How to add region in packer ami data source

Question

We have a number of aws ami's, now in my pipeline i would like to use the latest ami but its failing on the following error

   Error: Datasource.Execute failed: Error querying AMI: MissingRegion: could not find region configuration

I have given the region in the source block but when i specify region in data source block its not working. Can you please suggest how can i accomplish this

packer {
   required_plugins {
     amazon = {
       version = ">= 0.0.1"
       source  = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"
     }
   }
}

data "amazon-ami" "my_ami_ds" {
  filters = {
    virtualization-type = "hvm"
    name                = "my-test-ami*"
    root-device-type    = "ebs"
  }
  owners      = ["${var.aws_account_id}"]
  most_recent = true
  region      = "${var.aws_region}"
}

Workflow yaml

      name: packer

      on:
        workflow_run:
        workflows: [msbuild]
        types:
  - completed

jobs:
  packer:
  runs-on: my-runner
  strategy:
   matrix:
    environment: ['dev','test','prod']

steps:
  - name: Ensure previous build succeeded
    if: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.conclusion != 'success' }}
    run: exit 1

  - uses: actions/checkout@v2.4.2

  - name: Setup AWS configuration
    run: scripts/actions-setup-aws-config

  - name: Setup Packer
    uses: hashicorp-contrib/setup-packer@v1
    with:
      packer-version: 1.8.2

  - name: Get release info
    id: release_info
    uses: actions/github-script@v6
    with:
      script: |
        const allArtifacts = await github.rest.actions.listWorkflowRunArtifacts({
           owner: context.repo.owner,
           repo: context.repo.repo,
           run_id: context.payload.workflow_run.id,
        });
        return {
          artifactId: artifact.id,
          version: artifact.name.replace(artifactBaseName, "")
        };
  - name: Set release info
    id: release_output
    run: |
      ARTIFACT_ID=$(echo '${{ steps.release_info.outputs.result }}' | jq '.artifactId')
      ARTIFACT_URL=https://api.github.com/repos/${{ github.repository }}/actions/artifacts/$ARTIFACT_ID/zip
      VERSION=$(echo '${{ steps.release_info.outputs.result }}' | jq '.version')
      echo "::set-output name=artifact_url::$ARTIFACT_URL"
      echo "::set-output name=version::$VERSION"
  - name: Packer init
    working-directory: ./work_dir
    run: packer init .

  - name: Packer build
    working-directory: ./work_dir
    run: |
      packer build -timestamp-ui \
        --var-file "variables/${{ matrix.environment }}.pkrvars.hcl" \
        --var build_version=${{ steps.release_output.outputs.version }} \
        --var artifacts_url=${{ steps.release_output.outputs.artifact_url }} \
        --var artifacts_token=${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} .
  - name: Get AMI ID
    working-directory: ./work_dir
    run: |
      AMI_ID=$(jq -r '.builds[-1].artifact_id' manifest.json | cut -d ":" -f2)
      echo "Created AMI with ID $AMI_ID" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
     service-company-api-pipeline/packer.yml at master · 
     HavenEngineering/service-company-api-pipeline

aws config script

      #!/bin/bash

      set -o errexit
      set -o pipefail
      set -o nounset



     source "$(dirname "${0}")/common"

     #ensure_invoked_from_repo
     #ensure_invoked_in_github_actions

     repo_root_path="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
     aws_config_path="${repo_root_path}/.aws_config"

     rm -f "${aws_config_path}"
     touch "${aws_config_path}"

     source "$(dirname "${0}")/aws-account-ids"

    for env in "${!aws_account_ids[@]}"; do
       cat <<EOF >>"${aws_config_path}"
       [profile company-${env}]
       region            = eu-west-1
       role_arn          = arn:aws:iam::${aws_account_ids[${env}]}:role/ciadmin
      credential_source = Ec2InstanceMetadata
      EOF
      done

      echo "AWS_CONFIG_FILE=${aws_config_path}" >> "${GITHUB_ENV}"

New packer build command

   - name: Packer build
    working-directory: ./work_dir
    run: |
      packer build -timestamp-ui \
        --var AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=eu-west-1

Added as env variable in workflow file still same

  name: packer
  env:
      AWS_REGION: eu-west-1
  on:
    workflow_run:
    workflows: [msbuild]
    types:
        - completed

Answer 1

The error indicates that var.aws_region is undefined.

You have two options:

1. You pass the region as a variable from the pipeline:

   packer build -timestamp-ui \
     ...
     -var "aws_region=..."
     ...
   

2. You export the region as an environment variable in your pipeline:

   export AWS_REGION=...
   

   and then reference it in the packer file:

   variable "aws_region" {
     default = env("AWS_REGION")
   }