Using VMware dynamic inventory plugin - Filters¶
VMware dynamic inventory plugin - filtering VMware guests¶
VMware inventory plugin allows you to filter VMware guests using the filters
configuration parameter.
This section shows how you configure filters
for the given VMware guest in the inventory.
Requirements¶
To use the VMware dynamic inventory plugins, you must install pyVmomi on your control node (the host running Ansible).
To include tag-related information for the virtual machines in your dynamic inventory, you also need the vSphere Automation SDK, which supports REST API features such as tagging and content libraries, on your control node.
You can install the vSphere Automation SDK
following these instructions.
$ pip install pyvmomi
Starting in Ansible 2.10, the VMware dynamic inventory plugin is available in the community.vmware
collection included Ansible.
Alternately, to install the latest community.vmware
collection:
$ ansible-galaxy collection install community.vmware
To use this VMware dynamic inventory plugin:
Enable it first by specifying the following in the
ansible.cfg
file:
[inventory]
enable_plugins = community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory
Create a file that ends in
vmware.yml
orvmware.yaml
in your working directory.
The vmware_vm_inventory
inventory plugin takes in the same authentication information as any other VMware modules does.
Let us assume we want to list all RHEL7 VMs with the power state as “poweredOn”. A valid inventory file with filters for the given VMware guest looks as follows:
plugin: community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory
strict: False
hostname: 10.65.223.31
username: [email protected]
password: Esxi@123$%
validate_certs: False
with_tags: False
hostnames:
- config.name
filters:
- config.guestId == "rhel7_64Guest"
- summary.runtime.powerState == "poweredOn"
Here, we have configured two filters -
config.guestId
is equal torhel7_64Guest
summary.runtime.powerState
is equal topoweredOn
This retrieves all the VMs which satisfy these two conditions and populates them in the inventory.
Notice that the conditions are combined using an and
operation.
Using or
conditions in filters¶
Let us assume you want filter RHEL7 and Ubuntu VMs. You can use multiple filters using or
condition in your inventory file.
A valid filter in the VMware inventory file for this example is:
plugin: community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory
strict: False
hostname: 10.65.223.31
username: [email protected]
password: Esxi@123$%
validate_certs: False
with_tags: False
hostnames:
- config.name
filters:
- config.guestId == "rhel7_64Guest" or config.guestId == "ubuntu64Guest"
You can check all allowed properties for filters for the given virtual machine at Using Virtual machine attributes in VMware dynamic inventory plugin.
If you are using the properties
parameter with custom VM properties, make sure that you include all the properties used by filters as well in your VM property list.
For example, if we want all RHEL7 and Ubuntu VMs that are poweredOn, you can use inventory file:
plugin: community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory
strict: False
hostname: 10.65.223.31
username: [email protected]
password: Esxi@123$%
validate_certs: False
with_tags: False
hostnames:
- 'config.name'
properties:
- 'config.name'
- 'config.guestId'
- 'guest.ipAddress'
- 'summary.runtime.powerState'
filters:
- config.guestId == "rhel7_64Guest" or config.guestId == "ubuntu64Guest"
- summary.runtime.powerState == "poweredOn"
Here, we are using minimum VM properties, that is config.name
, config.guestId
, summary.runtime.powerState
, and guest.ipAddress
.
config.name
is used by thehostnames
parameter.config.guestId
andsummary.runtime.powerState
are used by thefilters
parameter.guest.guestId
is used byansible_host
internally by the inventory plugin.
Using regular expression in filters¶
Let us assume you want filter VMs with specific IP range. You can use regular expression in filters
in your inventory file.
For example, if we want all RHEL7 and Ubuntu VMs that are poweredOn, you can use inventory file:
plugin: community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory
strict: False
hostname: 10.65.223.31
username: [email protected]
password: Esxi@123$%
validate_certs: False
with_tags: False
hostnames:
- 'config.name'
properties:
- 'config.name'
- 'config.guestId'
- 'guest.ipAddress'
- 'summary.runtime.powerState'
filters:
- guest.ipAddress is defined and guest.ipAddress is match('192.168.*')
Here, we are using guest.ipAddress
VM property. This property is optional and depended upon VMware tools installed on VMs.
We are using match
to validate the regular expression for the given IP range.
Executing ansible-inventory --list -i <filename>.vmware.yml
creates a list of the virtual machines that are ready to be configured using Ansible.
What to expect¶
You will notice that the inventory hosts are filtered depending on your filters
section.
{
"_meta": {
"hostvars": {
"template_001": {
"config.name": "template_001",
"config.guestId": "ubuntu64Guest",
...
"guest.toolsStatus": "toolsNotInstalled",
"summary.runtime.powerState": "poweredOn",
},
"vm_8046": {
"config.name": "vm_8046",
"config.guestId": "rhel7_64Guest",
...
"guest.toolsStatus": "toolsNotInstalled",
"summary.runtime.powerState": "poweredOn",
},
...
}
Troubleshooting filters¶
If the custom property specified in filters
fails:
Check if the values provided for username and password are correct.
Make sure it is a valid property, see Using Virtual machine attributes in VMware dynamic inventory plugin.
Use
strict: True
to get more information about the error.Please make sure that you are using latest version of the VMware collection.
See also
- pyVmomi
The GitHub Page of pyVmomi
- pyVmomi Issue Tracker
The issue tracker for the pyVmomi project
- vSphere Automation SDK GitHub Page
The GitHub Page of vSphere Automation SDK for Python
- vSphere Automation SDK Issue Tracker
The issue tracker for vSphere Automation SDK for Python
- Using Virtual machine attributes in VMware dynamic inventory plugin
Using Virtual machine attributes in VMware dynamic inventory plugin
- Working with playbooks
An introduction to playbooks
- Using encrypted variables and files
Using Vault in playbooks