packer with vmware-clone fails

This issue was originally opened by @zerr0s as hashicorp/packer#10411. It was migrated here as a result of the Packer plugin split. The original body of the issue is below.

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Hi, forgive me for my bad english.

I'm trying to use packer to automate the creation of templates based on linux (ubuntu 20.04).
Actually I have a problem when packer clones the existing template to create the new VM: The nic is not connected at startup.

I have verified the existence of "ethernet0.startConnected = TRUE" if the vmtx file, and when I created a new vm using the template directly from the vsphere web interface, the option "Connected at startup" is correctly checked.

When the vm is created by packer, I have to check the option from vmware web to connet the nic. After that all provisionners can run correctrly.

What am I doing wrong ??

vmware version: 6.5
packer version: 1.6.5

{
  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "vsphere-clone",
      "vcenter_server": "xxxxx",
      "datacenter": "xxxxx",
      "username": "xxxx",
      "password": "xxxxx",
      "insecure_connection": "true",

      "template": "ubuntu_server_20.04",

      "communicator": "ssh",
      "ssh_username": "auto",
      "ssh_private_key_file": "./sshkey",
      "boot_wait": "30s",
      "host": "vmwarehost.local",
      "vm_name": "newvm",
      "datastore": "myds",
      "folder": "packer-test",
      "CPUs": 2,
      "CPU_hot_plug": true,
      "RAM": 2048,
      "RAM_hot_plug": true,
      "RAM_reserve_all": false,
      "firmware": "bios",

      "network": "LAN",
      "customize": {
        "linux_options": {
          "host_name": "packer-test",
          "domain": "mydomain.local",
          "time_zone": "UTC"
        },
        "network_interface": {
          "ipv4_address": "192.168.0.5",
          "ipv4_netmask": "24"
        },
        "ipv4_gateway": "192.168.0.1",
        "dns_server_list": ["192.168.0.1"]
      }

    }
  ],
  "provisioners": [
    {
      "type": "shell",
      "inline": [
        "ls -lrth /",
        "echo done"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Thanks.

[dbond007]

See : hashicorp/packer#10120

TLDR: you need vcenter 6.7u3g, need to remove cloud-init config files for the network and reorder the loading of vsphere tools.
If you need help on that, I have a working 20.04 in my repo https://github.com/dbond007/Packer/tree/master/ubuntu_base

[nywilken]

It looks like this issue has been resolved in the last comment. I'm going to close as this does not appear to be an issue with Packer.