community.vmware.vmware_tools – Execute tasks inside a VM via VMware Tools

Note

This plugin is part of the community.vmware collection (version 1.7.0).

To install it use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.vmware.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.vmware.vmware_tools.

Synopsis

  • Use VMware tools to run tasks in, or put/fetch files to guest operating systems running in VMware infrastructure.

  • In case of Windows VMs, set ansible_shell_type to powershell.

  • Does not work with ‘become’.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this connection.

  • pyvmomi (Python library)

  • requests (Python library)

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Configuration Comments
exec_command_sleep_interval
float
Default:
0.5
var: ansible_vmware_tools_exec_command_sleep_interval
Time in seconds to sleep between execution of command.
executable
string
Default:
"/bin/sh"
ini entries:

[defaults]
executable = /bin/sh

env:ANSIBLE_EXECUTABLE
var: ansible_executable
var: ansible_vmware_tools_executable
shell to use for execution inside container
file_chunk_size
integer
Default:
128
var: ansible_vmware_tools_file_chunk_size
File chunk size.
(Applicable when writing a file to disk, example: using the fetch module.)
validate_certs
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
env:VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS
var: ansible_vmware_validate_certs
Verify SSL for the connection.
Note: This will validate certs for both vmware_host and the ESXi host running the VM.
vm_password
string / required
var: ansible_password
var: ansible_vmware_tools_password
Password for the user in guest operating system.
vm_path
string / required
var: ansible_vmware_guest_path
VM path absolute to the connection.
vCenter Example: Datacenter/vm/Discovered virtual machine/testVM.
ESXi Host Example: ha-datacenter/vm/testVM.
Must include VM name, appended to 'folder' as would be passed to community.vmware.vmware_guest.
Needs to include vm between the Datacenter and the rest of the VM path.
Datacenter default value for ESXi server is ha-datacenter.
Folder vm is not visible in the vSphere Web Client but necessary for VMware API to work.
vm_user
string / required
var: ansible_user
var: ansible_vmware_tools_user
VM username.
vmware_host
string / required
env:VI_SERVER
env:VMWARE_HOST
var: ansible_host
var: ansible_vmware_host
FQDN or IP Address for the connection (vCenter or ESXi Host).
vmware_password
string / required
env:VI_PASSWORD
env:VMWARE_PASSWORD
var: ansible_vmware_password
Password for the connection.
vmware_port
string
Default:
443
env:VI_PORTNUMBER
env:VMWARE_PORT
var: ansible_port
var: ansible_vmware_port
Port for the connection.
vmware_user
string / required
env:VI_USERNAME
env:VMWARE_USER
var: ansible_vmware_user
Username for the connection.
Requires the following permissions on the VM: - VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.Execute - VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.Modify - VirtualMachine.GuestOperations.Query

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