PowerShell Script is not executing when using azurerm_virtual_machine_extension

Question

I am trying to use the following within my terraform execution:

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine_extension" "vmex" {
    name = "myVM"
    location = "eastus"
    resource_group_name   = "${azurerm_resource_group.rg.name}"
    virtual_machine_name = "${azurerm_virtual_machine.vm.name}"
    publisher = "Microsoft.Compute"
    type = "CustomScriptExtension"
    type_handler_version = "1.9"
    settings = <<SETTINGS
    {
        "fileUris": [
            "https://example.com/scripts/test.ps1"
        ],
        "commandToExecute": "powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File 'test.ps1'"
    }
    SETTINGS
}

When this executes, I get the following output:

Error: Error applying plan:

1 error(s) occurred:

azurerm_virtual_machine_extension.vmex: 1 error(s) occurred:

azurerm_virtual_machine_extension.vmex: Long running operation terminated with status 'Failed': Code="VMExtensionProvisioningError" Message="VM has reported a failure when processing extension 'myVM'. Error message: \"Finished executing command\"."

Terraform does not automatically rollback in the face of errors. Instead, your Terraform state file has been partially updated with any resources that successfully completed. Please address the error above and apply again to incrementally change your infrastructure.

When I RDP into the VM, I can see that the file is correctly downloaded into the location that it is meant to be, however, it seems as though the commandToExecute is never executed.

If I run the script directly from the downloads folder, it successfully completes.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what to try to do to resolve this?

NOTE: I have tried various combinations of trying to reference the file, but all of them seem to have the same result.

UPDATE: After checking the logs as suggested in the comments, the error when trying to run this snippet was:

"message": "Processing -File ''test.ps1'' failed because the file does not have a '.ps1' extension. Specify a valid Windows PowerShell script file name, and then try again."

Raul Vega · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-07 13:32:11Z

5

I have that kind of problems and in my case was something related with the content of the script and parameters. But because it can be many other things you would need to retrieve some extra data.

Try to find out if you have more information in the extension itself. Go to your Azure account and follow the path: Home > Virtual Machines > [your_virtual_machine]. In the blade that appears with all the options choose Extensions to see your extension and its status (it should be "Provisioning failed". Click on that extension. You will see some information about it. Check Status and Detailed Status.

Detailed status is a link that will show you a JSON that can contain important information about what is going on. Probably it will contain an error output from your PS1 script.

Let me know if that helps and if that information is not enough, please, post it here so I can have more information and I would be able to check and try to help.

Regards, Raul.

EDIT: So after checking the differences between our code examples finally the single quotes were responsible for your problem. Glad you found the issue.

edited Mar 7, 2018 at 13:32

answered Mar 6, 2018 at 14:23

Raul Vega

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4 Comments

Gary Ewan Park Over a year ago

I have done what you suggested, and the error message that I can find it this:

"message": "Processing -File ''test.ps1'' failed because the file does not have a '.ps1' extension. Specify a valid Windows PowerShell script file name, and then try again."

Any ideas? Thanks

Raul Vega Over a year ago

The only difference I found with my working code examples are: (1) use of the whole executable name "powershell.exe" (2) file name without single quotes (3) I'm still using type_handler_version 1.8. (1) and (2) should not be a problem. Give it a try with (3)

Gary Ewan Park Over a year ago

Ok, thanks I will try ruling out each of those, one by one.

Gary Ewan Park Over a year ago

Raul, looks like it all works if I remove the single quotes from the file name. Really not sure why that makes a difference, as the documentation suggests that they should be used, but... If you wanted to add this information to your answer, I will mark is as accepted. Thanks again!

Shui shengbao · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-07 04:16:56Z

3

The root reason is in commandToExecute you could not use single quotes. You could remove single quotes or use double quotes(but you need use \). Like below:

"commandToExecute": "powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File \"test.ps1\""

answered Mar 7, 2018 at 4:16

Shui shengbao

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6 Comments

Shui shengbao Over a year ago

I check custom script log, it seems Azure agent execute command 'powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile -NonInteractive -File 'helloworld.ps1'', you could not use singe quotes again. imgur.com/a/p4NbD

Shui shengbao Over a year ago

Also, this is not a terraform issue. If you use Azure arm template, you will get the same error log.

Gary Ewan Park Over a year ago

Agreed. I have sent a PR to here: github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/pull/5387 to correct the example that is shown in the documentation.

Shui shengbao Over a year ago

I will give a feedback to Azure, this official document have this issue. "commandToExecute": "powershell.exe . . . -File './scripts/myscript.ps1'" this is wrong.

Gary Ewan Park Over a year ago

I agree, that this documentation is wrong, and that is the PR that I have sent through to correct that documentation.

|

Giulio Vian · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-06 19:51:32Z

1

You should connect to the VM (via RDP, Powershell remote, or else) and look into the C:\WindowsAzure\Logs\Plugins\Microsoft.Compute.CustomScriptExtension folder for the logs.

I assume you have you the content Custom Script Extension for Windows.

edited Mar 6, 2018 at 19:51

answered Mar 6, 2018 at 16:16

Giulio Vian

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2 Comments

Gary Ewan Park Over a year ago

Thanks, I found the logs based on the answer from Raul, however, it doesn't shed any light on the problem. Do you have any ideas? Thanks!

Giulio Vian Over a year ago

I have some working samples, but not on this PC; I can check tomorrow

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