Automatic windows server provisioning with Ansible + Virtual box

[Rahamath Ulla]

Hello,

I am trying to achieve building windows servers with some packages [like installing webserver] using virtualbox and ansible.

I am able to build minimum OS without ansible. But when I added ansible post provisioner, its failing. The problem is its unable to reach the newly built VM in virtualbox.

Please share if you have successful in this kind of solution. I tried with removing inventory file section and allowed packer to create dynamically created host file. but still failed.

Below is the packer section:

  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "virtualbox-iso",
      "iso_url": "{{user `iso_url`}}",
      "guest_additions_mode": "attach",
      "iso_checksum_type": "{{user `iso_checksum_type`}}",
      "iso_checksum": "{{user `iso_checksum`}}",
      "headless": false,
      "shutdown_timeout": "15m",
      "post_shutdown_delay": "5m",
      "boot_wait": "2m",
      "winrm_username": "vagrant",
      "winrm_password": "vagrant",
      "winrm_timeout": "6h",
      "communicator": "winrm",
      "shutdown_command": "shutdown /s /t 180 /f /d p:4:1 /c \"Packer Shutdown\"",
      "guest_os_type": "Windows2012_64",
      "disk_size": 61440,
      "floppy_files": [
        "{{user `autounattend`}}",
        "./scripts/microsoft-updates.bat",
        "./scripts/Boot-Strap.ps1",
        "./scripts/configansible.ps1",
        "./scripts/createla.bat"
      ],
      "vboxmanage": [
        [
          "modifyvm",
          "{{.Name}}",
          "--memory",
          "2048"
        ],
        [
          "modifyvm",
          "{{.Name}}",
          "--cpus",
          "2"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],

  "provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "shell-local",
      "command": "ansible-playbook webservers.yml -vvvv"
    }
],

================================================================================

ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
log_path=/home/vagrant/packer/logfile
inventory=/home/vagrant/packer/hosts

==========================================

hosts:

[webservers]
127.0.0.1


[webservers:vars]
ansible_user=vagrant
ansible_password=vagrant
ansible_port=55985
ansible_connection=winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation=ignore

=========================================

group_vars:

---
ansible_ssh_user: vagrant
ansible_ssh_pass: vagrant
ansible_ssh_port: 55985
ansible_connection: winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation: ignore

=====================================

ansible playbook:

---
- hosts: webservers
  roles:
    - webservers

=====================================================

Error message in packer output:

==> virtualbox-iso: Executing local command: ansible-playbook webservers.yml -vvvv
    virtualbox-iso: Using /home/vagrant/packer/ansible.cfg as config file
    virtualbox-iso: statically included: /home/vagrant/packer/roles/webservers/tasks/install.yml
    virtualbox-iso: Loading callback plugin default of type stdout, v2.0 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/callback/__init__.pyc
    virtualbox-iso:
    virtualbox-iso: PLAYBOOK: webservers.yml *******************************************************
    virtualbox-iso: 1 plays in webservers.yml
    virtualbox-iso:
    virtualbox-iso: PLAY [webservers] **************************************************************
    virtualbox-iso:
    virtualbox-iso: TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
    virtualbox-iso: Using module file /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/modules/core/windows/setup.ps1
    virtualbox-iso: <127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH WINRM CONNECTION FOR USER: vagrant on PORT 55985 TO 127.0.0.1
    virtualbox-iso: fatal: [127.0.0.1]: UNREACHABLE! => {
    virtualbox-iso: "changed": false,
    virtualbox-iso: "msg": "ssl: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='127.0.0.1', port=55985): Max retries exceeded with url: /wsman (Caused by NewConnectionError('<urllib3.connection.VerifiedHTTPSConnection object at 0x7f67097e7a90>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 111] Connection refused',))",
    virtualbox-iso: "unreachable": true
    virtualbox-iso: }
    virtualbox-iso: to retry, use: --limit @/home/vagrant/packer/webservers.retry
    virtualbox-iso:
    virtualbox-iso: PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
    virtualbox-iso: 127.0.0.1                  : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=1    failed=0
    virtualbox-iso:
===========================================================

[Rickard von Essen]

The problem here is VirtualBox networking. The host can't directly reach the guest so packer sets up a NAT port forwarding on a random port restricted by ssh_host_port_min and max 1) (despite the naming this is also used for WinRM). You need to set this port in your inventory file instead of 55985. You can either parse this from the output of a VBoxManage command, or set min and max to the same value, which in effect will hardcode the port. You can also check the ansible (remote) provisioner 2) which handles all of this for you (but it has been a bit tricky on certain ansible + packer versions for WinRM). 

1) https://www.packer.io/docs/builders/virtualbox-iso.html#ssh_host_port_min

2) https://www.packer.io/docs/provisioners/ansible.html

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