community.vmware.vmware_guest_video module – Modify video card configurations of specified virtual machine in given vCenter infrastructure

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_video.

Synopsis

  • This module is used to reconfigure video card settings of given virtual machine.

  • All parameters and VMware object names are case sensitive.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • python >= 2.6

  • PyVmomi

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

datacenter

string

The datacenter name to which virtual machine belongs to.

This parameter is case sensitive.

Default: “ha-datacenter”

display_number

integer

The number of display. Valid value from 1 to 10. The maximum display number is 4 on vCenter 6.0, 6.5 web UI.

enable_3D

boolean

Enable 3D for guest operating systems on which VMware supports 3D.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

folder

string

Destination folder, absolute or relative path to find an existing guest.

This is a required parameter, only if multiple VMs are found with same name.

The folder should include the datacenter. ESXi server’s datacenter is ha-datacenter.

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

gather_video_facts

boolean

If set to True, return settings of the video card, other attributes are ignored.

If set to False, will do reconfiguration and return video card settings.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

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.

memory_3D_mb

integer

The value of 3D Memory must be power of 2 and valid value is from 32 MB to 2048 MB.

moid

string

Managed Object ID of the 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.

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.

renderer_3D

string

If set to automatic, selects the appropriate option (software or hardware) for this virtual machine automatically.

If set to software, uses normal CPU processing for 3D calculations.

If set to hardware, requires graphics hardware (GPU) for faster 3D calculations.

Choices:

  • automatic

  • software

  • hardware

use_auto_detect

boolean

If set to True, applies common video settings to the guest operating system, attributes display_number and video_memory_mb are ignored.

If set to False, the number of display and the total video memory will be reconfigured using display_number and video_memory_mb.

Choices:

  • no

  • 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 instance to gather facts if known, 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)

video_memory_mb

float

Valid total MB of video memory range of virtual machine is from 1.172 MB to 256 MB on ESXi 6.7U1, from 1.172 MB to 128 MB on ESXi 6.7 and previous versions.

For specific guest OS, supported minimum and maximum video memory are different, please be careful on setting this.

Notes

Note

  • Tested on vSphere 6.0, 6.5 and 6.7

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

Examples

- name: Change video card settings of virtual machine
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_video:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    name: test-vm
    gather_video_facts: false
    use_auto_detect: false
    display_number: 2
    video_memory_mb: 8.0
    enable_3D: true
    renderer_3D: automatic
    memory_3D_mb: 512
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: video_facts

- name: Change video card settings of virtual machine using MoID
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_video:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    moid: vm-42
    gather_video_facts: false
    use_auto_detect: false
    display_number: 2
    video_memory_mb: 8.0
    enable_3D: true
    renderer_3D: automatic
    memory_3D_mb: 512
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: video_facts

- name: Gather video card settings of virtual machine
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_video:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    name: test-vm
    gather_video_facts: false
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: video_facts

Return Values

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

Key

Description

video_status

dictionary

metadata about the virtual machine’s video card after managing them

Returned: always

Sample: {“auto_detect”: false, “display_number”: 2, “enable_3D_support”: true, “memory_3D”: 524288, “renderer_3D”: “automatic”, “video_memory”: 8192}

Authors

  • Diane Wang (@Tomorrow9)