[googlecompute] Error creating windows password: time out while waiting for the password to be created

[loganhang]

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Overview of the Issue

Build 'googlecompute.win2019_office2021' errored after 30 minutes 51 seconds: Error creating windows password: time out while waiting for the password to be created

Reproduction Steps

1. Using the official version (ex: windows-server-2019-dc-v20251112 or windows-server-2016-dc-v20251112), the first-layer image (ex: base-golden-Win2019) is built successfully.

2. Building the second-layer image based on the first-layer image (base-golden-Win2019) results in the following error: Error creating windows password

Packer version

packer version: Packer v1.9.1

googlecompute version "v1.2.1"

set these:
winrm_timeout = "30m"
windows_password_timeout = "30m"

Log Fragments and crash.log files

21:02:55  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Checking image does not exist...
21:02:55  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Creating temporary RSA SSH key for instance...
21:02:56  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: no persistent disk to create
21:02:56  2025/12/09 13:02:56 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:02:56 failed to get project metadata: Project metadata key, enable-oslogin, not found.
21:02:57  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Using image: gcp-base-image-win2019-v20251112
21:02:57  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Creating instance...
21:02:57  2025/12/09 13:02:57 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:02:57 [DEBUG] Adding metadata during instance creation...
21:02:57      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Loading zone: us-west1-a
21:02:57      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Loading machine type: n1-standard-2
21:02:57  2025/12/09 13:02:57 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:02:57 [DEBUG] using google-managed encryption key for boot disk
21:02:57      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Requesting instance creation...
21:02:58      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Waiting for creation operation to complete...
21:02:58  2025/12/09 13:02:58 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:02:58 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:03:00  2025/12/09 13:03:00 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:03:00 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:03:02  2025/12/09 13:03:02 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:03:02 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:03:04  2025/12/09 13:03:04 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:03:04 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:03:07  2025/12/09 13:03:07 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:03:07 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:03:09      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Instance has been created!
21:03:09  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Creating windows user for instance...
21:03:09      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Waiting for windows password to complete...
21:03:10  2025/12/09 13:03:10 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:03:10 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:03:12  2025/12/09 13:03:12 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:03:12 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:09  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Error creating windows password: time out while waiting for the password to be created
21:33:09  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Deleting instance...
21:33:09  2025/12/09 13:33:09 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:09 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:12  2025/12/09 13:33:11 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:11 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:14  2025/12/09 13:33:14 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:14 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:16  2025/12/09 13:33:16 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:16 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:18  2025/12/09 13:33:18 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:18 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:20  2025/12/09 13:33:20 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:20 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:22  2025/12/09 13:33:22 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:22 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:24  2025/12/09 13:33:24 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:24 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:27  2025/12/09 13:33:26 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:26 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:29  2025/12/09 13:33:29 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:29 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:31  2025/12/09 13:33:31 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:31 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:33  2025/12/09 13:33:33 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:33 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:35  2025/12/09 13:33:35 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:35 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:37  2025/12/09 13:33:37 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:37 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:39  2025/12/09 13:33:39 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:39 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:42  2025/12/09 13:33:42 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:42 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:44      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Instance has been deleted!
21:33:44  ==> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Deleting disk...
21:33:44  2025/12/09 13:33:44 packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64 plugin: 2025/12/09 13:33:44 Retryable error: retrying for state DONE, got RUNNING
21:33:46      googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Disk has been deleted!
21:33:46  2025/12/09 13:33:46 [INFO] (telemetry) ending googlecompute.win2019_office2021
21:33:46  Build 'googlecompute.win2019_office2021' errored after 30 minutes 51 seconds: Error creating windows password: time out while waiting for the password to be created
21:33:46  
21:33:46  ==> Wait completed after 30 minutes 51 seconds
21:33:46  ==> Wait completed after 30 minutes 51 seconds
21:33:46  2025/12/09 13:33:46 machine readable: error-count []string{"1"}
21:33:46  
21:33:46  ==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
21:33:46  2025/12/09 13:33:46 machine readable: googlecompute.win2019_office2021,error []string{"Error creating windows password: time out while waiting for the password to be created"}
21:33:46  ==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.
21:33:46  ==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
21:33:46  --> googlecompute.win2019_office2021: Error creating windows password: time out while waiting for the password to be created
21:33:46  
21:33:46  ==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.
21:33:46  2025/12/09 13:33:46 [INFO] (telemetry) Finalizing.
21:33:47  2025/12/09 13:33:47 waiting for all plugin processes to complete...
21:33:47  2025/12/09 13:33:47 /home/ubuntu/.packer.d/plugins/github.com/hashicorp/ansible/packer-plugin-ansible_v1.1.3_x5.0_linux_amd64: plugin process exited
21:33:47  2025/12/09 13:33:47 /usr/local/bin/packer_0191: plugin process exited
21:33:47  2025/12/09 13:33:47 /usr/local/bin/packer_0191: plugin process exited
21:33:47  2025/12/09 13:33:47 /home/ubuntu/.packer.d/plugins/github.com/hashicorp/googlecompute/packer-plugin-googlecompute_v1.2.1_x5.0_linux_amd64: plugin process exited
21:33:47  2025/12/09 13:33:47 /usr/local/bin/packer_0191: plugin process exited