Powershell elevated command issues - string too long in scheduled task.

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jturne...@gmail.com

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Aug 20, 2017, 4:15:59 PM8/20/17

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Hi everyone

I am trying to get the famous windows updates working in 2012. for 2012r2, all went fine, just installed some power shell libraries I found and ran this:

"type": "powershell",

"elevated_user": "vagrant",

"elevated_password": "vagrant",

"pause_before": "10m",

"inline": [

"get-wuinstall -WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -IgnoreReboot -Verbose"

]

- all worked fine, fully tested.

Tried on 2012, thought it would be fine - indeed not. after a LOT of faffing about it, it turns out the scheduled task that is created is too big for windows to run it, it just says the scheduled task no longer exists. If you look at the actual task the string it runs is a massive string of base 64 (don't know why but I am sure there is a reason!) - decode this and it's a massive string of variables followed by a path to the actual power shell... It turns out, if I half the base 64, windows let's it run - so the issue seems to be the length of the code in the scheduled task. Can't find anything about this being a a known issue.

Anyway...

I want to try and make that is base 64 encoded shorter, as to make it run, the base 64 encoded strings is currently " Uploading elevated shell wrapper for command [if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'};$env:PACKER_BUILDER_TYPE="vmware-iso"; $env:PACKER_BUILD_NAME="vmware-iso"; $env:PACKER_HTTP_ADDR="192.168.100.65:8000"; &'c:/a/1.ps1';exit $LastExitCode]" - which is obviously long, I want to take out all of the variables, I have tried running execute command but this doesn't seem to do a thing, as below produced the former:

{

"type": "powershell",

"elevated_user": "vagrant",

"elevated_password": "vagrant",

"remote_path": "c:/a/1.ps1",

"execute_command": "TEST",

"scripts": [

"./scripts/windows-update-all.ps1"

]

}

I have tried to make things as short as possible, hence the c:/a/1.ps1. This is really annoying because it's a really eligantt solution for 20212r2 but just doesn't work in 2012, anyone know of this, or has any ideas how I can troubleshoot it?

below is the last bit of code from a run, packer is version 1.0.4

many thanks

==> vmware-iso: Provisioning with Powershell...

2017/08/20 12:46:47 ui: ==> vmware-iso: Provisioning with Powershell...

2017/08/20 12:46:47 ui: ==> vmware-iso: Provisioning with shell script: ./scripts/windows-update-all.ps1

==> vmware-iso: Provisioning with shell script: ./scripts/windows-update-all.ps1

2017/08/20 12:46:47 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:47 Opening ./scripts/windows-update-all.ps1 for reading

2017/08/20 12:46:47 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:47 Building elevated command wrapper for: if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'};$env:PACKER_BUILDER_TYPE="vmware-iso"; $env:PACKER_BUILD_NAME="vmware-iso"; $env:PACKER_HTTP_ADDR="192.168.100.65:8000"; &'c:/a/1.ps1';exit $LastExitCode

2017/08/20 12:46:47 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:47 Uploading elevated shell wrapper for command [if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'};$env:PACKER_BUILDER_TYPE="vmware-iso"; $env:PACKER_BUILD_NAME="vmware-iso"; $env:PACKER_HTTP_ADDR="192.168.100.65:8000"; &'c:/a/1.ps1';exit $LastExitCode] to [${env:TEMP}\packer-elevated-shell-5999e727-ddcf-e4d7-2216-cee952a4992d.ps1] from [/tmp/packer-elevated-shell.ps1791211094]

2017/08/20 12:46:47 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:47 [INFO] 3016 bytes written for 'uploadData'

2017/08/20 12:46:47 [INFO] 3016 bytes written for 'uploadData'

2017/08/20 12:46:47 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:47 Uploading file to '${env:TEMP}\packer-elevated-shell-5999e727-ddcf-e4d7-2216-cee952a4992d.ps1'

2017/08/20 12:46:48 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:48 [INFO] 63 bytes written for 'uploadData'

2017/08/20 12:46:48 [INFO] 63 bytes written for 'uploadData'

2017/08/20 12:46:48 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:48 Uploading file to 'c:/a/1.ps1'

2017/08/20 12:46:49 packer: 2017/08/20 12:46:49 [INFO] starting remote command: powershell -executionpolicy bypass -file "%TEMP%\packer-elevated-shell-5999e727-ddcf-e4d7-2216-cee952a4992d.ps1"

vmware-iso: Exception calling "Run" with "1" argument(s): "Could not load file or assembly

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: Exception calling "Run" with "1" argument(s): "Could not load file or assembly

vmware-iso: 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Management' or one of its dependencies. The

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Management' or one of its dependencies. The

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: system cannot find the file specified."

vmware-iso: system cannot find the file specified."

vmware-iso: At C:\Users\vagrant\AppData\Local\Temp\packer-elevated-shell-5999e727-ddcf-e4d7

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: At C:\Users\vagrant\AppData\Local\Temp\packer-elevated-shell-5999e727-ddcf-e4d7

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: -2216-cee952a4992d.ps1:51 char:1

vmware-iso: -2216-cee952a4992d.ps1:51 char:1

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: + $t.Run($null) | Out-Null

vmware-iso: + $t.Run($null) | Out-Null

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

vmware-iso: + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException

vmware-iso: + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso: + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ComMethodTargetInvocation

vmware-iso: + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ComMethodTargetInvocation

vmware-iso:

2017/08/20 12:46:50 ui: vmware-iso:

2017/08/20 12:47:00 packer: 2017/08/20 12:47:00 [INFO] command 'powershell -executionpolicy bypass -file "%TEMP%\packer-elevated-shell-5999e727-ddcf-e4d7-2216-cee952a4992d.ps1"' exited with code: 1

2017/08/20 12:47:00 packer: 2017/08/20 12:47:00 [INFO] RPC endpoint: Communicator ended with: 1

2017/08/20 12:47:00 [INFO] 509 bytes written for 'stderr'

2017/08/20 12:47:00 [INFO] 0 bytes written for 'stdout'

2017/08/20 12:47:00 [INFO] RPC client: Communicator ended with: 1

2017/08/20 12:47:00 [INFO] RPC endpoint: Communicator ended with: 1

Marcus Adams

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Nov 4, 2018, 5:41:44 PM11/4/18

to Packer

Whilst your question is old, I thought I'd give my workaround as windows updates and packer were some of the bains of my life, I've tried various scripts to varying degrees of success.

In the end I came across the following provisioner and it's taken all my pain away, working every time without fail.