Parallels Packer ISO complains with "failed to register the VM"

[chargio]

Overview of the Issue

Failed to register the VM: "Fedora_36_tools" when creating a packer file using an existing VM

Reproduction Steps

Create a working configuration file
packer build .

Plugin and Packer version

Packer v1.8.3
prlctl version 18.0.0 (53049)
packer-plugin-parallels_v1.0.3_x5.0_darwin_arm64

Simplified Packer Buildfile

packer {
  required_plugins {
    parallels = {
      version = ">= 1.0.0"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/parallels"
    }
  }
}


source "parallels-pvm" "base-fedora" {
  source_path            = "/Users/sergio/Parallels/Fedora_36_tools.pvm"
  parallels_tools_flavor = "lin-arm"
  ssh_private_key_file   = "./keys/vagrant"
  ssh_username           = "vagrant"
  ssh_password           = "vagrant"
  ssh_timeout            = "90s"
  shutdown_command       = "echo 'vagrant' | sudo -S shutdown -P now"
  boot_wait              = "5s"
}

build {
  sources = ["source.parallels-pvm.base-fedora"]
}

Operating system and Environment details

Mac OS Monterey on an M1 Max

Log Fragments and crash.log files

parallels-pvm.base-fedora: output will be in this color.

==> parallels-pvm.base-fedora: Importing VM: /Users/sergio/Parallels/Fedora_36_tools.pvm
==> parallels-pvm.base-fedora: Error importing VM: prlctl error: Failed to register the VM: "Fedora_36_tools" is already registered. You cannot register a virtual machine more than once.
==> parallels-pvm.base-fedora: Deleting output directory...
Build 'parallels-pvm.base-fedora' errored after 436 milliseconds 894 microseconds: Error importing VM: prlctl error: Failed to register the VM: "Fedora_36_tools" is already registered. You cannot register a virtual machine more than once.

==> Wait completed after 436 milliseconds 937 microseconds

==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
--> parallels-pvm.base-fedora: Error importing VM: prlctl error: Failed to register the VM: "Fedora_36_tools" is already registered. You cannot register a virtual machine more than once.

==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.

[amcmanus]

Also experiencing this exact issue.

[needarun]

Hello,

Any news about that ?

[bineesh-n]

@chargio I think you have "Fedora_36_tools" VM already existing. Did you try unregistering that before packer build ?

[ml4]

Hello this is non-obvious, as at least in my version of Parallels (18.3.2 (53621)) there is no drop-down menu with a 'unregister VM' option, so it was this post that I found that is old but suggests a way forward, which worked by running

prlctl list -a

get the UUID of the image to use, ensuring it's shutdown and then and doing a

prlctl unregister <uuid>

and retrying.