Packer retrieve a wrong IP address so Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS can not connect with SSH.

[srknkcn]

Code of Conduct

• I have read and agree to the project's Code of Conduct.

Project Version

develop

VMware vSphere

7.0.3

HashiCorp Packer

1.11.2

HashiCorp Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere

1.4.2

Guest Operating System

Ubuntu Server 24.04.1 LTS

Environment Details

My client side is;
A macos with 15.0.1.
A vscode terminal.
Packer is installed by brew.

Description

static IP address settings applied in network.pkrvars.hcl
When creating an Ubuntu 24.04 image from ubuntu-24.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso ISO file, packer wait for the IP from WMware.
VMware set up the correct IP which is written in the network.pkrvars.hcl file but packer gets a DHCP related new IP.
Because of this difference SSH connection can not make to newly created vm.

Expected Behavior

In network.pkrvars.hcl file...
// VM Network Settings (default DHCP) vm_ip_address = "192.168.12.171" vm_ip_netmask = 24 vm_ip_gateway = "192.168.12.2" vm_dns_list = [ "192.168.10.100" ]

Packer must get the correct IP 192.168.12.171 and connect with SSH to the server.

Actual Behavior

==> vsphere-iso.linux-ubuntu: IP address: 192.168.12.236
==> vsphere-iso.linux-ubuntu: Using SSH communicator to connect: 192.168.12.236
2024/11/06 16:53:45 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:53:45 [INFO] Waiting for SSH, up to timeout: 30m0s
==> vsphere-iso.linux-ubuntu: Waiting for SSH to become available...
2024/11/06 16:54:00 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:54:00 [DEBUG] TCP connection to SSH ip/port failed: dial tcp 192.168.12.236:22: i/o timeout
2024/11/06 16:54:20 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:54:20 [DEBUG] TCP connection to SSH ip/port failed: dial tcp 192.168.12.236:22: i/o timeout
2024/11/06 16:54:40 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:54:40 [DEBUG] TCP connection to SSH ip/port failed: dial tcp 192.168.12.236:22: i/o timeout
2024/11/06 16:55:00 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:55:00 [DEBUG] TCP connection to SSH ip/port failed: dial tcp 192.168.12.236:22: i/o timeout
2024/11/06 16:55:20 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:55:20 [DEBUG] TCP connection to SSH ip/port failed: dial tcp 192.168.12.236:22: i/o timeout
2024/11/06 16:55:40 <sensitive>-plugin-vsphere_v1.4.2_x5.0_darwin_amd64 plugin: 2024/11/06 16:55:40 [DEBUG] TCP connection to SSH ip/port failed: dial tcp 192.168.12.236:22: i/o timeout

Steps to Reproduce

Every run of build.sh is resulted the same.
The only difference is the wrong IP captured from vmware is lowering one by one.
192.168.12.236
192.168.12.235
192.168.12.234

Log Fragments and Files

network.pkrvars.hcl file

// VM Network Settings (default DHCP) vm_ip_address = "192.168.12.171" vm_ip_netmask = 24 vm_ip_gateway = "192.168.12.2" vm_dns_list = [ "192.168.10.100" ]

Screenshots

VMware gives the correct IP 192.168.12.171

PACKER_LOG=1 log output is like

Additional Context

No response

[tenthirtyam]

Converted to a discussion under help until verified as a bug.

[ogaida]

the same for me ... Packer v1.11.2, packer-plugin-vsphere v1.4.2

any ideas what the cause could be?

[tenthirtyam]

Acknowledged. Will look into this soon.

[tenthirtyam]

Sorry for the delay.

This will occur if DHCP is enabled on the destination network and you trying to use a static. If the network does not have DHCP, then it works as intended.

To address this scenario, set the common_ip_settle_timeout to a higher value to delay the connection to SSH until the IP is locked in as provided to clout-init during the build.

For example:

common_ip_settle_timeout = "3m"

This will allow the IP address to settle into the static IP before attempting a connection to continue the build.

Ryan