Support 'boot_command` on vSphere 6.0 and older

[michaelhajjar]

Hello, I am encountering a error when trying to run a centos 7 automated install. It fails at typing the boot command with the following message:

[root@oraclebench packer]# ./packer build centos7.json
vsphere-iso output will be in this color.

==> vsphere-iso: Creating VM...
==> vsphere-iso: Adding CDRoms...
==> vsphere-iso: Creating floppy disk...
    vsphere-iso: Copying files flatly from floppy_files
    vsphere-iso: Copying file: ks.cfg
    vsphere-iso: Done copying files from floppy_files
    vsphere-iso: Collecting paths from floppy_dirs
    vsphere-iso: Resulting paths from floppy_dirs : []
    vsphere-iso: Done copying paths from floppy_dirs
==> vsphere-iso: Uploading created floppy image
==> vsphere-iso: Adding generated Floppy...
==> vsphere-iso: Adding configuration parameters...
==> vsphere-iso: Power on VM...
==> vsphere-iso: Waiting 10s for boot...
==> vsphere-iso: Typing boot command...
==> vsphere-iso: Power off VM...
==> vsphere-iso: Destroying VM...
Build 'vsphere-iso' errored: error typing a boot command: ServerFaultCode: Unable to resolve WSDL method name PutUsbScanCodes for namespace name urn:vim25

while parsing SOAP body
at line 2, column 60

while parsing SOAP envelope
at line 2, column 0

while parsing HTTP request before method was determined
at line 1, column 0

==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
--> vsphere-iso: error typing a boot command: ServerFaultCode: Unable to resolve WSDL method name PutUsbScanCodes for namespace name urn:vim25

while parsing SOAP body
at line 2, column 60

while parsing SOAP envelope
at line 2, column 0

while parsing HTTP request before method was determined
at line 1, column 0

==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is the centos7.json file for building:

{
  "builders": [
    {
      "boot_command": [
        "<up><wait><tab> text inst.ks=hd:fd0:/ks.cfg <enter>"
      ],
      "type": "vsphere-iso",

      "vcenter_server":      "server",
      "username":            "user",
      "password":            "password",
      "insecure_connection": "true",
      "ssh_username": "root",
      "ssh_password": "example",

      "datacenter": "test",
      "cluster": "test",
      "network": "test",
      "network_card": "vmxnet3",
      "datastore": "test",
      "vm_name": "golden_image_lin",
      "guest_os_type": "rhel7_64Guest",

      "CPUs":             2,
      "RAM":              4096,
      "RAM_reserve_all": true,

      "disk_controller_type":  "pvscsi",
      "disk_size":        50,
      "disk_thin_provisioned": true,
      "folder": "_directory",

      "iso_paths": [
        "[ISO] place/centos7-netinstall.iso"
      ],
      "floppy_files": [
        "ks.cfg"
      ],
      "boot_order": "disk,cdrom"
    }
  ]
}

what am I doing wrong or is this a issue?
debug mode is not showing anything weird....

[ghost]

I get the same error, boot_command only work starting from vCenter 6.5 (as per #53), maybe this can make it in the documentation upon a new release. The codebase is moving kinda fast :)

[michaelhajjar]

is it possible to add this function for vCenter 6.0 ??

[ghost]

Not a contributor to the codebase myself but I according to https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-6-5/topic/com.vmware.wssdk.apiref.doc/vim.VirtualMachine.html#putUsbScanCodes this method is only available from version 6.5:

PutUsbScanCodes(putUsbScanCodes), Inject a sequence of USB HID scan codes into the keyboard., Since vSphere API 6.5

My guess would be no

[mkuzmin]

That's right. VMware deprecated VNC access in 6.5 and provided a new API.
So the current implementation is compatible with 6.5 only. Maybe we need a better error message in logs.

Supporting older vSphere versions requires a completely separate feature implementation. I personally don't have plans working on that.

[sudomateo]

Can't we just label the floppy drive as OEMDRV and let RHEL kick off the installation automatically?

Source: https://access.redhat.com/discussions/3187232

EDIT: There's some progress regarding this on issue #85

[mkuzmin]

Even if RedHat Linux has an alternate solution, the issue is still valid for Ubuntu and macOS.

[gaui]

Yep, having this issue for Ubuntu, running vSphere ESXi 6.0

[jspenc72]

Im having the same issue:
packer: 1.3.1

[trunov-ms]

Same
packer 1.5.4

[serrnovik]

Same
packer 1.5.4

[renatocmaia]

I'm having the same issue:
packer: 1.5.6

[VladRassokhin]

I'm closing this issues since plugin is moved to official Packer repo and relevant issue there closed with resolution:

We've decided to explicitly support only vSphere 6.5 and above