Building the windows-2025-vs2026 image fails.

[Fazer01]

Description

After building the windows server 2025 image successfully, we would like to build the one with VS2k26 in it to use in our Azure Scale Set agent image.

The packer build task we use is the following where $(TemplatesDir) resolves to a path to the cloned runner-images repository on the agent.

 - task: PowerShell@2
          displayName: Packer build
          env: 
            ARM_CLIENT_ID: $(AzureClientId)
            ARM_CLIENT_SECRET: $(AzureClientSecret)
            ARM_TENANT_ID: $(AzureTenantId)
            ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID: $(SubscriptionId)
            ARM_RESOURCE_GROUP: $(ImageResourceGroupName)
          inputs:
            targetType: inline
            script: | 
              cd $(TemplatesDir)
              Remove-Item build.windows-2022.pkr.hcl       
              Remove-Item build.windows-2025.pkr.hcl        
              ls
              packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/azure
              packer build -var "image_os=win25" `
                           -var "install_password=$(InstallPassword)" `
                           -var "managed_image_name=$(ImageName)" `
                           -var "vm_size=Standard_D2ds_v5" `
                           -var "build_resource_group_name=$(BuildResourceGroupName)" `
                           -var "azure_tags={`"ExcludeMdeAutoProvisioning`":`"True`"}" `
                           .

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026

Image version and build link

Image: ubuntu-24.04
Version: 20260323.65.1
Included Software: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/ubuntu24/20260323.65/images/ubuntu/Ubuntu2404-Readme.md
Image Release: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/ubuntu24%2F20260323.65
Current image version: '20260323.65.1'
Agent running as: 'vsts'

Is it regression?

Possibly

Expected behavior

Let packer build complete succesfully.

Actual behavior

After a couple of minutes the pipeline fails with the following error message.

Build 'windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image' errored after 5 minutes 22 seconds: Error uploading file to $env:TEMP\winrmcp-71ff40ae-46b0-47ce-76b6-ea10def451a1.tmp: Couldn't create shell: received error response

Repro steps

Run the pipeline with the packer build command as mentioned above will fail after a couple of minutes.

[Fazer01]

Hmm.. running the exact pipeline after a 3rd time it now seems to work. It's getting past the 5 minutes where the error message originally pops up. Perhaps a hiccup in the pipeline.

[v-GeorgyPuzakov]

Hi @Fazer01,
As I understand it, there are no issues anymore?

[Fazer01]

Hi @Fazer01,
As I understand it, there are no issues anymore?

Just letting the pipeline run for now. No issues whatsoever.

[Fazer01]

Hi @v-GeorgyPuzakov

We have an error in the pipeline after a couple of hours runtime yesterday.
It fails with the installment of a KB-update:

==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image:
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image: Validating windows updates installation
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image: Windows updates failed to install: KB5007651
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image: At C:\Windows\Temp\script-69cc8da9-1982-83b2-313c-160c0eb9806c.ps1:31 char:9
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image: +         throw "Windows updates failed to install: $($failedUpdates.KB ...
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image: +         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image:     + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (Windows updates...tall: KB5007651:String) [], RuntimeException
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image:     + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Windows updates failed to install: KB5007651
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image:
==> windows-2025-vs2026.azure-arm.image: Provisioning step had errors: Running the cleanup provisioner, if present...```