community.vmware.vmware_guest – Manages virtual machines in vCenter
community.vmware.vmware_guest – Manages virtual machines in vCenter
Note
This plugin is part of the community.vmware collection (version 1.6.0).
To install it use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.vmware
.
To use it in a playbook, specify: community.vmware.vmware_guest
.
Synopsis
- This module can be used to create new virtual machines from templates or other virtual machines, manage power state of virtual machine such as power on, power off, suspend, shutdown, reboot, restart etc., modify various virtual machine components like network, disk, customization etc., rename a virtual machine and remove a virtual machine with associated components.
Requirements
The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.
- python >= 2.6
- PyVmomi
Parameters
Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|
annotation string |
A note or annotation to include in the virtual machine.
| ||
cdrom raw |
A list of CD-ROM configurations for the virtual machine. Added in version 2.9. Providing CD-ROM configuration as dict is deprecated and will be removed VMware collection 4.0.0. Please use a list instead. Parameters For | ||
controller_number integer |
For For | ||
controller_type string |
Valid options are Default value is When set to | ||
iso_path string |
The datastore path to the ISO file to use, in the form of Required if type is set | ||
state string |
Valid value is Default is If set to | ||
type string |
The type of CD-ROM, valid options are With The default value is | ||
unit_number integer |
For CD-ROM device attach to For CD-ROM device attach to
| ||
cluster string |
The cluster name where the virtual machine will run. This is a required parameter, if
This parameter is case sensitive. | ||
convert string |
|
Specify convert disk type while cloning template or virtual machine. | |
customization dictionary |
Parameters for OS customization when cloning from the template or the virtual machine, or apply to the existing virtual machine directly. Not all operating systems are supported for customization with respective vCenter version, please check VMware documentation for respective OS customization. For supported customization operating system matrix, (see http://partnerweb.vmware.com/programs/guestOS/guest-os-customization-matrix.pdf) All parameters and VMware object names are case sensitive. Linux based OSes requires Perl package to be installed for OS customizations. | ||
autologon boolean |
|
Auto logon after virtual machine customization. Specific to Windows customization. | |
autologoncount integer |
Default: 1 |
Number of autologon after reboot. Specific to Windows customization. | |
dns_servers list / elements=string |
List of DNS servers to configure. Common for Linux and Windows customization. | ||
dns_suffix list / elements=string |
List of domain suffixes, also known as DNS search path. Default Common for Linux and Windows customization. | ||
domain string |
DNS domain name to use. Common for Linux and Windows customization. | ||
domainadmin string |
User used to join in AD domain. Required if Specific to Windows customization. | ||
domainadminpassword string |
Password used to join in AD domain. Required if Specific to Windows customization. | ||
existing_vm boolean |
|
If set to Common for Linux and Windows customization. | |
fullname string |
Default: "Administrator" |
Server owner name. Specific to Windows customization. | |
hostname string |
Computer hostname. Default is shortened Allowed characters are alphanumeric (uppercase and lowercase) and minus, rest of the characters are dropped as per RFC 952. Common for Linux and Windows customization. | ||
hwclockUTC boolean |
|
Specifies whether the hardware clock is in UTC or local time. Specific to Linux customization. | |
joindomain string |
AD domain to join. Not compatible with Specific to Windows customization. | ||
joinworkgroup string |
Default: "WORKGROUP" |
Workgroup to join. Not compatible with Specific to Windows customization. | |
orgname string |
Default: "ACME" |
Organisation name. Specific to Windows customization. | |
password string |
Local administrator password. Specific to Windows customization. | ||
productid string |
Product ID. Specific to Windows customization. | ||
runonce list / elements=string |
List of commands to run at first user logon. Specific to Windows customization. | ||
timezone string |
Timezone. See List of supported time zones for different vSphere versions in Linux/Unix. Common for Linux and Windows customization. | ||
customization_spec string |
Unique name identifying the requested customization specification. This parameter is case sensitive. If set, then overrides | ||
customvalues list / elements=dictionary |
Define a list of custom values to set on virtual machine. A custom value object takes two fields Incorrect key and values will be ignored. | ||
datacenter string |
Default: "ha-datacenter" |
Destination datacenter for the deploy operation. This parameter is case sensitive. | |
datastore string |
Specify datastore or datastore cluster to provision virtual machine. This parameter takes precedence over This parameter can be used to override datastore or datastore cluster setting of the virtual machine when deployed from the template. Please see example for more usage. | ||
delete_from_inventory boolean |
|
Whether to delete Virtual machine from inventory or delete from disk. | |
disk list / elements=dictionary |
A list of disks to add. This parameter is case sensitive. Shrinking disks is not supported. Removing existing disks of the virtual machine is not supported. Attributes | ||
autoselect_datastore boolean |
|
Select the less used datastore.
| |
controller_number integer |
Disk controller bus number. The maximum number of same type controller is 4 per VM. Valid value range from 0 to 3. | ||
controller_type string |
Type of disk controller. Valid values are
When set to If set to | ||
datastore string |
The name of datastore which will be used for the disk. If | ||
disk_mode string |
Type of disk mode. Added in Ansible 2.6. If If If | ||
filename string |
Existing disk image to be used. Filename must already exist on the datastore. Specify filename string in | ||
size integer |
Disk storage size. Please specify storage unit like [kb, mb, gb, tb]. | ||
size_gb integer |
Disk storage size in gb. | ||
size_kb integer |
Disk storage size in kb. | ||
size_mb integer |
Disk storage size in mb. | ||
size_tb integer |
Disk storage size in tb. | ||
type string |
Type of disk. If If If not specified, disk type is thick disk, no eagerzero. | ||
unit_number integer |
Disk Unit Number. Valid value range from 0 to 15 for SCSI controller, except 7. Valid value range from 0 to 14 for NVME controller. Valid value range from 0 to 29 for SATA controller.
When creating new VM, the first configured disk in the | ||
esxi_hostname string |
The ESXi hostname where the virtual machine will run. This is a required parameter, if
This parameter is case sensitive. | ||
folder string |
Destination folder, absolute path to find an existing guest or create the new guest. The folder should include the datacenter. ESXi's datacenter is ha-datacenter. This parameter is case sensitive. If multiple machines are found with same name, this parameter is used to identify Examples: folder: /ha-datacenter/vm folder: ha-datacenter/vm folder: /datacenter1/vm folder: datacenter1/vm folder: /datacenter1/vm/folder1 folder: datacenter1/vm/folder1 folder: /folder1/datacenter1/vm folder: folder1/datacenter1/vm folder: /folder1/datacenter1/vm/folder2 | ||
force boolean |
|
Ignore warnings and complete the actions. This parameter is useful while removing virtual machine which is powered on state. This module reflects the VMware vCenter API and UI workflow, as such, in some cases the `force` flag will be mandatory to perform the action to ensure you are certain the action has to be taken, no matter what the consequence. This is specifically the case for removing a powered on the virtual machine when | |
guest_id string |
Set the guest ID. This parameter is case sensitive.
This field is required when creating a virtual machine, not required when creating from the template. Valid values are referenced here: https://code.vmware.com/apis/358/doc/vim.vm.GuestOsDescriptor.GuestOsIdentifier.html | ||
hardware dictionary |
Manage virtual machine's hardware attributes. All parameters case sensitive. | ||
boot_firmware string |
Choose which firmware should be used to boot the virtual machine. | ||
cpu_limit integer |
The CPU utilization of a virtual machine will not exceed this limit. Unit is MHz. | ||
cpu_reservation integer |
The amount of CPU resource that is guaranteed available to the virtual machine. | ||
hotadd_cpu boolean |
|
Allow virtual CPUs to be added while the virtual machine is running. | |
hotadd_memory boolean |
|
Allow memory to be added while the virtual machine is running. | |
hotremove_cpu boolean |
|
Allow virtual CPUs to be removed while the virtual machine is running. | |
max_connections integer |
Maximum number of active remote display connections for the virtual machines. | ||
mem_limit integer |
The memory utilization of a virtual machine will not exceed this limit. Unit is MB. | ||
mem_reservation integer |
The amount of memory resource that is guaranteed available to the virtual machine. | ||
memory_mb integer |
Amount of memory in MB. | ||
memory_reservation_lock boolean |
|
If set | |
num_cpu_cores_per_socket integer |
Number of Cores Per Socket. | ||
num_cpus integer |
Number of CPUs.
For example, to create a VM with 2 sockets of 4 cores, specify | ||
scsi string |
Valid values are
| ||
version integer |
The Virtual machine hardware versions. Default is 10 (ESXi 5.5 and onwards). If set to
Please check VMware documentation for correct virtual machine hardware version. Incorrect hardware version may lead to failure in deployment. If hardware version is already equal to the given. | ||
virt_based_security boolean |
|
Enable Virtualization Based Security feature for Windows on ESXi 6.7 and later, from hardware version 14. Supported Guest OS are Windows 10 64 bit, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and later. The firmware of virtual machine must be EFI. Deploy on unsupported ESXi, hardware version or firmware may lead to failure or deployed VM with unexpected configurations. | |
hostname string |
The hostname or IP address of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6. | ||
is_template boolean |
|
Flag the instance as a template. This will mark the given virtual machine as template. | |
linked_clone boolean |
|
Whether to create a linked clone from the snapshot specified. If specified, then | |
name string |
Name of the virtual machine to work with. Virtual machine names in vCenter are not necessarily unique, which may be problematic, see If multiple virtual machines with same name exists, then This parameter is required, if This parameter is case sensitive. | ||
name_match string |
|
If multiple virtual machines matching the name, use the first or last found. | |
networks list / elements=dictionary |
A list of networks (in the order of the NICs). Removing NICs is not allowed, while reconfiguring the virtual machine. All parameters and VMware object names are case sensitive. | ||
connected boolean added in 1.5.0 of community.vmware |
|
Indicates whether the NIC is currently connected. | |
device_type string |
Virtual network device. Valid value can be one of
Optional per entry. Used for virtual hardware. | ||
dns_servers string |
DNS servers for this network interface (Windows). Optional per entry. Used for OS customization. | ||
domain string |
Domain name for this network interface (Windows). Optional per entry. Used for OS customization. | ||
dvswitch_name string |
Name of the distributed vSwitch. Optional per entry. Used for virtual hardware. | ||
gateway string |
Static gateway. Optional per entry. Used for OS customization. | ||
ip string |
Static IP address. Implies Optional per entry. Used for OS customization. | ||
mac string |
Customize MAC address. Optional per entry. Used for virtual hardware. | ||
name string |
Name of the portgroup or distributed virtual portgroup for this interface. Required per entry. When specifying distributed virtual portgroup make sure given | ||
netmask string |
Static netmask required for Optional per entry. Used for OS customization. | ||
start_connected boolean |
|
Specifies whether or not to connect the device when the virtual machine starts. | |
type string |
Type of IP assignment. Valid values are one of
Optional per entry. Used for OS customization. | ||
vlan integer |
VLAN number for this interface. Required per entry. | ||
password string |
The password of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
| ||
port integer |
Default: 443 |
The port number of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6. | |
proxy_host string |
Address of a proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them. The format is a hostname or a IP. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable This feature depends on a version of pyvmomi greater than v6.7.1.2018.12 | ||
proxy_port integer |
Port of the HTTP proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable | ||
resource_pool string |
Use the given resource pool for virtual machine operation. This parameter is case sensitive. Resource pool should be child of the selected host parent. | ||
snapshot_src string |
Name of the existing snapshot to use to create a clone of a virtual machine. This parameter is case sensitive. While creating linked clone using | ||
state string |
|
Specify the state the virtual machine should be in. If If If If If If If If If Powerstate | |
state_change_timeout integer |
Default: 0 |
If the If this argument is set to a positive integer, the module will instead wait for the virtual machine to reach the poweredoff state. The value sets a timeout in seconds for the module to wait for the state change. | |
template string |
Template or existing virtual machine used to create new virtual machine. If this value is not set, virtual machine is created without using a template. If the virtual machine already exists, this parameter will be ignored. This parameter is case sensitive. From version 2.8 onwards, absolute path to virtual machine or template can be used.
| ||
use_instance_uuid boolean |
|
Whether to use the VMware instance UUID rather than the BIOS UUID. | |
username string |
The username of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
| ||
uuid string |
UUID of the virtual machine to manage if known, this is VMware's unique identifier. This is required if If virtual machine does not exists, then this parameter is ignored. Please note that a supplied UUID will be ignored on virtual machine creation, as VMware creates the UUID internally. | ||
validate_certs boolean |
|
Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid. Set to If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6. If set to | |
vapp_properties list / elements=dictionary |
A list of vApp properties. For full list of attributes and types refer to: https://code.vmware.com/apis/704/vsphere/vim.vApp.PropertyInfo.html | ||
id string |
Property ID. Required per entry. | ||
operation string |
The | ||
type string |
Value type, string type by default. | ||
value string |
Property value. | ||
wait_for_customization boolean |
|
Wait until vCenter detects all guest customizations as successfully completed. When enabled, the VM will automatically be powered on. If vCenter does not detect guest customization start or succeed, failed events after time | |
wait_for_customization_timeout integer |
Default: "3600" |
Define a timeout (in seconds) for the wait_for_customization parameter. Be careful when setting this value since the time guest customization took may differ among guest OSes. | |
wait_for_ip_address boolean |
|
Wait until vCenter detects an IP address for the virtual machine. This requires vmware-tools (vmtoolsd) to properly work after creation. vmware-tools needs to be installed on the given virtual machine in order to work with this parameter. | |
wait_for_ip_address_timeout integer |
Default: "300" |
Define a timeout (in seconds) for the wait_for_ip_address parameter. |
Notes
Note
- Please make sure that the user used for community.vmware.vmware_guest has the correct level of privileges.
- For example, following is the list of minimum privileges required by users to create virtual machines.
- DataStore > Allocate Space
- Virtual Machine > Configuration > Add New Disk
- Virtual Machine > Configuration > Add or Remove Device
- Virtual Machine > Inventory > Create New
- Network > Assign Network
- Resource > Assign Virtual Machine to Resource Pool
- Module may require additional privileges as well, which may be required for gathering facts - e.g. ESXi configurations.
- Tested on vSphere 5.5, 6.0, 6.5 and 6.7.
- Use SCSI disks instead of IDE when you want to expand online disks by specifying a SCSI controller.
- Uses SysPrep for Windows VM (depends on ‘guest_id’ parameter match ‘win’) with PyVmomi.
- In order to change the VM’s parameters (e.g. number of CPUs), the VM must be powered off unless the hot-add support is enabled and the
state=present
must be used to apply the changes. - For additional information please visit Ansible VMware community wiki - https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/VMware.
Examples
- name: Create a virtual machine on given ESXi hostname
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
folder: /DC1/vm/
name: test_vm_0001
state: poweredon
guest_id: centos64Guest
# This is hostname of particular ESXi server on which user wants VM to be deployed
esxi_hostname: "{{ esxi_hostname }}"
disk:
- size_gb: 10
type: thin
datastore: datastore1
hardware:
memory_mb: 512
num_cpus: 4
scsi: paravirtual
networks:
- name: VM Network
mac: aa:bb:dd:aa:00:14
ip: 10.10.10.100
netmask: 255.255.255.0
device_type: vmxnet3
wait_for_ip_address: true
wait_for_ip_address_timeout: 600
delegate_to: localhost
register: deploy_vm
- name: Create a virtual machine from a template
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
folder: /testvms
name: testvm_2
state: poweredon
template: template_el7
disk:
- size_gb: 10
type: thin
datastore: g73_datastore
# Add another disk from an existing VMDK
- filename: "[datastore1] testvms/testvm_2_1/testvm_2_1.vmdk"
hardware:
memory_mb: 512
num_cpus: 6
num_cpu_cores_per_socket: 3
scsi: paravirtual
memory_reservation_lock: True
mem_limit: 8096
mem_reservation: 4096
cpu_limit: 8096
cpu_reservation: 4096
max_connections: 5
hotadd_cpu: True
hotremove_cpu: True
hotadd_memory: False
version: 12 # Hardware version of virtual machine
boot_firmware: "efi"
cdrom:
- controller_number: 0
unit_number: 0
state: present
type: iso
iso_path: "[datastore1] livecd.iso"
networks:
- name: VM Network
mac: aa:bb:dd:aa:00:14
wait_for_ip_address: true
delegate_to: localhost
register: deploy
- name: Clone a virtual machine from Windows template and customize
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
datacenter: datacenter1
cluster: cluster
name: testvm-2
template: template_windows
networks:
- name: VM Network
ip: 192.168.1.100
netmask: 255.255.255.0
gateway: 192.168.1.1
mac: aa:bb:dd:aa:00:14
domain: my_domain
dns_servers:
- 192.168.1.1
- 192.168.1.2
- vlan: 1234
type: dhcp
customization:
autologon: true
dns_servers:
- 192.168.1.1
- 192.168.1.2
domain: my_domain
password: new_vm_password
runonce:
- powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File C:\Windows\Temp\ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1 -ForceNewSSLCert -EnableCredSSP
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Clone a virtual machine from Linux template and customize
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
state: present
folder: /DC1/vm
template: "{{ template }}"
name: "{{ vm_name }}"
cluster: DC1_C1
networks:
- name: VM Network
ip: 192.168.10.11
netmask: 255.255.255.0
wait_for_ip_address: True
customization:
domain: "{{ guest_domain }}"
dns_servers:
- 8.9.9.9
- 7.8.8.9
dns_suffix:
- example.com
- example2.com
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Rename a virtual machine (requires the virtual machine's uuid)
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
uuid: "{{ vm_uuid }}"
name: new_name
state: present
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Remove a virtual machine by uuid
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
uuid: "{{ vm_uuid }}"
state: absent
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Remove a virtual machine from inventory
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
name: vm_name
delete_from_inventory: True
state: absent
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Manipulate vApp properties
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
name: vm_name
state: present
vapp_properties:
- id: remoteIP
category: Backup
label: Backup server IP
type: string
value: 10.10.10.1
- id: old_property
operation: remove
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Set powerstate of a virtual machine to poweroff by using UUID
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
uuid: "{{ vm_uuid }}"
state: poweredoff
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Deploy a virtual machine in a datastore different from the datastore of the template
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
name: "{{ vm_name }}"
state: present
template: "{{ template_name }}"
# Here datastore can be different which holds template
datastore: "{{ virtual_machine_datastore }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: 512
num_cpus: 2
scsi: paravirtual
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Create a diskless VM
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
state: poweredoff
cluster: "{{ ccr1 }}"
name: diskless_vm
folder: /Asia-Datacenter1/vm
guest_id: centos64Guest
datastore: "{{ ds1 }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: 1024
num_cpus: 2
num_cpu_cores_per_socket: 1
- name: Create a VM with multiple disks of different disk controller types
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
folder: /DC1/vm/
name: test_vm_multi_disks
state: poweredoff
guest_id: centos64Guest
datastore: datastore1
disk:
- size_gb: 10
controller_type: 'nvme'
controller_number: 0
unit_number: 0
- size_gb: 10
controller_type: 'paravirtual'
controller_number: 0
unit_number: 1
- size_gb: 10
controller_type: 'sata'
controller_number: 0
unit_number: 2
hardware:
memory_mb: 512
num_cpus: 4
version: 14
networks:
- name: VM Network
device_type: vmxnet3
delegate_to: localhost
register: deploy_vm
Return Values
Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:
Key | Returned | Description |
---|---|---|
instance dictionary |
always |
metadata about the new virtual machine
Sample: None |
Authors
- Loic Blot (@nerzhul) <[email protected]>
- Philippe Dellaert (@pdellaert) <[email protected]>
- Abhijeet Kasurde (@Akasurde) <[email protected]>
© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.10/collections/community/vmware/vmware_guest_module.html