WinRM and windows images

How to setup WinRM

In autounattend.xml

    <settings pass="auditUser">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"
            xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <RunSynchronous>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Description>Copy Files...</Description>
                    <Path>powershell.exe -noprofile -command &quot;move-item -Path c:\windows\temp\* -Destination $env:temp -ea SilentlyContinue;exit(0)&quot;</Path>
                    <Order>1</Order>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>8</Order>
                    <Path>powershell.exe -noprofile -File c:\windows\setup\scripts\pokadot\ansible.ps1</Path>
                    <WillReboot>Never</WillReboot>
                    <Description>Enable Winrm for ansible</Description>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                ```

To test if winrm is listening

winrs -r:https://192.168.19.101:5986/wsman ipconfig

This command will fail since we don’t provide credentials but the error message will indicate a connection is possible 

Using Packer to create Windows images

As part of my role as a developer for Ansible on everything Windows, I have a need to test my code on a wide variety of Windows and PowerShell versions. I ended up having a setup of the following t…

Blogging for Loggingpacker-templates

ansible_user: LocalUsername
ansible_password: Password
ansible_connection: winrm
ansible_winrm_transport: basic

Winrm only allows admins to execute sessions

Run this in admin powershell

Set-PSSessionConfiguration Microsoft.PowerShell -ShowSecurityDescriptorUI

Add cupcake user

Used common winrm issues from another computer to debug

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/user_guide/windows_setup.html#common-winrm-issues

Robocop winrm setup

Right after running this I have basic auth over https and can do this from ansible host

Inventory

[laptops]
robocop #192.168.19.219
[laptops:vars]
ansible_user="kermit"
ansible_password=<kermit’s password>
ansible_connection=winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation=ignore

ansible laptops -i inventory --ask-vault-pass -m win_ping

Vault password:
robocop | SUCCESS => {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}

Admin Powershell

$url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/ansible/devel/examples/scripts/ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1"
$file = "$env:temp\ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1"
(New-Object -TypeName System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, $file)
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File $file -Verbose

(This adds Allow WinRM https access port 8296) 8295 http is blocked