Build VM error

[Kockieee]

Description

After the update from today I'm running into this error:

Any help would be appreciated.

Best regards,
Charles

Platforms affected

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

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Image version and build link

Azure DevOps:

Starting: Initialize job
Agent name: 'name here'
Agent machine name: 'name here'
Current agent version: '4.258.1'
Current image version: 'dev'
Agent running as: 'AzDevOps'
Prepare build directory.
Set build variables.
Download all required tasks.
Downloading task: PublishBuildArtifacts (1.247.1)
Checking job knob settings.
Knob: DockerActionRetries = true Source: $(VSTSAGENT_DOCKER_ACTION_RETRIES)
Knob: AgentToolsDirectory = /opt/hostedtoolcache Source: ${AGENT_TOOLSDIRECTORY}
Knob: UseGitLongPaths = true Source: $(USE_GIT_LONG_PATHS)
Knob: EnableIssueSourceValidation = true Source: $(ENABLE_ISSUE_SOURCE_VALIDATION)
Knob: AgentEnablePipelineArtifactLargeChunkSize = true Source: $(AGENT_ENABLE_PIPELINEARTIFACT_LARGE_CHUNK_SIZE)
Knob: ContinueAfterCancelProcessTreeKillAttempt = true Source: $(VSTSAGENT_CONTINUE_AFTER_CANCEL_PROCESSTREEKILL_ATTEMPT)
Knob: ProcessHandlerSecureArguments = false Source: $(AZP_75787_ENABLE_NEW_LOGIC)
Knob: ProcessHandlerSecureArguments = false Source: $(AZP_75787_ENABLE_NEW_LOGIC_LOG)
Knob: ProcessHandlerTelemetry = true Source: $(AZP_75787_ENABLE_COLLECT)
Knob: UseNewNodeHandlerTelemetry = True Source: $(DistributedTask.Agent.USENEWNODEHANDLERTELEMETRY)
Knob: ProcessHandlerEnableNewLogic = true Source: $(AZP_75787_ENABLE_NEW_PH_LOGIC)
Knob: EnableResourceMonitorDebugOutput = true Source: $(AZP_ENABLE_RESOURCE_MONITOR_DEBUG_OUTPUT)
Knob: EnableResourceUtilizationWarnings = true Source: $(AZP_ENABLE_RESOURCE_UTILIZATION_WARNINGS)
Knob: IgnoreVSTSTaskLib = true Source: $(AZP_AGENT_IGNORE_VSTSTASKLIB)
Knob: FailJobWhenAgentDies = true Source: $(FAIL_JOB_WHEN_AGENT_DIES)
Knob: CheckForTaskDeprecation = true Source: $(AZP_AGENT_CHECK_FOR_TASK_DEPRECATION)
Knob: CheckIfTaskNodeRunnerIsDeprecated246 = False Source: $(DistributedTask.Agent.CheckIfTaskNodeRunnerIsDeprecated246)
Knob: UseNode20ToStartContainer = True Source: $(DistributedTask.Agent.UseNode20ToStartContainer)
Knob: LogTaskNameInUserAgent = true Source: $(AZP_AGENT_LOG_TASKNAME_IN_USERAGENT)
Knob: UseFetchFilterInCheckoutTask = true Source: $(AGENT_USE_FETCH_FILTER_IN_CHECKOUT_TASK)
Knob: Rosetta2Warning = true Source: $(ROSETTA2_WARNING)
Knob: AddForceCredentialsToGitCheckout = True Source: $(DistributedTask.Agent.AddForceCredentialsToGitCheckout)
Knob: UseSparseCheckoutInCheckoutTask = true Source: $(AGENT_USE_SPARSE_CHECKOUT_IN_CHECKOUT_TASK)
Finished checking job knob settings.
Start tracking orphan processes.
Finishing: Initialize job

Is it regression?

worked this morning as i was troubleshooting issues with our VMSS

Expected behavior

Build VM stage completes successfully

Actual behavior

Repro steps

Running the deploy VMSS from YannickRE, which references this .ps1 file, this is the link: https://github.com/YannickRe/azuredevops-buildagents

      - task: PowerShell@2
        name: buildVm
        displayName: "Build VM"
        inputs:
          targetType: filePath
          filePath: ./runner-images/images.CI/linux-and-win/build-image.ps1
          arguments: -ClientId $(CLIENT_ID) `
            -ClientSecret $(CLIENT_SECRET) `
            -TemplatePath $(TemplatePath) `
            -ImageName "$(ManagedImageName)" `
            -ImageResourceGroupName $(AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP) `
            -TempResourceGroupName "$(TempResourceGroupName)" `
            -SubscriptionId $(AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION) `
            -TenantId $(AZURE_TENANT) `
            -Location $(AZURE_LOCATION) `
            -VirtualNetworkName $(BUILD_AGENT_VNET_NAME) `
            -VirtualNetworkRG $(BUILD_AGENT_VNET_RESOURCE_GROUP) `
            -VirtualNetworkSubnet $(BUILD_AGENT_SUBNET_NAME)

[Prabhatkumar59]

Hi @Kockieee - Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will look into this issue and will update you after investigating.


[akilesh-amaran]

Hi @Kockieee,
Could you please pull the latest code from our repository, re-run the pipeline, and share the error logs with us at your convenience? It would help us investigate further.

[Kockieee]

Hi Akilesh,

We don't pull the latest code, our simple piece of code references Yannick's repo (https://github.com/YannickRe/azuredevops-buildagents) which in turn references your repo. I'm awaiting a reaction from Yannick's end, will keep you posted.

Best regards,
Charles

[SamBonavika]

Hi @akilesh-amaran,

More info related to the code in YannickRe's repo ...

I made changes on my local copy of this repo and "pass" all the new required values to the build-image.ps1 script, but when it executes a whole bunch of packer errors are produced, e.g.:

========================== Starting Command Output ===========================
[command]/usr/bin/pwsh -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command . '/mnt/vss/_work/_temp/b175d0b2-f518-4a78-bf8c-3837cb10ba7d.ps1'
Show Packer Version
Packer v1.13.1
Download packer plugins
�[1;36mInstalled plugin github.com/hashicorp/azure v2.3.3 in "/home/AzDevOps/.config/packer/plugins/github.com/hashicorp/azure/packer-plugin-azure_v2.3.3_x5.0_linux_amd64"�[0m
Validate packer template
Syntax-only check passed. Everything looks okay.
Build ubuntu-24_04 VM
Error: Undefined -var variable

A "location" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "location", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "virtual_network_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not
found in known variables. To declare variable "virtual_network_name", place this
block in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "virtual_network_resource_group_name" variable was passed in the command line
but was not found in known variables. To declare variable
"virtual_network_resource_group_name", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "azure_tags" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in
known variables. To declare variable "azure_tags", place this block in one of
your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "install_password" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
in known variables. To declare variable "install_password", place this block in
one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "subscription_id" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in
known variables. To declare variable "subscription_id", place this block in one
of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "temp_resource_group_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not
found in known variables. To declare variable "temp_resource_group_name", place
this block in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "tenant_id" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "tenant_id", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "virtual_network_subnet_name" variable was passed in the command line but was
not found in known variables. To declare variable "virtual_network_subnet_name",
place this block in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "allowed_inbound_ip_addresses" variable was passed in the command line but was
not found in known variables. To declare variable
"allowed_inbound_ip_addresses", place this block in one of your .pkr files, such
as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "image_os" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "image_os", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "managed_image_resource_group_name" variable was passed in the command line
but was not found in known variables. To declare variable
"managed_image_resource_group_name", place this block in one of your .pkr files,
such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "managed_image_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
in known variables. To declare variable "managed_image_name", place this block
in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "use_azure_cli_auth" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
in known variables. To declare variable "use_azure_cli_auth", place this block
in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "client_id" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "client_id", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "client_secret" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in
known variables. To declare variable "client_secret", place this block in one of
your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl



##[error]PowerShell exited with code '1'.
##[section]Finishing: Build VM

And here is the command "we" execute that produces this output:

  - task: PowerShell@2
    name: buildVm
    displayName: 'Build VM'
    inputs:
      targetType: filePath
      filePath: ./runner-images/images.CI/linux-and-win/build-image.ps1
      arguments: -ClientId $(CLIENT_ID) `
         -ClientSecret $(CLIENT_SECRET) `
         -TemplatePath $(TemplatePath) `
         -BuildTemplateName $(TemplateFileName) `
         -ImageOS $(ImageOS) `
         -ImageName "$(ManagedImageName)" `
         -ImageResourceGroupName $(AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP) `
         -TempResourceGroupName "$(TempResourceGroupName)" `
         -SubscriptionId $(AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION) `
         -TenantId $(AZURE_TENANT) `
         -Location $(AZURE_LOCATION) `
         -VirtualNetworkName $(BUILD_AGENT_VNET_NAME) `
         -VirtualNetworkRG $(BUILD_AGENT_VNET_RESOURCE_GROUP) `
         -VirtualNetworkSubnet $(BUILD_AGENT_SUBNET_NAME)`
    env:
      PACKER_LOG: 1
      PACKER_LOG_PATH: "$(Agent.TempDirectory)/packer-log.txt"

The above has worked just fine for many moons prior to the #12305 changes.

One additional note: by default the YannickRe processing clones the main branch of the actions/runner-images repo. It appears that the latest releases/ubuntu24 or releases/win22 branches still have the old code structure and build w/o issues.

[dmytrosklyarov]

I did the same as @SamBonavika but for Ubuntu 22 and am facing the same errors.

[akilesh-amaran]

Hi @SamBonavika - The new versions will be available with the upcoming rollout. I will share an update once the process is complete.

thanks for your support !

[SamBonavika]

Hi @SamBonavika - The new versions will be available with the upcoming rollout. I will share an update once the process is complete.

thanks for your support !

Thank you!!!

[akilesh-amaran]

Hi @Kockieee ,
Could you please try now with latest image rollout and confirm the same .
CC: @SamBonavika , @dmytrosklyarov

[dmytrosklyarov]

Hi @akilesh-amaran ,

I tried running my pipelines for Ubuntu 22, Ubuntu 24, and Windows 22, but the result is the same as before, errors about undefined variables.

Your version of Packer is out of date! The latest version
is 1.13.1. You can update by downloading from www.packer.io/downloads
Download packer plugins
Installed plugin github.com/hashicorp/azure v2.3.3 in "$HOME/.config/packer/plugins/github.com/hashicorp/azure/packer-plugin-azure_v2.3.3_x5.0_linux_amd64"
Validate packer template
Syntax-only check passed. Everything looks okay.
Build windows-2022 VM
Error: Undefined -var variable

A "virtual_network_resource_group_name" variable was passed in the command line
but was not found in known variables. To declare variable
"virtual_network_resource_group_name", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "use_azure_cli_auth" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
in known variables. To declare variable "use_azure_cli_auth", place this block
in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "client_id" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "client_id", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "client_secret" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in
known variables. To declare variable "client_secret", place this block in one of
your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "managed_image_resource_group_name" variable was passed in the command line
but was not found in known variables. To declare variable
"managed_image_resource_group_name", place this block in one of your .pkr files,
such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "subscription_id" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in
known variables. To declare variable "subscription_id", place this block in one
of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "tenant_id" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "tenant_id", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "virtual_network_subnet_name" variable was passed in the command line but was
not found in known variables. To declare variable "virtual_network_subnet_name",
place this block in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "install_password" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
in known variables. To declare variable "install_password", place this block in
one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "location" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "location", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "managed_image_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
in known variables. To declare variable "managed_image_name", place this block
in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "temp_resource_group_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not
found in known variables. To declare variable "temp_resource_group_name", place
this block in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "allowed_inbound_ip_addresses" variable was passed in the command line but was
not found in known variables. To declare variable
"allowed_inbound_ip_addresses", place this block in one of your .pkr files, such
as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "azure_tags" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in
known variables. To declare variable "azure_tags", place this block in one of
your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "image_os" variable was passed in the command line but was not found in known
variables. To declare variable "image_os", place this block in one of your .pkr
files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

Error: Undefined -var variable

A "virtual_network_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not
found in known variables. To declare variable "virtual_network_name", place this
block in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

[akilesh-amaran]

Hi @Kockieee ,
Thanks for reaching out.
Our build pipelines are also using the changes introduced in this PR, and they're completing successfully without any issues. Based on this, the issue seems to be specific to the changes in the forked repository.
As a general practice, we're unable to troubleshoot or support issues in forked repositories, since we don't have visibility into the custom changes made there.We recommend reviewing the recent modifications on your side, as that will likely help in identifying the root cause.

[dmytrosklyarov]

Hi @akilesh-amaran, could you please share the source code of the pipelines you mentioned

[akilesh-amaran]

HI @dmytrosklyarov ,
You can find the source code for the pipelines here: https://github.com/actions/runner-images

[dmytrosklyarov]

@akilesh-amaran Could you please point me to the pipeline definition? I'm straggling to find any pipelines under the repo.

[mark-greene]

I'm having the same issues with undefined variables and am using this repo. The issue is with the change to the buildName and templatePath. Where is it documented what -only buildName and templatePath should be? My pipeline just passed the path and name together.

[dmytrosklyarov]

I identified the values by analyzing PR #12305 . If it helps, here are the input variables I used for Ubuntu 22.04.

TemplatePath: /agent/_work/1/s/runner-images/images/ubuntu/templates/build.ubuntu-22_04.pkr.hcl
ImageType: ubuntu2204
ImageOS: ubuntu22
BuildTemplateName: build.ubuntu-22_04.pkr.hcl

[mark-greene]

Thanks! I got it to work with the following. I could not get it to work with the full path.

  - name: templatePath
    value: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/virtual-environments/images/ubuntu/templates'
  - name: buildName
    value: 'ubuntu-22_04*'

[dmytrosklyarov]

Thanks. Once I changed the template path to /agent/_work/1/s/runner-images/images/ubuntu/templates it started working for me as well.

[Malaw80s]

We are still running into this issue even though I pulled the latest changes:

2025-07-15T17:33:56.4521538Z Error: Undefined -var variable
2025-07-15T17:33:56.4523038Z
2025-07-15T17:33:56.4523887Z A "managed_image_name" variable was passed in the command line but was not found
2025-07-15T17:33:56.4524562Z in known variables. To declare variable "managed_image_name", place this block
2025-07-15T17:33:56.4524935Z in one of your .pkr files, such as variables.pkr.hcl

[dmytrosklyarov]

You could try adjusting the TemplatePath variable so that it points to a templates folder rather than particular template file.

[axelbodin]

If you are using Yannick's pipelines you will need to make a few changes to the buildVm step. Below is part of my comment on the related issue in his repo.

I managed to make it work. Here is my buildVm task definition with some comments. You need to ensure proper variable values.

 - task: PowerShell@2
            name: buildVm
            displayName: "Build VM"
            inputs:
              targetType: filePath
              pwsh: true
              filePath: ./runner-images/images.CI/linux-and-win/build-image.ps1
              arguments: -ClientId "$(CLIENT_ID)" `
                -ClientSecret "$(CLIENT_SECRET)" `
                -TemplatePath "$(TemplateDirectoryPath)" ` # See how I changed it to template directory and not the exact file
                -ImageName "$(ManagedImageName)" `
                -ImageResourceGroupName "$(AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP)" `
                -TempResourceGroupName "$(TempResourceGroupName)" `
                -SubscriptionId "$(AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION)" `
                -TenantId "$(AZURE_TENANT)" `
                -Location "$(AZURE_LOCATION)" `
                -VirtualNetworkName "$(BUILD_AGENT_VNET_NAME)" `
                -VirtualNetworkRG "$(BUILD_AGENT_VNET_RESOURCE_GROUP)" `
                -VirtualNetworkSubnet "$(BUILD_AGENT_SUBNET_NAME)" `
                -ImageOs "$(gitCheckout.OSTagPrefix)" ` # it's the same as the OSTagPrefix, e.g. win25, ubuntu22
                -BuildTemplateName "build.$(gitCheckout.PackerBuildName)" # Documentation says it's just the build name property value from the packer template, but the script expects the template file name because it is doing this; $buildName = $($BuildTemplateName).Split(".")[1]
            env:
              PACKER_LOG: 1
              PACKER_LOG_PATH: "$(Agent.TempDirectory)/packer-log.txt"
              GALLERY_NAME: "$(GALLERY_NAME)" # Taken from ADO Variable Group, you need to set it if you don't have it already
              GALLERY_RG_NAME: "$(GALLERY_RESOURCE_GROUP)" # Taken from ADO Variable Group, you need to set it if you don't have it already
              GALLERY_IMAGE_NAME: "$(setVars.GalleryVmImageDefinition)" # Taken from previous steps
              GALLERY_IMAGE_VERSION: "$(GalleryImageVersion)" # Taken from previous steps

              $GalleryImageVersion = "$((Get-Date).ToString("yyyyMMdd")).$(Build.BuildId).0"
              Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=GalleryImageVersion;]$GalleryImageVersion"

Packer variables are now in a separate, dedicated file and packer builds the whole directory; that's why you point to the whole directory, and you specify which image to build with the BuildTemplateName. There are some new required variables that can be set with env variables.