manage a guest VM through VMware vSphere.¶

New in version 1.6.

DEPRECATED
Synopsis
- Requirements
Parameters
Notes
Examples
Status
- Author

DEPRECATED ¶

Removed in Ansible:
	version: 2.9
Why:	Replaced by vmware_guest module. Also, ‘Pysphere’ is deprecated in favor of VMware’s Official Python bindings - ‘Pyvmomi’.
Alternative:	Use vmware_guest and other vmware guest related modules instead.

Synopsis ¶

Create/delete/reconfigure a guest VM through VMware vSphere. This module has a dependency on pysphere >= 1.7

Requirements ¶

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

python >= 2.6
pysphere

Parameters ¶

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
cluster		The name of the cluster to create the VM in. By default this is derived from the host you tell the module to build the guest on.
esxi		Dictionary which includes datacenter and hostname on which the VM should be created. For standalone ESXi hosts, ha-datacenter should be used as the datacenter name
force bool	Choices: no ← yes	Boolean. Allows you to run commands which may alter the running state of a guest. Also used to reconfigure and destroy.
from_template bool (added in 1.9)	Choices: no ← yes	Specifies if the VM should be deployed from a template (mutually exclusive with 'state' parameter). No guest customization changes to hardware such as CPU, RAM, NICs or Disks can be applied when launching from template.
guest required		The virtual server name you wish to manage.
password required		Password of the user to connect to vcenter as.
power_on_after_clone bool	Choices: no yes ←	Specifies if the VM should be powered on after the clone.
resource_pool		The name of the resource_pool to create the VM in.
snapshot_to_clone (added in 2.0)		A string that when specified, will create a linked clone copy of the VM. Snapshot must already be taken in vCenter.
state	Choices: present ← powered_off absent powered_on restarted reconfigured reboot_guest poweroff_guest	Indicate desired state of the vm. 'reconfigured' only applies changes to 'vm_cdrom', 'memory_mb', and 'num_cpus' in vm_hardware parameter. The 'memory_mb' and 'num_cpus' changes are applied to powered-on vms when hot-plugging is enabled for the guest.
template_src (added in 1.9)		Name of the source template to deploy from
username required		Username to connect to vcenter as.
validate_certs bool (added in 2.1)	Choices: no yes ←	Validate SSL certs. Note, if running on python without SSLContext support (typically, python < 2.7.9) you will have to set this to `no` as pysphere does not support validating certificates on older python. Prior to 2.1, this module would always validate on python >= 2.7.9 and never validate on python <= 2.7.8.
vcenter_hostname required		The hostname of the vcenter server the module will connect to, to create the guest.
vm_disk		A key, value list of disks and their sizes and which datastore to keep it in.
vm_extra_config		A key, value pair of any extra values you want set or changed in the vmx file of the VM. Useful to set advanced options on the VM.
vm_hardware		A key, value list of VM config settings. Must include ['memory_mb', 'num_cpus', 'osid', 'scsi'].
vm_hw_version (added in 1.7)		Desired hardware version identifier (for example, "vmx-08" for vms that needs to be managed with vSphere Client). Note that changing hardware version of existing vm is not supported.
vm_nic		A key, value list of nics, their types and what network to put them on. Optionaly with their MAC address.
vmware_guest_facts bool	Choices: no yes	Gather facts from vCenter on a particular VM

Notes ¶

Note

This module should run from a system that can access vSphere directly. Either by using local_action, or using delegate_to.

Examples ¶

---
# Create a new VM on an ESX server
# Returns changed = False when the VM already exists
# Returns changed = True and a adds ansible_facts from the new VM
# State will set the power status of a guest upon creation. Use powered_on to create and boot.
# Options ['state', 'vm_extra_config', 'vm_disk', 'vm_nic', 'vm_hardware', 'esxi'] are required together
# Note: vm_floppy support added in 2.0

- vsphere_guest:
    vcenter_hostname: vcenter.mydomain.local
    username: myuser
    password: mypass
    guest: newvm001
    state: powered_on
    vm_extra_config:
      vcpu.hotadd: yes
      mem.hotadd:  yes
      notes: This is a test VM
      folder: MyFolder
    vm_disk:
      disk1:
        size_gb: 10
        type: thin
        datastore: storage001
        # VMs can be put into folders. The value given here is either the full path
        # to the folder (e.g. production/customerA/lamp) or just the last component
        # of the path (e.g. lamp):
        folder: production/customerA/lamp
    vm_nic:
      nic1:
        type: vmxnet3
        network: VM Network
        network_type: standard
      nic2:
        type: vmxnet3
        network: dvSwitch Network
        network_type: dvs
    vm_hardware:
      memory_mb: 2048
      num_cpus: 2
      osid: centos64Guest
      scsi: paravirtual
      vm_cdrom:
        type: "iso"
        iso_path: "DatastoreName/cd-image.iso"
      vm_floppy:
        type: "image"
        image_path: "DatastoreName/floppy-image.flp"
    esxi:
      datacenter: MyDatacenter
      hostname: esx001.mydomain.local
  delegate_to: localhost

# Reconfigure the CPU and Memory on the newly created VM
# Will return the changes made

- vsphere_guest:
    vcenter_hostname: vcenter.mydomain.local
    username: myuser
    password: mypass
    guest: newvm001
    state: reconfigured
    vm_extra_config:
      vcpu.hotadd: yes
      mem.hotadd:  yes
      notes: This is a test VM
    vm_disk:
      disk1:
        size_gb: 10
        type: thin
        datastore: storage001
    vm_nic:
      nic1:
        type: vmxnet3
        network: VM Network
        network_type: standard
    vm_hardware:
      memory_mb: 4096
      num_cpus: 4
      osid: centos64Guest
      scsi: paravirtual
    esxi:
      datacenter: MyDatacenter
      hostname: esx001.mydomain.local
  delegate_to: localhost

# Deploy a guest from a template
- vsphere_guest:
    vcenter_hostname: vcenter.mydomain.local
    username: myuser
    password: mypass
    guest: newvm001
    from_template: yes
    template_src: centosTemplate
    cluster: MainCluster
    resource_pool: "/Resources"
    vm_extra_config:
      folder: MyFolder
  delegate_to: localhost

# Task to gather facts from a vSphere cluster only if the system is a VMware guest
- vsphere_guest:
    vcenter_hostname: vcenter.mydomain.local
    username: myuser
    password: mypass
    guest: newvm001
    vmware_guest_facts: yes
  delegate_to: localhost

---
# Typical output of a vsphere_facts run on a guest
# If vmware tools is not installed, ipadresses with return None

- hw_eth0:
  - addresstype: "assigned"
    label: "Network adapter 1"
    macaddress: "00:22:33:33:44:55"
    macaddress_dash: "00-22-33-33-44-55"
    ipaddresses: ['192.0.2.100', '2001:DB8:56ff:feac:4d8a']
    summary: "VM Network"
  hw_guest_full_name: "newvm001"
  hw_guest_id: "rhel6_64Guest"
  hw_memtotal_mb: 2048
  hw_name: "centos64Guest"
  hw_power_status: "POWERED ON"
  hw_processor_count: 2
  hw_product_uuid: "ef50bac8-2845-40ff-81d9-675315501dac"

# hw_power_status will be one of the following values:
#   - POWERED ON
#   - POWERED OFF
#   - SUSPENDED
#   - POWERING ON
#   - POWERING OFF
#   - SUSPENDING
#   - RESETTING
#   - BLOCKED ON MSG
#   - REVERTING TO SNAPSHOT
#   - UNKNOWN
# as seen in the VMPowerState-Class of PySphere: http://git.io/vlwOq

---
# Remove a vm from vSphere
# The VM must be powered_off or you need to use force to force a shutdown
- vsphere_guest:
    vcenter_hostname: vcenter.mydomain.local
    username: myuser
    password: mypass
    guest: newvm001
    state: absent
    force: yes
  delegate_to: localhost

Status ¶

This module is flagged as deprecated and will be removed in version 2.9. For more information see DEPRECATED.

Author ¶

Richard Hoop (@rhoop) <wrhoop@gmail.com>

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