community.vmware.vmware_guest_cross_vc_clone module – Cross-vCenter VM/template clone

Note

This module is part of the community.vmware collection (version 1.18.2).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

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

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

Synopsis

  • This module can be used for Cross-vCenter vm/template clone

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

destination_datastore

string / required

The name of the destination datastore or the datastore cluster.

If datastore cluster name is specified, we will find the Storage DRS recommended datastore in that cluster.

destination_host

string / required

The name of the destination host.

destination_resource_pool

string

Destination resource pool.

If not provided, the destination host’s parent’s resource pool will be used.

destination_vcenter

string / required

The hostname or IP address of the destination VCenter.

destination_vcenter_password

string / required

The password of the destination VCenter.

destination_vcenter_port

integer

The port to establish connection in the destination VCenter.

Default: 443

destination_vcenter_username

string / required

The username of the destination VCenter.

destination_vcenter_validate_certs

boolean

Parameter to indicate if certification validation needs to be done on destination VCenter.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

destination_vm_folder

string / required

Destination folder, absolute path to deploy the cloned vm.

This parameter is case sensitive.

Examples:

folder: vm

folder: ha-datacenter/vm

folder: /datacenter1/vm

destination_vm_name

string / required

The name of the cloned VM.

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 VMWARE_HOST will be used instead.

Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

is_template

boolean

added in 1.16.0 of community.vmware

Specifies whether or not the new virtual machine should be marked as a template.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

moid

string

Managed Object ID of the vm/template instance to manage if known, this is a unique identifier only within a single vCenter instance.

This is required if name or uuid is not supplied.

name

string

Name of the virtual machine or template.

This is a required parameter, if parameter uuid or moid is not supplied.

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string

The password of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PASSWORD will be used instead.

Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

port

integer

The port number of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PORT will be used instead.

Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

Default: 443

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 VMWARE_PROXY_HOST will be used instead.

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 VMWARE_PROXY_PORT will be used instead.

state

string

The state of Virtual Machine deployed.

If set to present and VM does not exists, then VM is created.

If set to present and VM exists, no action is taken.

If set to poweredon and VM does not exists, then VM is created with powered on state.

If set to poweredon and VM exists, no action is taken.

Choices:

  • present ← (default)

  • poweredon

use_instance_uuid

boolean

Whether to use the VMware instance UUID rather than the BIOS UUID.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

username

aliases: admin, user

string

The username of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_USER will be used instead.

Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

uuid

string

UUID of the vm/template instance to clone from, this is VMware’s unique identifier.

This is a required parameter, if parameter name or moid is not supplied.

validate_certs

boolean

Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid. Set to false when certificates are not trusted.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS will be used instead.

Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

If set to true, please make sure Python >= 2.7.9 is installed on the given machine.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

Notes

Note

  • All modules requires API write access and hence is not supported on a free ESXi license.

Examples

# Clone template
- name: clone a template across VC
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_cross_vc_clone:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    name: "test_vm1"
    destination_vm_name: "cloned_vm_from_template"
    destination_vcenter: '{{ destination_vcenter_hostname }}'
    destination_vcenter_username: '{{ destination_vcenter_username }}'
    destination_vcenter_password: '{{ destination_vcenter_password }}'
    destination_vcenter_port: '{{ destination_vcenter_port }}'
    destination_vcenter_validate_certs: '{{ destination_vcenter_validate_certs }}'
    destination_host: '{{ destination_esxi }}'
    destination_datastore: '{{ destination_datastore }}'
    destination_vm_folder: '{{ destination_vm_folder }}'
    state: present
  register: cross_vc_clone_from_template

- name: clone a VM across VC
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_cross_vc_clone:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: "test_vm1"
    destination_vm_name: "cloned_vm_from_vm"
    destination_vcenter: '{{ destination_vcenter_hostname }}'
    destination_vcenter_username: '{{ destination_vcenter_username }}'
    destination_vcenter_password: '{{ destination_vcenter_password }}'
    destination_host: '{{ destination_esxi }}'
    destination_datastore: '{{ destination_datastore }}'
    destination_vm_folder: '{{ destination_vm_folder }}'
    state: poweredon
  register: cross_vc_clone_from_vm

- name: check_mode support
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_cross_vc_clone:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: "test_vm1"
    destination_vm_name: "cloned_vm_from_vm"
    destination_vcenter: '{{ destination_vcenter_hostname }}'
    destination_vcenter_username: '{{ destination_vcenter_username }}'
    destination_vcenter_password: '{{ destination_vcenter_password }}'
    destination_host: '{{ destination_esxi }}'
    destination_datastore: '{{ destination_datastore }}'
    destination_vm_folder: '{{ destination_vm_folder }}'
  check_mode: true

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

vm_info

dictionary

metadata about the virtual machine

Returned: always

Sample: {“datastore”: “”, “host”: “”, “power_on”: “”, “vcenter”: “”, “vm_folder”: “”, “vm_name”: “”}

Authors

  • Anusha Hegde (@anusha94)