Option to skip SSH provisioning

[boenrobot]

As pointed out in #1518, I'd very much like an option to skip connections over SSH when using the VirtualBox builder (and ideally, with other builders too).

This is useful not only in cases like the aforementioned issue (where a connection is not possible), but also when such a connection is not intended - like, when creating a base box to then be provisioned in several different ways.

[ghost]

In most cases you'll need to at least ssh into the VM in order to gracefully shut it down, even if you're not doing any provisioning.

[boenrobot]

I could also do that as part of the boot sequence (or rather, Packer could do the shutdown over VNC, after the boot sequence, with "" being automatically appended), if a graceful shutdown is important.

Sure, I can understand that's not how it works in many cases (particularly when timing is tricky)... Which is why if present, such an option should default to not skipping SSH.

[jkilada]

I could really use an option to disable SSH provisioning as well. I am constructing VMs using Packer as part of a build process, and for various reasons I need to be able to skip that last step and still have the build succeed and the build output preserved.

[langri-sha]

I am currently in such a situation, where I am trying to build a slightly opinionated base to use as a seed later on. It's only light configuration on top of a pre-existing base, so it seemed obvious to use boot commands and I found it perfectly sufficient.

I would have liked it much better if SSH was optional and if I could get to the output like @jkilada suggests, without resolving an unencumbered SSH setup in order to build successfully. I must agree with @boenrobot, there are situations where it is impractical to satisfy SSH requirements on the very first build.

[timsutton]

+1 to @jkilada's point. I'm looking at a scenario where Packer would be useful for just automating a customized installation and then I have Vagrant attach this installation disk to another VM to further process the results.

[georgevicbell]

This would be very useful, after installing from ISO I'm getting:
ssh: no common algorithms

I can do a shutdown of the vm from the installer with boot_command. This would actually be the preferred method for this ISO.

Suggest making ssh_* optional for all iso builders, when not defined it just skips the ssh section and tries to export.

[J3RK]

What's the status on this feature request? Having the option to skip the SSH step would help out my automation project immensely!

[lamoni]

Is there a clean way to skip SSH provisioning now that the communicators are implemented? Specifically, I'm trying to skip SSH provisioning in virtualbox-*

[rickard-von-essen]

@lamoni Just set "communicator": "none" and be sure to have no provisioners and set "shutdown_command": "". We had some bugs around that so if it doesn't work, just file an issue with your details according to the issue template.

[vtolstov]

communicator: "none" 2017-03-02 15:23 GMT+03:00 Petr Pospisil <notifications@github.com>:

…

Is there any progress with skipping SSH provisioning? Or other way how to bypass problem with connecting to a guest? The functionality is not working, and would be great to do so. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1591 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAdYG58EFMYPZIaqKDBf0BLGDNGavq4lks5rhrS7gaJpZM4Cu8z9> .

-- Vasiliy Tolstov, e-mail: v.tolstov@selfip.ru

[vtolstov]

Do you test with latest packer release? 3 Мар 2017 г. 10:39 пользователь "Petr Pospisil" <notifications@github.com> написал:

…

Well, yeah, that's what I said, communicatior: "none" is not working, and one reply back is written that it's still not working. And it seems that it really does not for me as well. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1591 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAdYGwb8Lo1GbJm01_pzNG2Q8C8MOB1vks5rh8OxgaJpZM4Cu8z9> .

[vtolstov]

Hm, i'm know only qemu builder, sometimes ago we have pr for qemu builder to support communicator none... May be virtualbox need this too.

[beardedN5rd]

Hi,
would be great to have this for virtualbox as well. atm it fails with
==> virtualbox-iso: Starting the virtual machine... ==> virtualbox-iso: Error starting VM: VBoxManage error: VBoxManage: error: NAT#0: configuration query for "GuestPort" int failed (VERR_CFGM_VALUE_NOT_FOUND). ==> virtualbox-iso: VBoxManage: error: Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_CFGM_VALUE_NOT_FOUND) ==> virtualbox-iso: VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole
with corresponding settings
"communicator":"none", "shutdown_command": ""

[rickard-von-essen]

@beardedN5rd this can be done with the null comm.