Vsphere-iso Could not connect to floppy "packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp"

Packer
,
1

Hi
I have had a windows server 2016 template build working for some time and upgraded to packer 1.6.4 a few months ago when we upgraded to VSphere 7 here with no issues also. In the last few days for some reason I cant quite get to the bottom of, I get the dreaded ‘waiting for ip…’ timeout. On closer inspection, the issue is due to the fact the floppy drives get disconnected right at the start of the unattended installation. I can see the floppy drives attached when the windows installation process starts but fairly soon after they are both disconnected. There are 2 vmware logs created in the datastore (which i suspect is part of the problem) and one of the logs confirms the disconnection of the floppy drives

2021-01-08T16:32:32.960Z| vcpu-0| I005: AIOGNRC: Failed to open ‘/vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp’ : Failed to lock the file (40003) (0x3).
2021-01-08T16:32:32.960Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open: FileIO error 4.
2021-01-08T16:32:32.960Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open rw for /vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp failed: Device or resource busy
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: AIOGNRC: Failed to open ‘/vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp’ : Failed to lock the file (40003) (0x1).
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open: FileIO error 4.
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open r for /vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp failed: Device or resource busy
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: Msg_Post: Warning
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: [msg.floppyImage.cantOpen] Cannot open floppy image /vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp: Interrupted system call
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: ----------------------------------------
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: Locale_Errno2LocalString: “C” locale found. LC_ALL=(null), LANG=C
2021-01-08T16:32:36.966Z| vcpu-0| I005: Locale_Errno2LocalString: locale(LC_ALL)=C locale(LC_MESSAGES)=C
2021-01-08T16:32:36.968Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-IMAGE: Connect error: /vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp will be disconnected.
2021-01-08T16:32:36.968Z| vcpu-0| I005: Msg_Post: Warning
2021-01-08T16:32:36.968Z| vcpu-0| I005: [msg.floppy.connectfailure] Could not connect to floppy “/vmfs/volumes/5d3042e8-7f887b56-08b6-0025b511a000/ISO’s/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp”. It is being used by another virtual machine or some other program. It will start disconnected.
2021-01-08T16:32:36.968Z| vcpu-0| I005: [msg.device.startdisconnected] Virtual device ‘floppy1’ will start disconnected.
2021-01-08T16:32:36.968Z| vcpu-0| I005: ----------------------------------------
2021-01-08T16:32:40.974Z| vcpu-0| I005: AIOGNRC: Failed to open ‘packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp’ : Failed to lock the file (40003) (0x3).
2021-01-08T16:32:40.974Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open: FileIO error 4.
2021-01-08T16:32:40.974Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open rw for packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp failed: Device or resource busy
2021-01-08T16:32:44.976Z| vcpu-0| I005: AIOGNRC: Failed to open ‘packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp’ : Failed to lock the file (40003) (0x1).
2021-01-08T16:32:44.976Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open: FileIO error 4.
2021-01-08T16:32:44.976Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-LIB : Open r for packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp failed: Device or resource busy
2021-01-08T16:32:44.976Z| vcpu-0| I005: Msg_Post: Warning
2021-01-08T16:32:44.976Z| vcpu-0| I005: [msg.floppyImage.cantOpen] Cannot open floppy image packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp: Interrupted system call
2021-01-08T16:32:44.976Z| vcpu-0| I005: ----------------------------------------
2021-01-08T16:32:44.979Z| vcpu-0| I005: FLOPPYLIB-IMAGE: Connect error: packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp will be disconnected.
2021-01-08T16:32:44.979Z| vcpu-0| I005: Msg_Post: Warning
2021-01-08T16:32:44.979Z| vcpu-0| I005: [msg.floppy.connectfailure] Could not connect to floppy “packer-tmp-created-floppy.flp”. It is being used by another virtual machine or some other program. It will start disconnected.
2021-01-08T16:32:44.979Z| vcpu-0| I005: [msg.device.startdisconnected] Virtual device ‘floppy0’ will start disconnected.

As mentioned there are 2 vmware logs in the datastore and the log entries cross over timings which I suspect is the reason why the floppy files are in use
vmware.log 16:55:46.422 - 16:56:24.030
vmware_1.log 16:53:44.134 - 16:56:04.280

My packer config looks like this for info:

"builders": [

    {

      "CPUs": "{{user `vm-cpu-num`}}",

      "RAM": "{{user `vm-mem-size`}}",

      "RAM_reserve_all": true,

      "cluster": "{{user `vsphere-cluster`}}",

      "communicator": "winrm",

      "convert_to_template": "true",

      "datacenter": "{{user `vsphere-datacenter`}}",

      "datastore": "{{user `vsphere-datastore`}}",

      "disk_controller_type": "lsilogic-sas",

      "firmware": "bios",

      "floppy_files": [

        "./scripts/standard/autounattend.xml",

        "./scripts/install-vm-tools.cmd",

        "./scripts/disable-winrm.ps1",

        "./scripts/disable-network-discovery.cmd"

      ],

      "floppy_img_path": "[VMWARE-REDACTED-CONTENT-LIBRARY] ISO's/VMWare Tools/11.2.0/pvscsi-Windows8.flp",

      "folder": "{{user `vsphere-folder`}}",

      "guest_os_type": "windows9Server64Guest",

      "host": "{{user `vsphere-host`}}",

      "insecure_connection": "true",

      "iso_paths": [

        "{{user `os_iso_path`}}",

        "{{user `vmtools_iso_path`}}"

      ],

      "network_adapters": [

        {

          "network": "{{user `vsphere-network`}}",

          "network_card": "vmxnet3"

        }

      ],

      "notes": "Built via Packer - see code repo ''",

      "password": "{{user `vsphere-password`}}",

      "storage": [

        {

          "disk_size": "{{user `vm-disk-size`}}",

          "disk_thin_provisioned": true

        }

      ],

      "type": "vsphere-iso",

      "username": "{{user `vsphere-user`}}",

      "vcenter_server": "{{user `vsphere-server`}}",

      "vm_name": "{{user `vm-name`}}",

      "winrm_password": "{{user `winadmin-password`}}",

      "winrm_username": "Administrator"

    }

  ]

I have tried more recent packer versions 165 and 166 and same result. Also tried just one floppy drive instead of 2. The account I’m using for vsphere access is a top level administrator also

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

2

Hello,

I wasn’t sure if this was something you were able to resolve.

I’m on Packer 1.7.2 and vSphere 7 update 1 and am getting the same message. The one difference I’ll add to yours is I noticed that DRS moves the VM while packer is working on it. I wonder if that process breaks the semaphore for Packer.

I’m still currently digging into my issue, but just wanted to see if you had an update here.

3

Hi that’s interesting. I actually ended up switching from ‘floppy_files’ to ‘cd_files’ which got around the issue - just had to download the windows server adk and add the location of oscdimg.exe to the system PATH env var

4

Hello!

I’m getting the same error. It used to work, but for some reason, it just stopped. I’m at packer 1.7.4. Were you guys able to resolve the issue? Thanks…

5

I also have this issue. It’s related to DRS switching from ESX host while packer is running. On my scenario it switched 3 times from esx host and last time it mentioned could not connect floppy because it’s being used by another virtual machine.