community.vmware.vmware_guest_instant_clone module – Instant Clone VM

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_instant_clone.

New in version 1.9.0: of community.vmware

Synopsis

  • This module can be used for Creating a powered-on Instant Clone of a virtual machine.

  • All variables and VMware object names are case sensitive.

  • community.vmware.vmware_guest module is needed for creating a VM with poweredon state which would be used as a parent VM.

  • community.vmware.vmware_guest_powerstate module is also needed to poweroff the instant cloned module.

  • The powered off VM would in turn be deleted by again using community.vmware.vmware_guest module.

  • Thus community.vmware.vmware_guest module is necessary for removing Instant Cloned VM when VMs being created in testing environment.

  • Also GuestOS Customization has now been added with guestinfo_vars parameter.

  • The Parent VM must have The Guest customization Engine for instant Clone to customize Guest OS.

  • Only Linux Os in Parent VM enable support for native vSphere Guest Customization for Instant Clone in vSphere 7.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

datacenter

string / required

Name of the datacenter, where VM to be deployed.

datastore

string / required

The name of the datastore or the datastore cluster.

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

folder

string

Destination folder, absolute path to deploy the cloned vm.

This parameter is case sensitive.

Examples:

folder: ha-datacenter/vm

folder: /datacenter1/vm

guestinfo_vars

list / elements=dictionary

added in 1.11.0 of community.vmware

Provides GuestOS Customization functionality in instant cloned VM.

A list of key value pairs that will be passed to the destination VM.

These pairs should be used to provide user-defined customization to differentiate the destination VM from the source VM.

dns

string

dns is used to set the dns in Instant Cloned Guest Operating System..

domain

string

domain is used to set A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or complete domain name for Instant Cloned Guest operating System.

gateway

string

netmask is used to set the netmask in Instant Cloned Guest Operating System.

hostname

string

hostname is used to obtain the DNS(Domain Name System) name and set the Guest system’s hostname.

ipaddress

string

ipaddress is used to set the ipaddress in Instant Cloned Guest Operating System.

netmask

string

netmask is used to set the netmask in Instant Cloned Guest Operating System.

host

aliases: esxi_hostname

string / required

Name of the ESX Host in datacenter in which to place cloned VM.

The host has to be a member of the cluster that contains the resource pool.

Required with resource_pool to find resource pool details. This will be used as additional information when there are resource pools with same name.

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.

moid

string

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

This is required if parent_vm or uuid is not supplied.

name

aliases: vm_name

string / required

Name of the Cloned virtual machine.

parent_vm

string

Name of the parent virtual machine.

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.

resource_pool

string

Name of the resource pool in datacenter in which to place deployed VM.

Required if cluster is not specified.

For default or non-unique resource pool names, specify host and cluster.

Resources is the default name of resource pool.

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 instance to clone from, this is VMware’s unique identifier.

This is a required parameter, if parameter parent_vm 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)

vm_password

string

The password used to login-in to the virtual machine.

Only required when using guest customization feature.

vm_username

string

The user to login-in to the virtual machine.

Only required when using guest customization feature.

wait_vm_tools

boolean

added in 1.12.0 of community.vmware

Whether waiting until vm tools start after rebooting an instant clone vm.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

wait_vm_tools_timeout

integer

added in 1.12.0 of community.vmware

Define a timeout (in seconds) for the wait_vm_tools parameter.

Default: 300

Notes

Note

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

Examples

- name: Instant Clone a VM
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_instant_clone:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    validate_certs: False
    folder: "{{ f0 }}"
    datastore: "{{ rw_datastore }}"
    datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
    host: "{{ esxi1 }}"
    name: "{{ Clone_vm }}"
    parent_vm: "{{ testvm_1 }}"
    resource_pool: "{{ test_resource_001 }}"
  register: vm_clone
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: set state to poweroff the Cloned VM
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_powerstate:
    validate_certs: false
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: "cloned_vm_from_vm_cluster"
    folder: "{{ f0 }}"
    state: powered-off
  register: poweroff_instant_clone_from_vm_when_cluster
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Clean VM
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    validate_certs: false
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: "cloned_vm_from_vm_cluster"
    datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
    state: absent
  register: delete_instant_clone_from_vm_when_cluster
  ignore_errors: true
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Instant Clone a VM with guest_customization
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_instant_clone:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    vm_username: "root"
    vm_password: "SuperSecret"
    validate_certs: False
    folder: "{{ f0 }}"
    datastore: "{{ rw_datastore }}"
    datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
    host: "{{ esxi1 }}"
    guestinfo_vars:
      - hostname: "{{ guestinfo.ic.hostname }}"
        ipaddress: "{{ guestinfo.ic.ipaddress }}"
        netmask: "{{ guestinfo.ic.netmask }}"
        gateway: "{{ guestinfo.ic.gateway }}"
        dns: "{{ guestinfo.ic.dns }}"
        domain: "{{ guestinfo.ic.domain }}"
    name: "Instant_clone_guest_customize"
    parent_vm: "test_vm1"
    resource_pool: DC0_C0_RP1
  register: Instant_cloned_guest_customize
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Instant Clone a VM when skipping optional params
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_instant_clone:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    validate_certs: False
    name: "{{ Clone_vm }}"
    parent_vm: "{{ testvm_1 }}"
    datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
    datastore: "{{ rw_datastore }}"
    host: "{{ esxi1 }}"
  register: VM_clone_optional_arguments
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Instant clone in check mode
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_instant_clone:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    validate_certs: False
    folder: "{{ f0 }}"
    datastore: "{{ rw_datastore }}"
    datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
    host: "{{ esx1 }}"
    name: "{{ Clone_vm }}"
    parent_vm: "{{ testvm_2 }}"
    resource_pool: "{{ test_resource_001 }}"
  check_mode: true
  register: check_mode_clone
  delegate_to: localhost
- debug:
    var: check_mode_clone

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

added instance_uuid from version 1.12.0

Returned: always

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

Authors

  • Anant Chopra (@Anant99-sys)