Packer: VNC/ESXI: Error handshaking, no suitable auth schemes found

[arl]

Packer build fails with:

2018/02/23 11:40:10 [INFO] (telemetry) ending vmware-iso
2018/02/23 11:40:10 ui error: Build 'ubuntu-1604-server' errored: Error handshaking with VNC: no suitable auth schemes found. server supported: []byte{0x1}
2018/02/23 11:40:10 Builds completed. Waiting on interrupt barrier...

• Packer version from packer version : has the problem with 1.1.3, so i built packer from latest master (9e8e376d6c7033f2f99391ef9a017d686dba8545 version 1.2.1) . packer.log linked below has been produced with the latest packer version.
• Host platform : ubuntu 16.04 x64
• command packer build -var-file variables.json ubuntu-1604-base.json

Disabling vnc is not an option has I'm using a boot_command
What am I missing?

Thanks

packer.log

gist:complete packer.log

packer configuration

gist:ubuntu-1604-base.json
I tried with vnc_disable_password set either to "true" and "false"

variables.json

{
  "esxi_host": "192.168.1.10",
  "esxi_datastore": "datastore1/blahblah",
  "esxi_username": "sensible",
  "esxi_password": "sensible"
}

ESXI configuration

There is a rule on the hypervisor firewall for vnc:

• part of /etc/vmware/firewall/service.xml

  <service id='0044'>                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
     <id>vnc</id>                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
     <rule id='0000'>                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
        <direction>inbound</direction>                                                                                                                                                                                                        
        <protocol>tcp</protocol>                                                                                                                                                                                                              
        <porttype>dst</porttype>                                                                                                                                                                                                              
        <port>5901</port>                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
     </rule>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
     <rule id='0001'>                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
        <direction>outbound</direction>                                                                                                                                                                                                       
        <protocol>tcp</protocol>                                                                                                                                                                                                              
        <porttype>dst</porttype>                                                                                                                                                                                                              
        <port>5901</port>                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
     </rule>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
     <enabled>true</enabled>                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
     <required>false</required>                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  </service>    

And it is active:

[root@esxitest:~] esxcli network firewall ruleset list
Name                      Enabled
------------------------  -------
sshServer                    true
sshClient                   false
...other services                   ...
vnc                   true

[BeverlyBrown]

I'm having the same problem.

[SwampDragons]

Just to clarify, you've never gotten this config working with any version of Packer?

[SwampDragons]

Ah, I see. You have your port min and max, as well as vnc_disable_password set in the variables section of the config rather than in the builder section of the config. Try moving these variables to up under your ssh_timeout option in your config.

[SwampDragons]

I'm going to close this for now because it's more of a question than a bug. If you have any more questions or need any more help getting your packer config working, please reach out to our user group at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/packer-tool; we have lots of people there who are great at helping new users get their feet under them.

[arl]

@SwampDragons that was that, thank you.

[hashibot[bot]]

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