community.vmware.vmware_guest_info module – Gather info about a single VM

Note

This module is part of the community.vmware collection (version 3.11.1).

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_info.

Synopsis

  • Gather information about a single VM on a VMware ESX cluster.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

datacenter

string / required

Destination datacenter for the deploy operation

folder

string

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

This is required if name is supplied.

The folder should include the datacenter. ESX’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

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 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 VM to work with

This is required if uuid or moid is not supplied.

name_match

string

If multiple VMs matching the name, use the first or last found

Choices:

  • "first" ← (default)

  • "last"

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

properties

list / elements=string

Specify the properties to retrieve.

If not specified, all properties are retrieved (deeply).

Results are returned in a structure identical to the vsphere API.

Example:

properties: [

“config.hardware.memoryMB”,

“config.hardware.numCPU”,

“guest.disk”,

“overallStatus”

]

Only valid when schema is vsphere.

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.

schema

string

Specify the output schema desired.

The ‘summary’ output schema is the legacy output from the module

The ‘vsphere’ output schema is the vSphere API class definition which requires pyvmomi>6.7.1

Choices:

  • "summary" ← (default)

  • "vsphere"

tag_details

boolean

If set true, detail information about ‘tags’ returned.

Without this flag, the ‘tags’ returns a list of tag names.

With this flag, the ‘tags’ returns a list of dict about tag information with additional details like category name, category id, and tag id.

This parameter is added to maintain backward compatability.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

tags

boolean

Whether to show tags or not.

If set true, shows tags information. Returns a list of tag names.

If set false, hides tags information.

vSphere Automation SDK is required.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

use_instance_uuid

boolean

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

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

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 manage if known, this is VMware’s unique identifier.

This is required if 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:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

Notes

Note

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

Examples

- name: Gather info from standalone ESXi server having datacenter as 'ha-datacenter'
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_info:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: ha-datacenter
    uuid: 421e4592-c069-924d-ce20-7e7533fab926
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: info

- name: Gather some info from a guest using the vSphere API output schema
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_info:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    name: "{{ vm_name }}"
    schema: "vsphere"
    properties: ["config.hardware.memoryMB", "guest.disk", "overallStatus"]
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: info

- name: Gather some information about a guest using MoID
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_info:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    moid: vm-42
    schema: "vsphere"
    properties: ["config.hardware.memoryMB", "guest.disk", "overallStatus"]
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: vm_moid_info

- name: Gather Managed object ID (moid) from a guest using the vSphere API output schema for REST Calls
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_info:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    name: "{{ vm_name }}"
    schema: "vsphere"
    properties:
      - _moId
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: moid_info

- name: Gather detailed information about tags and category associated with the given VM
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_info:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    name: "{{ vm_name }}"
    tags: true
    tag_details: true
  register: detailed_tag_info

Return Values

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

Key

Description

instance

dictionary

metadata about the virtual machine

Returned: always

Sample: {"advanced_settings": {}, "annotation": "", "current_snapshot": null, "customvalues": {}, "guest_consolidation_needed": false, "guest_question": null, "guest_tools_status": "guestToolsNotRunning", "guest_tools_version": "10247", "hw_cores_per_socket": 1, "hw_datastores": ["ds_226_3"], "hw_esxi_host": "10.76.33.226", "hw_eth0": {"addresstype": "assigned", "ipaddresses": null, "label": "Network adapter 1", "macaddress": "00:50:56:87:a5:9a", "macaddress_dash": "00-50-56-87-a5-9a", "portgroup_key": null, "portgroup_portkey": null, "summary": "VM Network"}, "hw_files": ["[ds_226_3] ubuntu_t/ubuntu_t.vmx", "[ds_226_3] ubuntu_t/ubuntu_t.nvram", "[ds_226_3] ubuntu_t/ubuntu_t.vmsd", "[ds_226_3] ubuntu_t/vmware.log", "[ds_226_3] u0001/u0001.vmdk"], "hw_folder": "/DC0/vm/Discovered virtual machine", "hw_guest_full_name": null, "hw_guest_ha_state": null, "hw_guest_id": null, "hw_interfaces": ["eth0"], "hw_is_template": false, "hw_memtotal_mb": 1024, "hw_name": "ubuntu_t", "hw_power_status": "poweredOff", "hw_processor_count": 1, "hw_product_uuid": "4207072c-edd8-3bd5-64dc-903fd3a0db04", "hw_version": "vmx-13", "instance_uuid": "5007769d-add3-1e12-f1fe-225ae2a07caf", "ipv4": null, "ipv6": null, "module_hw": true, "moid": "vm-42", "snapshots": [], "tags": ["backup"], "vimref": "vim.VirtualMachine:vm-42", "vnc": {}}

Authors

  • Loic Blot (@nerzhul)