using packer with ebs-builder and powershell provisioner to build a Windows Server 2016 image. I am running a silent installer using following powershell command

Start-Process "$InstallPath" -ArgumentList "$AnswerFilePath"  -Wait -NoNewWindow

When running this command manually the command is exiting without any issue but when running from powershell provisioner in packer the packer build get stuck at this step.

I ensured that the variables $InstallPath and $AnswerFilePath and properly set. The reason while I am running installer via Start-Process is because otherwise the installer exist immediately while installation happens in the background.

Any idea what could be the issue?

Thanks,

-Gautam

[Ravi Tiwary]

Hi Gautam,

I am facing same issue, did you had a chance to find a solution for the below?

Thanks,

Ravi

[Andy Burrows]

Gautam, I;'ve read a post where you should run the process in the foreground as follows

            $proc = Start-Process -FilePath "<Path to Execuable>" -ArgumentList "arg1","arg2" -Wait -WindowStyle Maximized -PassThru

            $proc.WaitForExit()

haven't yet tried it, will let you know how we get on

Cheers,

Andy

[Gautam Singh]

Hi Andy

You don't need to call waitOnExit explicitly. When you use -Wait switch Start-Process waits for installer to finish. 

Assuming your installer is not opening any dialog, you only need following.

Start-Process -FilePath "<Path to Execuable>" -ArgumentList "arg1","arg2" -Wait -WindowStyle Maximized -PassThru

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[Gautam Singh]

Hi Ravi,

No I was not able to solve this particular issue, but the same way is working for other installers. Hence I assumed something is wrong with the installer itself. I workaround the problem by using sleep in conjunction with checking if the service that needs to be installed is up and running.

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