Having trouble creating a basic AWS AMI with Packer.io. SSH Timeout - amazon-web-services

Question

I'm trying to follow these instructions to build a basic AWS image using Packer.io. But it is not working for me.
Here is my Template file:
{
"variables": {
"aws_access_key": "",
"aws_secret_key": ""
},
"builders": [{
"type": "amazon-ebs",
"access_key": "{{user `aws_access_key`}}",
"secret_key": "{{user `aws_secret_key`}}",
"region": "us-east-1",
"source_ami": "ami-146e2a7c",
"instance_type": "t2.micro",
"ssh_username": "ubuntu",
"ami_name": "packer-example {{timestamp}}",
# The following 2 lines don't appear in the tutorial.
# But I had to add them because it said this source AMI
# must be launched inside a VPC.
"vpc_id": "vpc-98765432",
"subnet_id": "subnet-12345678"
}]
}
You will notice that I had to deviate from the instructions by adding the two lines at the bottom (for VPC and subnets). This is because I kept getting the following error:
==> amazon-ebs: Error launching source instance: The specified instance type
can only be used in a VPC. A subnet ID or network interface
ID is required to carry out the request.
(VPCResourceNotSpecified)
That VPC and Subnet are temprorary ones that I manually had to create. But why should I have to do that? Why doesn't packer create those and then delete them like I see it creates a temporary security group and key-pair?
Furthermore, even after I add those two lines, it fails to create the AMI because it gets an SSH timeout. Why? I am having no trouble manually SSHing to other instances in this VPC. The temporary packer instance has InstanceState=Running, StatusChecks=2/2 and SecurityGroup that allows SSH from all over the world.
See the debug output of the packer command below:
$ packer build -debug -var 'aws_access_key=MY_ACCESS_KEY' -var 'aws_secret_key=MY_SECRET_KEY' packer_config_basic.json
Debug mode enabled. Builds will not be parallelized.
amazon-ebs output will be in this color.
==> amazon-ebs: Inspecting the source AMI...
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing after run of step 'StepSourceAMIInfo'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary keypair: packer 99999999-8888-7777-6666-555555555555
amazon-ebs: Saving key for debug purposes: ec2_amazon-ebs.pem
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing after run of step 'StepKeyPair'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary security group for this instance...
==> amazon-ebs: Authorizing SSH access on the temporary security group...
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing after run of step 'StepSecurityGroup'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Launching a source AWS instance...
amazon-ebs: Instance ID: i-12345678
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for instance (i-12345678) to become ready...
amazon-ebs: Private IP: 10.0.2.204
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing after run of step 'StepRunSourceInstance'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for SSH to become available...
==> amazon-ebs: Timeout waiting for SSH.
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing before cleanup of step 'StepRunSourceInstance'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Terminating the source AWS instance...
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing before cleanup of step 'StepSecurityGroup'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary security group...
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing before cleanup of step 'StepKeyPair'. Press enter to continue.
==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary keypair...
==> amazon-ebs: Pausing before cleanup of step 'StepSourceAMIInfo'. Press enter to continue.
Build 'amazon-ebs' errored: Timeout waiting for SSH.
==> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors:
--> amazon-ebs: Timeout waiting for SSH.
==> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.

Answer 1

You're using t2.micro instance type, which can only run in a VPC environment (see T2 Instances).
Since you are in a VPC, by default all traffics is behind the firewall, so you'll need to setup a Security Groups to allow your IP to access the SSH port on that instance.
More easier way is to use m3.medium instance type, a bit expensive but it run everything quicker and you don't need to setup VPC/Security Groups at all.

Answer 2

make sure,1) internetgateway(active, not blackhole) is attached to the default vpc, where we are launching the instance, 2) and also check the route table, the route to internetgateway(current,not old) is present.