packer is hanging here "vmware-iso: waiting for ssh to become available"

Question

I am trying to create machine image on VMware using packer.

While building it keeps on waiting for ssh to become available. This is my json:

{
    "builders": [
        {
            "type": "vmware-iso",
            "boot_command": [
                "<esc><esc><enter><wait>",
                "/install/vmlinuz noapic preseed/url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/preseed.cfg ",
                "debian-installer=en_US auto locale=en_US kbd-chooser/method=us ",
                "hostname={{ .Name }} ",
                "fb=false debconf/frontend=noninteractive ",
                "keyboard-configuration/modelcode=SKIP keyboard-configuration/layout=USA keyboard-configuration/variant=USA console-setup/ask_detect=false ",
                "initrd=/install/initrd.gz -- <enter>"
            ],
            "boot_wait": "10s",
            "disk_size": 40960,
            "guest_os_type": "Ubuntu-64",
            "http_directory": "http",
            "iso_url": "http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-12.04.5-server-i386.iso",
            "iso_checksum": "1214cd22448338b60bb24f583dd8741a",
            "iso_checksum_type": "md5",
            "ssh_username": "ubuntu",
            "ssh_password": "root123",
            "remote_datastore": "aaa",
            "vm_name": "aaa",
            "format": "vmx",
            "ssh_pty": "true",
            "ssh_port": "22",
            "headless": false,
            "remote_type": "esx5",
            "remote_host": "aaa",
            "remote_username": "aaa",
            "remote_password": "aaa",
            "remote_port": "22",
            "ssh_wait_timeout": "10000s",
            "shutdown_command": "shutdown -P now"
        }
    ]
}

Any problems with this setup?

this is my preceed.cfg:

d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US

d-i console-setup/ask_detect boolean false

d-i console-setup/layoutcode string us

d-i netcfg/get_hostname string unassigned-hostname

d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain

d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string

d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true

d-i netcfg/dhcp_failed note

d-i netcfg/dhcp_options select Configure network manually

d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 172.22.1.74

d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.252.0

d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 172.22.64.1

d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 172.22.64.1

d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true

d-i base-installer/kernel/override-image string linux-server

d-i clock-setup/utc-auto boolean true

d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true

d-i time/zone string US/Pacific

d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true

d-i mirror/country string US

d-i mirror/http/proxy string

d-i pkgsel/install-language-support boolean false

tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, ubuntu-server

d-i partman-auto/method string regular

d-i partman-auto/purge_lvm_from_device boolean true

d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true

d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic

d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true

d-i partman/choose_partition select finish

d-i partman/confirm boolean true

d-i passwd/user-fullname string Ubuntu User

d-i passwd/username string ubuntu

d-i passwd/user-password password root123

d-i passwd/user-password-again password root123

d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true

d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true

d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

Answer 1

First A: You need to open your firewall for VNC.

Second A: You either need to configure a dhcp server or you have to use a static IP address which needs to be configured both in the preseed.cfg and in the packer template with ssh_host.