Amazon import-image task stuck on "updating" when platform is not specified

[Ola Ogunsegha]

Overview of the Issue

The post-processor amazon-import (import-image-task) gets stuck in "updating" because the platform is not provided.

The AWS EC2 equivalent of this process provides an optional --platform flag which is not available in the packer-plugin-amazon plugin.

Reproduction Steps

   post-processor "amazon-import" {
      access_key          = var.aws_access_key
      secret_key          = var.aws_access_secret_id
      token               = var.aws_session_token
      region              = var.region
      s3_bucket_name      = var.s3_bucket_name
      format              = "vmdk"
      keep_input_artifact = true
      ami_name            = "packer-demo-${formatdate("YYYY-MM-DD'T'hh-mm-ssZ", timestamp())}"
      role_name           = var.role_name
      ami_encrypt         = var.ami_encrypt
      ami_kms_key         = var.ami_kms_key
      ami_users           = var.ami_users
      ami_ou_arns         = var.ami_ou_arns
      boot_mode           = var.boot_mode
      license_type        = var.license_type
    }

Result

        {
            "Architecture": "x86_64",
            "Encrypted": true,
            "ImportTaskId": "import-ami-03cf3969904860ae8",
            "KmsKeyId": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
            "LicenseType": "BYOL",
            "Progress": "27",
            "SnapshotDetails": [
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sde",
                    "DiskImageSize": 9525806592.0,
                    "Format": "VMDK",
                    "Status": "completed",
                    "UserBucket": {
                        "S3Bucket": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
                        "S3Key": "packer-import-1699295410.vmdk"
                    }
                }
            ],
            "Status": "active",
            "StatusMessage": "updating",
            "Tags": [],
            "BootMode": "uefi"
        },

Which eventually gets deleted.

Plugin and Packer version

Packer v1.9.4

 amazon = {
   version = ">=1.2.7"
   source = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"
}

Operating system and Environment details

NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.04.6 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"

Log Fragments and crash.log files

    vsphere-iso.windows (amazon-import): Completed upload of /home/user/cicd-base-windows10-template/artifacts//windows-10-2H1-pro-main-2023-11-10T01-49-06Z.vmdk to s3://XXXXXXXXXXXXX/packer-import-1699580946.vmdk
    vsphere-iso.windows (amazon-import): Setting license type to 'BYOL'
    vsphere-iso.windows (amazon-import): Started import of s3://XXXXXXXXXXXX/packer-import-1699580946.vmdk, task id import-ami-0b0d543bf1549c983
    vsphere-iso.windows (amazon-import): Waiting for task import-ami-0b0d543bf1549c983 to complete (may take a while)

        {
            "Architecture": "x86_64",
            "Encrypted": true,
            "ImportTaskId": " import-ami-0b0d543bf1549c983",
            "KmsKeyId": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
            "LicenseType": "BYOL",
            "Progress": "27",
            "SnapshotDetails": [
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sde",
                    "DiskImageSize": 9525806592.0,
                    "Format": "VMDK",
                    "Status": "completed",
                    "UserBucket": {
                        "S3Bucket": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
                        "S3Key": "packer-import-1699580946.vmdk"
                    }
                }
            ],
            "Status": "active",
            "StatusMessage": "updating",
            "Tags": [],
            "BootMode": "uefi"
        }

Alternatively I have tested the AWS CLI Command that does the same thing

    post-processor "shell-local" {
      inline = [ <<EOF
        aws ec2 import-image --role-name "${var.role_name}" \
          --description ${local.vm_name_description} \
          --license-type BYOL \
          --disk-containers Format=vmdk,UserBucket="{S3Bucket=${var.s3_bucket_name},S3Key=${local.vm_name_description}.vmdk}"
        EOF
      ]
    }

and got the same results. But setting platform in the CLI command works.

    post-processor "shell-local" {
      inline = [ <<EOF
        aws ec2 import-image --role-name "${var.role_name}" \
          --description ${local.vm_name_description} \
          --platform windows \
          --license-type BYOL \
          --disk-containers Format=vmdk,UserBucket="{S3Bucket=${var.s3_bucket_name},S3Key=${local.vm_name_description}.vmdk}"
        EOF
      ]
    }

[Lucas Bajolet]

Hi @OlaSegha,

This looks coherent with what's described in the AWS docs for EFI builds here, which seems to be your case. In this case Platform must be specified as either Windows or Linux in order for the import to be successful.

The work needed here is not extensive it seems, I'll see to have a PR open for that this week.

Thanks for reporting this!