My last successful Azure DevOps Packer Master Imag...
# -bis-fm
Marco Hofmann
09/19/2025, 8:34 AMMy last successful Azure DevOps Packer Master Image Run was on 30. August.
Since then, every try breaks during the eventlog clean-up from BIS-F, but I don't see a reason and this hasn't happend in the last three years. I started "_suddenly_"™️.
I did four tries so far and they all break at nearly the same moment and Packer just errors out. Here are the logs. Anybody has seen something like this before?
Marco Hofmann
09/19/2025, 8:35 AMTry 1-4
j
James Rankin
09/19/2025, 8:48 AMPut a pause in the Packer build before the provisioner that runs BIS-F, then log on to the console and run it directly, see what error code it exits with
m
Marco Hofmann
09/19/2025, 8:49 AMAzure != Console 😄
Marco Hofmann
09/19/2025, 8:49 AMBut I guess I could RDP in during a Pause 😄
j
James Rankin
09/19/2025, 8:49 AMYeah just enable RDP
James Rankin
09/19/2025, 8:49 AMprovisioner "powershell" {
pause_before = "6m"
inline = ["Write-Host 'Continuing after 6-minute pause.'"] // this pauses Packer, NOT the VM
}
James Rankin
09/19/2025, 8:49 AMSet the timer as necessary
m
Marco Hofmann
09/19/2025, 8:50 AMThank you very much, that's a good idea.
I can check the BIS-F Log of the successful runs, to see how long BIS-F takes normally and plan the pause accordingly.
Marco Hofmann
09/22/2025, 1:39 PMI'm now in the paused Packer Build and I ran the BIS-F cmd.. It finished without any issues.
Marco Hofmann
09/23/2025, 6:33 AMI tried this now 3 times. During the pause BIS-F finishes without any issues.
When the pipeline runs, it errors out during the very last eventlogs to delete and the build is gone.
Hard to test because the build takes three hours.
I guess I have to fork the code, trim down the apps to get fast Troubleshooting.
j
James Rankin
09/23/2025, 6:34 AMJust bin BIS-F, I don't find it really has much effect. I use custom sealing scripts
m
Marco Hofmann
09/23/2025, 8:02 AMI see your point, but I do need a solution now ™️ and can't replace it just in time.
I use it partly for it's feature to execute any ps1 in the PREP and/or in the PERS phase.
In the past I used it to AzureAD Join (Entra) the MCS clones during boot/PERS, but afaik this is done by Citrix with the latest machine catalogs.
Marco Hofmann
09/23/2025, 3:29 PMI now deactivated the eventlog clear temporary and in a first test deployment, the build pipeline finished. The test pipeline had a reduced app count, to finish a lot faster.
Copy code
# Remove the standalone Clear-EventLog invocation (line ~1067 upstream) to retain event logs in the image
((Get-Content "$BISFDir\Preparation\97_PrepBISF_PRE_BaseImage.ps1" -Raw) -replace "(?m)^\s*Clear-EventLog\s*\r?\n","") | Set-Content -Path "$BISFDir\Preparation\97_PrepBISF_PRE_BaseImage.ps1"Marco Hofmann
09/24/2025, 7:42 AMProblem is solved now.
Instead I have just another issue now and the build still doesn't finish anymore.
Now what's the best channel to ask Packer questions?
j
James Rankin
09/24/2025, 7:52 AMAutomation
👍🏻 1
m
Marco Hofmann
09/24/2025, 8:06 AMDone!
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