Certificate validation fails on first login due to clock skew

windows-server-containers-preview

Issue Details

first-login script fails with the following error:

Failed to process file in optimization with error: A required certificate is not within its validity period when
verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800B0101)
At C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\Modules\Containers\1.0.0.0\Containers.psm1:403 char:9

•     throw [exception]::new(
  

•     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], Exception
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : Failed to process file in optimization with error: A required certificate is not within
    its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file. (Exceptio
    n from HRESULT: 0x800B0101)

This is in the UK South region, and I have noticed these VMs do not have the correct time zone setting and I have to manually change it to GMT with British Summer Time - so the cause is understandable given the message, but it is also not clear what I have to do to recover from this error.

Repro steps (if necessary, delete otherwise)

1. Create a new VM in the UK South region using the template
2. Connect via Remote Desktop
   3.
   4.
   5.

Start with the windows-server-containers-preview template and its first-login script, then inspect the reported failure in C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\Modules\Containers\1.0.0.0\Containers.psm1 at line 403. Confirm the time-zone or clock-skew behavior in a new UK South VM and document a recovery path that allows first login to complete without manual correction.