When I cloned the repo and tried to get the virtualbox guest additions installed, the script (packer) said that it could not find the file E:\cert\oracle-vbox.cer.
I am using Virtual Box version 5.1.143112924.

I fixed the script to add the correct certs by their new names and will be submitting a pull request to that effect.

Thank you Matt for this is AWESOME repo/project.

Why do you configure video memory for virtualbox? Does this speed up provisioning?

I am trying to generate the Hyper-V vhdx file, however getting the below error message, Would you please check and advise.

Environment:- Windows 2016 Datacentre Server, installed with Hyper-V
Packer Version:- tried with 1.3.2-dev, & 1.2.5
ISO: Windows 2012R2

Error: ==> hyperv-iso: Provisioning with Powershell...
==> hyperv-iso: Provisioning with powershell script: scripts/install_windows_updates.ps1
==> hyperv-iso: Disconnecting from vmconnect...
==> hyperv-iso: Error shutting down VM: PowerShell error: Hyper-V\Stop-VM : Failed to stop.
==> hyperv-iso: At C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\2\ps015687669.ps1:5 char:5
==> hyperv-iso: + Hyper-V\Stop-VM -VM $vm -Force -Confirm:$false
==> hyperv-iso: + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
==> hyperv-iso: + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Stop-VM], VirtualizationException
==> hyperv-iso: + FullyQualifiedErrorId : OperationFailed,Microsoft.HyperV.PowerShell.Commands.StopVM

Is there a way I can build Windows 2016 Datacenter Core instances. I am guessing I just need to add the extra condition for Datacenter but i am not sure where you are pulling the os_name value from.

is the https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/727435/Tools/WUInstallAMD64.exe from your dropbox ?
should this be something else like nuget

I forked, and would like to contribute back:

• output directories as variables - I build to an external drive where I have more space
• some moving of things around so attributes are all ordered the same way and things like that, to make edits easier to place
• a different way of doing windows updates, because the current one relies on a binary in a dropbox that now 404s
  • I was thinking to either steal the code of Ansible's win_updates module, or choco install pswindowsupdate which I've used successfully in the past.

What do you think?

Also - I like the build chain of templates - is there a way to get cake to realise that it doesn't need to rebuild a dependency, but instead build incrementally? I'm unfamiliar.

Right now you are not to be able to build an identical image to what was created at any point in the past. For example. If on January first Microsoft had released patch1, patch2 and patch3 and you build a Windows 2016 image, which applies those updates, and then on February first you try to rebuild that image you will end up with an image that has all of the updates that were originally applied but all of the subsequent updates as well.

It would be great to be able to easily support this so we can build repeatable images at any point in time.

First of all, thanks for all this great work - your packer templates are the cleanest I've seen!

I get the below error when running build.ps1. I'm running Windows 10 Pro.

PS C:\Users\tblack\src\PackerTemplates> .\build.ps1
Preparing to run build script...
Running build script...
Analyzing build script...
Processing build script...
Installing addins...
Error: The assembly 'Cake.Yaml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
is referencing an older version of Cake.Core (0.22.0).
This assembly need to reference at least Cake.Core version 0.26.0.
Another option is to downgrade Cake to an earlier version.
It's not recommended, but you can explicitly opt-out of assembly verification
by configuring the Skip Verification setting to true
(i.e. command line parameter "--settings_skipverification=true",
environment variable "CAKE_SETTINGS_SKIPVERIFICATION=true",
read more about configuration at https://cakebuild.net/docs/fundamentals/configuration)

I tried changing the version from 22 to 26 in tools/Addins/Cake.Yaml.2.0.0/cake.yaml.nuspec, but that didn't help. (This is my first time using cake. I'm clueless)

I am able to get past the error with the suggested build.ps1 --settings_skipverification=true, but just wanted to make a note of this on your repo. Thanks again for all this good work!

Hi, thanks for this project. I noticed there is an unverified windows update exe being used

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bk1dodl4fb7znj3/WUInstallAMD64.exe?dl=1

Is there any reason for this?

I've modified your answer xml file to work with my Windows10 Pro iso, and have been able to complete the first builder phase "virtualbox-01-windows-base", but the second phase "virtualbox-02-win_updates-wmf5" fails because WUInstallAMD64.exe fails with various errors*, causing powershell to exit with 11 meaning "at least one error occurred, reboot required".

I noticed you run scripts/install_windows_updates.ps1 several times in a loop, with windows restarts each time. Any reason why you shouldn't add exit code 11 to "valid_exit_codes" in the win_updates builder, so this builder will make a best effort at applying updates? I have done this in my fork of your (wonderful!**) repo. What I have found is that any of the various windows update errors that occur are all eliminated by the 2nd or 3rd reboot/WUInstall cycle.

• WUInstall errors I've seen so far are:
  1. "0x80240017 - WU_E_NOT_APPLICABLE - Operation was not performed because there are no applicable updates.
  2. Download failed

** I applaud your use of chaining phases to facilitate resumption of failed packer builds. :-)