Packer: vmware-iso using remote_type fails on disc compaction looking for local file.

[jamielennox]

I'm running at commit 132dfa7c8 (but it's approximately master) using the vmware-iso builder and a remote ESXi builder.

The build fails with:

==> vmware-rhel7: Error getting virtual disk file info pre compaction: stat output-vmware-rhel7/disk.vmdk: no such file or directory

I'm looking at master https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/blob/0d785cca75aa0c20e3b9bbbab661cdf65aa87713/builder/vmware/common/step_compact_disk.go#L40-L52

and by my reading (first time i've looked in here) that's doing a local os.Stat() for the file, before calling driver to do the work. Well yea, that's not going to work, my file's on a remote ESX host :)

Looks like this came from #6186

Config, though i'm pretty sure it's not important in this case:

{
            "type": "vmware-iso",
            "name": "vmware-rhel7",

            "remote_type": "esx5",
            "remote_host": "{{ user `esx_remote_host` }}",
            "remote_username": "{{ user `esx_remote_username` }}",
            "remote_password": "{{ user `esx_remote_password` }}",
            "remote_datastore": "ps0991ntxsc001_cnt1",

            "iso_url": "http://satellite/pulp/repos/NSW_DET/Library/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7.4/x86_64/kickstart/images/boot.iso",
            "iso_checksum": "e26a4ed9efb1d657fe83765f6039904f1afa5366",
            "iso_checksum_type": "sha1",

            "guest_os_type": "rhel7-64",
            "tools_upload_flavor": "linux",

            "ssh_username": "root",
            "ssh_password": "password",
            "ssh_timeout": "15m",

            "headless": true,
            "keep_registered": true,
            "skip_export": true,

            "vnc_disable_password": true,
            "vnc_port_min": 5900,
            "vnc_port_max": 5910,

            "vmx_data": {
                "ethernet0.addressType": "vpx",
                "ethernet0.present": "true",
                "ethernet0.startConnected": "true",
                "ethernet0.dvs.portgroupid": "dvportgroup-9045",
                "ethernet0.dvs.switchid": "50 16 05 3d dc a8 26 fb-0a f1 94 73 f7 9d f3 a2"
            },

            "boot_command": [
                 "<tab> inst.text inst.ks=hd:fd0:/ks.cfg <enter><wait>"
            ],

            "shutdown_command": "shutdown -P now",

            "floppy_files": [
                "scripts/vmware/ks.cfg"
            ]
        }

[jamielennox]

pinging @DanHam and @SwampDragons as the contributors to that PR.

My preference would be to make this a release blocker for upcoming-05-2018-ish that the PR is tagged against (but obviously that's not my call).

[rickard-von-essen]

Completely agree with the triaging.

[DanHam]

Well yea, that's not going to work, my file's on a remote ESX host :)

@jamielennox Yep! Quite right! Really sorry about the oversight there! Glad that was found before a release, so thanks for reporting!

@rickard-von-essen @SwampDragons
For the time being I think it would just be easier to revert the commits that added 'reporting results' for the disk compaction step.

I'll see if I can take another (better!) run at this later.

@jamielennox If you could test and report back it would be much appreciated? Please see #6274

[jamielennox]

The PR in #6274 works for me. Thanks for jumping on this so quickly.

[SwampDragons]

@jamielennox thanks so much for catching this!

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