- `communicator` (string) - Packer currently supports three kinds of communicators: - `none` - No communicator will be used. If this is set, most provisioners also can't be used. - `ssh` - An SSH connection will be established to the machine. This is usually the default. - `winrm` - A WinRM connection will be established. In addition to the above, some builders have custom communicators they can use. For example, the Docker builder has a "docker" communicator that uses `docker exec` and `docker cp` to execute scripts and copy files. - `pause_before_connecting` (duration string | ex: "1h5m2s") - We recommend that you enable SSH or WinRM as the very last step in your guest's bootstrap script, but sometimes you may have a race condition where you need Packer to wait before attempting to connect to your guest. If you end up in this situation, you can use the template option `pause_before_connecting`. By default, there is no pause. For example: ```json { "communicator": "ssh", "ssh_username": "myuser", "pause_before_connecting": "10m" } ``` In this example, Packer will check whether it can connect, as normal. But once a connection attempt is successful, it will disconnect and then wait 10 minutes before connecting to the guest and beginning provisioning.