System managment

How to reboot or shutdown the VCSA

You can use Ansible to trigger or cancel a shutdown. The appliance_shutdown_info module is useful to know if a shutdown is already scheduled.

- name: Check if there is a shutdown scheduled
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_shutdown_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": {
        "action": "",
        "reason": ""
    }
}

When you trigger a shutdown, you can also specify a reason. The information will be exposed to the other users:

- name: Shutdown the appliance
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_shutdown:
    state: poweroff
    reason: this is an example
    delay: 600

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": {}
}

To cancel a shutdown, you must set the state to cancel:

- name: Abort the shutdown of the appliance
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_shutdown:
    state: cancel

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": {}
}

FIPS mode

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)

The appliance_system_globalfips_info module will tell you if FIPS is enabled.

- name: "Get the status of the Federal Information Processing Standard mode"
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_globalfips_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": {
        "enabled": false
    }
}

You can turn the option on or off with appliance_system_globalfips:

Warning: The VCSA will silently reboot itself if you change the FIPS

configuration.

- name: Turn off the FIPS mode and reboot
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_globalfips:
    enabled: false

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "id": null,
    "value": {
        "enabled": false
    }
}

Time and Timezone configuration

Timezone

The appliance_system_time_timezone and ppliance_system_time_timezone_info modules handle the Timezone configuration. You can get the current configuration with:

- name: Get the timezone configuration
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_time_timezone_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": "UTC"
}

And to adjust the system”s timezone, just do:

- name: Use the UTC timezone
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_time_timezone:
    name: UTC

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": "UTC"
}

In this example we set the UTC timezone, you can also pass a timezone in the Europe/Paris format.

Current time

If you want to get the current time, use appliance_system_time_info:

- name: Get the current time
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_time_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": {
        "date": "Fri 04-29-2022",
        "seconds_since_epoch": 1651243669.4291723,
        "time": "02:47:49 PM",
        "timezone": "UTC"
    }
}

Time Service (NTP)

The VCSA can get the time from a NTP server:

- name: Get the NTP configuration
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_ntp_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": [
        "time.google.com"
    ]
}

You can use the appliance_ntp module to adjust the system NTP servers. The module accepts one or more NTP servers:

- name: Adjust the NTP configuration
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_ntp:
    servers:
      - time.google.com

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": [
        "time.google.com"
    ]
}

If you set state=test, the module will validate the servers are rechable.

- name: Test the NTP configuration
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_ntp:
    state: test
    servers:
      - time.google.com

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": [
        {
            "message": {
                "args": [],
                "default_message": "NTP Server is reachable.",
                "id": "com.vmware.appliance.ntp_sync.success"
            },
            "server": "time.google.com",
            "status": "SERVER_REACHABLE"
        }
    ]
}

You can check the clock synchronization with appliance_timesync_info:

- name: Get information regarding the clock synchronization
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_timesync_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": "NTP"
}

Or also validate the system use NTP with:

- name: Ensure we use NTP
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_timesync:
    mode: NTP

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": "NTP"
}

Storage system

The collection also provides modules to manage the storage system. appliance_system_storage_info will list the storage partitions:

- name: Get the appliance storage information
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_storage_info:

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": []
}

You can use the state=resize_ex option to extend an existing partition:

- name: Resize the first partition and return the state of the partition before and after the operation
  vmware.vmware_rest.appliance_system_storage:
    state: resize_ex

response

{
    "changed": false,
    "value": {}
}
Note: state=resize also works, but you won”t get as much information

as with resize_ex.