multi-clone is a Python script which allows you to clone a virtual machine or virtual machine template into multiple new virtual machines in a VMware vSphere environment.
This script has the following capabilities:
- Deploy a specified amount of virtual machines
- Deploy in a specified datacenter
- Deploy in a specified cluster
- Deploy in a specified datastore
- Deploy in a specified folder
- Deploy in a specified resource pool
- Set advanced configuration options
- Specify if the cloned virtual machines need to be powered on
- Print out information of the main network interface (mac and ip, either IPv4 or IPv6)
- Run a post-processing script with 3 parameters (virtual machine name, mac and ip)
- Instead of setting the basename, amount, resource pool and folder a CSV can be used
- Print logging to a log file or stdout
- Do this in a threaded way
- Use Linked Clones to speed up cloning
Deciding on the optimal amount of threads might need a bit of experimentation. Keep certain things in mind:
- The optimal amount of threads depends on the IOPS of the datastore as each thread will start a template deployment task, which in turn starts copying the disks.
- vCenter will, by default, only run 8 deployment tasks simultaniously while other tasks are queued, so setting the amount of threads to more than 8, is not really usefull.
A CSV file can be provided with a line for each VM that needs to be created, with specific parameters for each VM. The format of each row should be (fields surrounded without [] are mandatory, fields surrounded with [] are optional):
"<Clone name>";"[Datacenter]";"[Cluster]";"[Resouce Pool]";"[Folder]";"[Datastore]";"[MAC Address]";"[Post-processing Script]";"[Advanced VM Parameters in JSON format]"
For instance:
"Test01";"New-York";"Compute-Cluster-01";"Development";"IT";"VSAN-DS";"00:50:56:11:11:11";"run.sh";"{""parameter.1"":""value.1"",""parameter.2"":""value.2""}"
The Post-processing script is run for each VM created if it is provided either as a commandline parameter or as a field in the CSV. It is run with the following parameters:
- virtual machine name, mac and ip : If Print IPs or Print MACs is enabled, combined with Power on
- virtual machine name, mac: If a custom mac address was specified (even if VM is not powered on)
- virtual machine name: If a power on is disabled and no custom mac address is enabled
usage: multi-clone.py [-h] [-6] [-b BASENAME] [-c COUNT] [-C CSVFILE]
[--cluster CLUSTER] [-d] [--datacenter DATACENTER]
[--datastore DATASTORE] [--folder FOLDER] -H HOST [-i]
[-m] [-l LOGFILE] [-L] [--snapshot SNAPSHOT] [-n AMOUNT]
[-o PORT] [-p PASSWORD] [-P]
[--resource-pool RESOURCE_POOL] [-s POST_SCRIPT] [-S] -t
TEMPLATE [-T THREADS] -u USERNAME [-v] [-w MAXWAIT]
Deploy a template into multiple VM's. You can get information returned with
the name of the virtual machine created and it's main mac and ip address.
Either in IPv4 or IPv6 format. You can specify which folder and/or resource
pool the clone should be placed in. Verbose and debug output can either be
send to stdout, or saved to a log file. A post-script can be specified for
post-processing. And it can all be done in a number of parallel threads you
specify. The script also provides the ability to use a CSV for a lot of it
settings and if you want to specify the mac address of the clones (usefull for
DHCP/PXE configuration).
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-6, --six Get IPv6 address for VMs instead of IPv4
-b BASENAME, --basename BASENAME
Basename of the newly deployed VMs
-c COUNT, --count COUNT
Starting count, the name of the first VM deployed will
be <basename>-<count>, the second will be
<basename>-<count+1> (default = 1)
-C CSVFILE, --csv CSVFILE
An optional CSV overwritting the basename and count.
For each line, a clone will be created. A line consits
of the following fields, fields inside <> are
mandatory, fields with [] are not: "<Clone
name>";"[Datacenter]";"[Cluster]";"[Resouce
Pool]";"[Folder]";"[Datastore]";"[MAC Address
]";"[Post-processing Script]";"[Advanced VM Parameters
in JSON format]"
--cluster CLUSTER The cluster in which the new VMs should reside
(default = same cluster as source virtual machine)
-d, --debug Enable debug output
--datacenter DATACENTER
The datacenter in which the new VMs should reside
(default = same datacenter as source virtual machine)
--datastore DATASTORE
The datastore in which the new VMs should reside
(default = same datastore as source virtual machine)
--folder FOLDER The folder in which the new VMs should reside (default
= same folder as source virtual machine)
-H HOST, --host HOST The vCenter or ESXi host to connect to
-i, --print-ips Enable IP output
-m, --print-macs Enable MAC output
-l LOGFILE, --log-file LOGFILE
File to log to (default = stdout)
-L, --linked Enable linked cloning
--snapshot SNAPSHOT Snapshot to be used for linked cloning
-n AMOUNT, --number AMOUNT
Amount of VMs to deploy (default = 1)
-o PORT, --port PORT Server port to connect to (default = 443)
-p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
The password with which to connect to the host. If not
specified, the user is prompted at runtime for a
password
-P, --disable-power-on
Disable power on of cloned VMs
--resource-pool RESOURCE_POOL
The resource pool in which the new VMs should reside,
(default = Resources, the root resource pool)
-s POST_SCRIPT, --post-script POST_SCRIPT
Script to be called after each VM is created and
booted. Arguments passed: name mac-address ip-address
-S, --disable-SSL-certificate-verification
Disable SSL certificate verification on connect
-t TEMPLATE, --template TEMPLATE
Template to deploy
-T THREADS, --threads THREADS
Amount of threads to use. Choose the amount of threads
with the speed of your datastore in mind, each thread
starts the creation of a virtual machine. (default =
1)
-u USERNAME, --user USERNAME
The username with which to connect to the host
-v, --verbose Enable verbose output
-w MAXWAIT, --wait-max MAXWAIT
Maximum amount of seconds to wait when gathering
information (default = 120)
Feel free to use the Github issue tracker of the repository to post issues and feature requests
- pyVmomi
- vCenter 5+ (tested with 5.1, 5.1u, 5.5 & 6.0)
- A user with a role with at least the following permission over the complete vCenter server:
- Datastore
- Allocate space
- Network
- Assign Network
- Resource
- Apply recommendation
- Assign virtual machine to resource pool
- Scheduled task
- Create tasks
- Run task
- Virtual Machine
- Configuration
- Add new disk
- Interaction
- Power on
- Inventory
- Create from existing
- Provisioning
- Clone virtual machine
- Deploy from template
- Configuration