ansible-vmware-new-vm

Role to create new virtual machine (Linux based) using VMware vCenter API. This role was created with AWX (Ansible Tower) in mind and to work with multiple VMware vCenters.

e.g.: You have implemented a geo redundancy architecture and installed two VMware vCenter one for NorthDatacenter other for SouthDatacenter. Just need to pass vm_vcenter_host in your inventory.

Will use a single source of truth, versioned inventory file located on your favorite git server.

The approach taken was to use that inventory file for VM deployment and dynamic inventory to config afterwards.

That means that everytime your job (in case of AWX) runs, will check your source of truth, and will implement the state that you have there described (running state, memory, etc etc).

Features that you can edit will be described below at Role Variables

Known limitations:

• Network is not dynamic as HDD list
  • Need to add/remove element networks dict at main tasks
• Working with defaults, disks are dynamic up to 4 (1 OS + 3 DATA):
  • Need to add/remove element disk_dict dict at main defaults
  • Need to add/remove key/value vm_extradisk_size_gb at main defaults

Maybe in future that could be changed - if time allows it - to a beautiful Jinja2 template

Note: Features like CPU/RAM hotplug, and correct usage with Ansible, will always depend on your VMware vCenter/Hardware.

Installation

Clone repo and run from your own playbook.

Requirements

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/vmware_guest_module.html:

• python >= 2.6
• PyVmomi

To fully integrated with this role, out of box, can use AWX and need to:

• Setup vCenter credentials and map to your job

To be used without AWX:

• Setup VMWARE_* vars on your environment session

VMware vCenter:

• You need to have credentials to proceed with auth
• You need to have a Template created to proceed with clone

Role Variables

Vars - connection to vCenterList:

Like mentioned before, to be used with AWX, change accordingly to your needs:

Variable	Description	Defaults
vm_vcenter_host	VWware IP/FQDN to be added at inventory, if need	Optional defaults to VMWARE_HOST
VMWARE_HOST	VWware IP/FQDN	setup shell/session env
VMWARE_USER	VWware User to connect to vCenter	setup shell/session env
VMWARE_PASSWORD	VWware User password to connect to vCenter	setup shell/session env

Vars - vCenter common setup:

Specific to vCenter, you gonna need to setup where you want to deploy VM and map to cluster/folders/etc etc:

Variable	Description	Defaults
vm_vcenter_datacenter	VWware vCenter Datacenter to deploy VM	None
vm_vcenter_cluster	VMware vCenter Cluster to deploy VM	None
vm_vcenter_folder	VMware vCenter folder to deploy VM	None
vm_vcenter_template	VMware vCenter image to clone	None

Vars - VM specs:

Specific to VM to be deployed:

Variable	Description	Defaults
vm_hostname	Hostname to be configured at VM	inventory_hostname
vm_ram	Amount of VM RAM	2048
vm_num_cpus	Amount of VM CPU	2
vm_dns_server	DNS server to be configured	None
vm_dns_suffix	DNS suffix to be configured	None
vm_eth0_network	ETH0 PG	None
vm_eth0_ip	ETH0 IP	None
vm_eth0_mask	ETH0 MASK	None
vm_eth0_gw	ETH0 GW	None
vm_vcenter_vds	DSwitch	None
vm_eth0_device	Device emulation	None
vm_vcenter_net_connected	Network connection enabled after deploy	False
vm_disk_datastore	Where to store VM	None
vm_extradisk_size_gb2	Number in GB for extra disk	None

👋 ⚠️ Repeat every `vm_eth0_ip' times the amount of network interfaces (by default you need to setup eth0 and eth1 vars)

👋 ⚠️ By default it will suport 4 disks (1 for OS plus 3 for DATA) and you will need to fill accordingly in your inventory vm_extradisk_size_gbX, but only declare the ones you need to. It will create the ones that you declare only (up to a total of 4, by default)

Big Note: if you need to, I would suggest to edit the code to have defaults or even better... just create groups at inventory and setup a var for a specific group. e.g.: Datacenter

Example Playbook

Create a inventory file and load when running with playbook.

Inventory file example:

    [mynewvm]
    mynewvmName

    [mynewvm:vars]
    vm_vcenter_net_connected=True
    vm_vcenter_template=templateCentos7
    vm_vcenter_cluster=VMwareCluster
    vm_vcenter_vds=vDS_vcenter
    vm_eth0_network=portgroup_network01
    vm_eth0_ip=10.0.0.100
    vm_eth0_mask=255.255.255.0
    vm_eth0_gw=10.0.0.1
    vm_eth1_network=portgroup_network02
    vm_eth1_ip=10.0.1.100
    vm_eth1_mask=255.255.255.0
    vm_eth1_gw=10.0.1.1
    vm_extradisk_size_gb2=100

License

GNU GPLv3

Author Information

• Joao Santos (morgado.santos@gmail.com)