community.vmware.vmware_guest module – Manages virtual machines in vCenter

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.

Synopsis

  • This module can be used to create new virtual machines from templates or other virtual machines, manage power state of virtual machine such as power on, power off, suspend, shutdown, reboot, restart etc., modify various virtual machine components like network, disk, customization etc., rename a virtual machine and remove a virtual machine with associated components.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

advanced_settings

list / elements=dictionary

Define a list of advanced settings to be added to the VMX config.

An advanced settings object takes two fields key and value.

Incorrect key and values will be ignored.

Default: []

annotation

aliases: notes

string

A note or annotation to include in the virtual machine.

cdrom

any

A list of CD-ROM configurations for the virtual machine. Added in version 2.9.

Providing CD-ROM configuration as dict is deprecated and will be removed VMware collection 4.0.0. Please use a list instead.

Parameters controller_type, controller_number, unit_number, state are added for a list of CD-ROMs configuration support.

For ide controller, hot-add or hot-remove CD-ROM is not supported.

Default: []

controller_number

integer

For ide controller, valid value is 0 or 1.

For sata controller, valid value is 0 to 3.

controller_type

string

Valid options are ide and sata.

Default value is ide.

When set to sata, please make sure unit_number is correct and not used by SATA disks.

iso_path

string

The datastore path to the ISO file to use, in the form of [datastore1] path/to/file.iso.

Required if type is set iso.

state

string

Valid value is present or absent.

Default is present.

If set to absent, then the specified CD-ROM will be removed.

type

string

The type of CD-ROM, valid options are none, client or iso.

With none the CD-ROM will be disconnected but present.

The default value is client.

unit_number

integer

For CD-ROM device attach to ide controller, valid value is 0 or 1.

For CD-ROM device attach to sata controller, valid value is 0 to 29.

controller_number and unit_number are mandatory attributes.

cluster

string

The cluster name where the virtual machine will run.

This is a required parameter, if esxi_hostname is not set.

esxi_hostname and cluster are mutually exclusive parameters.

This parameter is case sensitive.

convert

string

Specify convert disk type while cloning template or virtual machine.

Choices:

  • "thin"

  • "thick"

  • "eagerzeroedthick"

customization

dictionary

Parameters for OS customization when cloning from the template or the virtual machine, or apply to the existing virtual machine directly.

Not all operating systems are supported for customization with respective vCenter version, please check VMware documentation for respective OS customization.

For supported customization operating system matrix, (see http://partnerweb.vmware.com/programs/guestOS/guest-os-customization-matrix.pdf)

All parameters and VMware object names are case sensitive.

Linux based OSes requires Perl package to be installed for OS customizations.

Default: {}

autologon

boolean

Auto logon after virtual machine customization.

Specific to Windows customization.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

autologoncount

integer

Number of autologon after reboot.

Specific to Windows customization.

Ignored if autologon is unset or set to false.

If unset, 1 will be used.

dns_servers

list / elements=string

List of DNS servers to configure.

Common for Linux and Windows customization.

dns_suffix

list / elements=string

List of domain suffixes, also known as DNS search path.

Default domain parameter.

Common for Linux and Windows customization.

domain

string

DNS domain name to use.

Common for Linux and Windows customization.

domainadmin

string

User used to join in AD domain.

Required if joindomain specified.

Specific to Windows customization.

domainadminpassword

string

Password used to join in AD domain.

Required if joindomain specified.

Specific to Windows customization.

existing_vm

boolean

If set to true, do OS customization on the specified virtual machine directly.

Common for Linux and Windows customization.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

fullname

string

Server owner name.

Specific to Windows customization.

If unset, “Administrator” will be used as a fall-back.

hostname

string

Computer hostname.

Default is shortened name parameter.

Allowed characters are alphanumeric (uppercase and lowercase) and minus, rest of the characters are dropped as per RFC 952.

Common for Linux and Windows customization.

hwclockUTC

boolean

Specifies whether the hardware clock is in UTC or local time.

Specific to Linux customization.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

joindomain

string

AD domain to join.

Not compatible with joinworkgroup.

Specific to Windows customization.

joinworkgroup

string

Workgroup to join.

Not compatible with joindomain.

Specific to Windows customization.

If unset, “WORKGROUP” will be used as a fall-back.

orgname

string

Organisation name.

Specific to Windows customization.

If unset, “ACME” will be used as a fall-back.

password

string

Local administrator password.

If not defined, the password will be set to blank (that is, no password).

Specific to Windows customization.

productid

string

Product ID.

Specific to Windows customization.

runonce

list / elements=string

List of commands to run at first user logon.

Specific to Windows customization.

script_text

string

added in community.vmware 3.1.0

Script to run with shebang.

Needs to be enabled in vmware tools with vmware-toolbox-cmd config set deployPkg enable-custom-scripts true

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-9A5093A5-C54F-4502-941B-3F9C0F573A39.html

Specific to Linux customization.

timezone

string

Timezone.

See List of supported time zones for different vSphere versions in Linux/Unix.

Common for Linux and Windows customization.

Windows.

customization_spec

string

Unique name identifying the requested customization specification.

This parameter is case sensitive.

If set, then overrides customization parameter values.

customvalues

list / elements=dictionary

Define a list of custom values to set on virtual machine.

A custom value object takes two fields key and value.

Incorrect key and values will be ignored.

Default: []

datacenter

string

Destination datacenter for the deploy operation.

This parameter is case sensitive.

Default: "ha-datacenter"

datastore

string

Specify datastore or datastore cluster to provision virtual machine.

This parameter takes precedence over disk.datastore parameter.

This parameter can be used to override datastore or datastore cluster setting of the virtual machine when deployed from the template.

Please see example for more usage.

delete_from_inventory

boolean

Whether to delete Virtual machine from inventory or delete from disk.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

disk

list / elements=dictionary

A list of disks to add.

This parameter is case sensitive.

Shrinking disks is not supported.

Removing existing disks of the virtual machine is not supported.

Attributes controller_type, controller_number, unit_number are used to configure multiple types of disk controllers and disks for creating or reconfiguring virtual machine. Added in Ansible 2.10.

Default: []

autoselect_datastore

boolean

Select the less used datastore.

disk.datastore and disk.autoselect_datastore will not be used if datastore is specified outside this disk configuration.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

controller_number

integer

Disk controller bus number.

The maximum number of same type controller is 4 per VM.

Choices:

  • 0

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

controller_type

string

Type of disk controller.

nvme controller type support starts on ESXi 6.5 with VM hardware version version 13. Set this type on not supported ESXi or VM hardware version will lead to failure in deployment.

When set to sata, please make sure unit_number is correct and not used by SATA CDROMs.

If set to sata type, please make sure controller_number and unit_number are set correctly when cdrom also set to sata type.

Choices:

  • "buslogic"

  • "lsilogic"

  • "lsilogicsas"

  • "paravirtual"

  • "sata"

  • "nvme"

datastore

string

The name of datastore which will be used for the disk.

If autoselect_datastore is set to True, will select the less used datastore whose name contains this “disk.datastore” string.

disk_mode

string

Type of disk mode.

Added in Ansible 2.6.

If persistent specified, changes are immediately and permanently written to the virtual disk. This is default.

If independent_persistent specified, same as persistent, but not affected by snapshots.

If independent_nonpersistent specified, changes to virtual disk are made to a redo log and discarded at power off, but not affected by snapshots.

Choices:

  • "persistent"

  • "independent_persistent"

  • "independent_nonpersistent"

filename

string

Existing disk image to be used.

Filename must already exist on the datastore.

Specify filename string in [datastore_name] path/to/file.vmdk format. Added in Ansible 2.8.

size

string

Disk storage size.

Please specify storage unit like [kb, mb, gb, tb].

size_gb

integer

Disk storage size in gb.

size_kb

integer

Disk storage size in kb.

size_mb

integer

Disk storage size in mb.

size_tb

integer

Disk storage size in tb.

type

string

Type of disk.

If thin specified, disk type is set to thin disk.

If eagerzeroedthick specified, disk type is set to eagerzeroedthick disk. Added Ansible 2.5.

If not specified, disk type is inherited from the source VM or template when cloned and thick disk, no eagerzero otherwise.

Choices:

  • "thin"

  • "thick"

  • "eagerzeroedthick"

unit_number

integer

Disk Unit Number.

Valid value range from 0 to 15 for SCSI controller, except 7.

Valid value range from 0 to 14 for NVME controller.

Valid value range from 0 to 29 for SATA controller.

controller_type, controller_number and unit_number are required when creating or reconfiguring VMs with multiple types of disk controllers and disks.

When creating new VM, the first configured disk in the disk list will be “Hard Disk 1”.

encryption

dictionary

added in community.vmware 3.9.0

Manage virtual machine encryption settings

All parameters case sensitive.

Default: {}

encrypted_ft

string

Controls encryption for fault tolerance replication

Choices:

  • "disabled"

  • "opportunistic"

  • "required"

encrypted_vmotion

string

Controls encryption for live migrations with vmotion

Choices:

  • "disabled"

  • "opportunistic"

  • "required"

esxi_hostname

string

The ESXi hostname where the virtual machine will run.

This is a required parameter, if cluster is not set.

esxi_hostname and cluster are mutually exclusive parameters.

This parameter is case sensitive.

folder

string

Destination folder, absolute path to find an existing guest or create the new guest.

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

This parameter is case sensitive.

If multiple machines are found with same name, this parameter is used to identify

uniqueness of the virtual machine. Added in Ansible 2.5.

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

force

boolean

Ignore warnings and complete the actions.

This parameter is useful while removing virtual machine which is powered on state.

This module reflects the VMware vCenter API and UI workflow, as such, in some cases the `force` flag will be mandatory to perform the action to ensure you are certain the action has to be taken, no matter what the consequence. This is specifically the case for removing a powered on the virtual machine when state is set to absent.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

guest_id

string

Set the guest ID.

This parameter is case sensitive.

rhel7_64Guest for virtual machine with RHEL7 64 bit.

centos64Guest for virtual machine with CentOS 64 bit.

ubuntu64Guest for virtual machine with Ubuntu 64 bit.

This field is required when creating a virtual machine, not required when creating from the template.

Valid values are referenced here: https://code.vmware.com/apis/358/doc/vim.vm.GuestOsDescriptor.GuestOsIdentifier.html

hardware

dictionary

Manage virtual machine’s hardware attributes.

All parameters case sensitive.

Default: {}

boot_firmware

string

Choose which firmware should be used to boot the virtual machine.

Choices:

  • "bios"

  • "efi"

cpu_limit

integer

The CPU utilization of a virtual machine will not exceed this limit.

Unit is MHz.

cpu_reservation

integer

The amount of CPU resource that is guaranteed available to the virtual machine.

cpu_shares

integer

added in community.vmware 3.2.0

The number of shares of CPU allocated to this virtual machine

cpu_shares_level will automatically be set to ‘custom’

cpu_shares_level

string

added in community.vmware 3.2.0

The allocation level of CPU resources for the virtual machine.

Valid Values are low, normal, high and custom.

Choices:

  • "low"

  • "normal"

  • "high"

  • "custom"

hotadd_cpu

boolean

Allow virtual CPUs to be added while the virtual machine is running.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

hotadd_memory

boolean

Allow memory to be added while the virtual machine is running.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

hotremove_cpu

boolean

Allow virtual CPUs to be removed while the virtual machine is running.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

iommu

boolean

Flag to specify if I/O MMU is enabled for this virtual machine.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

max_connections

integer

Maximum number of active remote display connections for the virtual machines.

mem_limit

integer

The memory utilization of a virtual machine will not exceed this limit.

Unit is MB.

mem_reservation

aliases: memory_reservation

integer

The amount of memory resource that is guaranteed available to the virtual machine.

mem_shares

integer

added in community.vmware 3.2.0

The number of shares of memory allocated to this virtual machine

mem_shares_level will automatically be set to ‘custom’

mem_shares_level

string

added in community.vmware 3.2.0

The allocation level of memory resources for the virtual machine.

Valid Values are low, normal, high and custom.

Choices:

  • "low"

  • "normal"

  • "high"

  • "custom"

memory_mb

integer

Amount of memory in MB.

memory_reservation_lock

boolean

If set true, memory resource reservation for the virtual machine.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

nested_virt

boolean

Enable nested virtualization.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

num_cpu_cores_per_socket

integer

Number of Cores Per Socket.

num_cpus

integer

Number of CPUs.

num_cpus must be a multiple of num_cpu_cores_per_socket.

For example, to create a VM with 2 sockets of 4 cores, specify num_cpus as 8 and num_cpu_cores_per_socket as 4.

scsi

string

Valid values are buslogic, lsilogic, lsilogicsas and paravirtual.

paravirtual is default.

Choices:

  • "buslogic"

  • "lsilogic"

  • "lsilogicsas"

  • "paravirtual"

secure_boot

boolean

Whether to enable or disable (U)EFI secure boot.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

version

string

The Virtual machine hardware versions.

Default is 10 (ESXi 5.5 and onwards).

If set to latest, the specified virtual machine will be upgraded to the most current hardware version supported on the host.

latest is added in Ansible 2.10.

Please check VMware documentation for correct virtual machine hardware version.

Incorrect hardware version may lead to failure in deployment. If hardware version is already equal to the given.

virt_based_security

boolean

Enable Virtualization Based Security feature for Windows on ESXi 6.7 and later, from hardware version 14.

Supported Guest OS are Windows 10 64 bit, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and later.

The firmware of virtual machine must be EFI and secure boot must be enabled.

Virtualization Based Security depends on nested virtualization and Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O.

Deploy on unsupported ESXi, hardware version or firmware may lead to failure or deployed VM with unexpected configurations.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

vpmc_enabled

boolean

added in community.vmware 3.2.0

Enable virtual CPU Performance Counters.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

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

Flag the instance as a template.

This will mark the given virtual machine as template.

Note, this may need to be done in a dedicated task invocation that is not making any other changes. For example, user cannot change the state from powered-on to powered-off AND save as template in the same task.

See community.vmware.vmware_guest source for more details.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

linked_clone

boolean

Whether to create a linked clone from the snapshot specified.

If specified, then snapshot_src is required parameter.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

name

string

Name of the virtual machine to work with.

Virtual machine names in vCenter are not necessarily unique, which may be problematic, see name_match.

If multiple virtual machines with same name exists, then folder is required parameter to identify uniqueness of the virtual machine.

This parameter is required, if state is set to poweredon, powered-on, poweredoff, powered-off, present, restarted, suspended and virtual machine does not exists.

This parameter is case sensitive.

name_match

string

If multiple virtual machines matching the name, use the first or last found.

Choices:

  • "first" ← (default)

  • "last"

networks

list / elements=dictionary

A list of networks (in the order of the NICs).

Removing NICs is not allowed, while reconfiguring the virtual machine.

All parameters and VMware object names are case sensitive.

The type, ip, netmask, gateway, domain, dns_servers options don’t set to a guest when creating a blank new virtual machine. They are set by the customization via vmware-tools. If you want to set the value of the options to a guest, you need to clone from a template with installed OS and vmware-tools(also Perl when Linux).

Default: []

connected

boolean

Indicates whether the NIC is currently connected.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

device_type

string

Virtual network device.

Valid value can be one of e1000, e1000e, pcnet32, vmxnet2, vmxnet3, sriov.

vmxnet3 is default.

Optional per entry.

Used for virtual hardware.

dns_servers

string

DNS servers for this network interface (Windows).

Optional per entry.

Used for OS customization.

domain

string

Domain name for this network interface (Windows).

Optional per entry.

Used for OS customization.

dvswitch_name

string

Name of the distributed vSwitch.

Optional per entry.

Used for virtual hardware.

gateway

string

Static gateway.

Optional per entry.

Used for OS customization.

ip

string

Static IP address. Implies type=static.

Optional per entry.

Used for OS customization.

mac

string

Customize MAC address.

Optional per entry.

Used for virtual hardware.

name

string

Name of the portgroup or distributed virtual portgroup for this interface.

Required per entry.

When specifying distributed virtual portgroup make sure given esxi_hostname or cluster is associated with it.

netmask

string

Static netmask required for ip.

Optional per entry.

Used for OS customization.

start_connected

boolean

Specifies whether or not to connect the device when the virtual machine starts.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

type

string

Type of IP assignment.

Valid values are one of dhcp, static.

dhcp is default.

Optional per entry.

Used for OS customization.

vlan

integer

VLAN number for this interface.

Required per entry.

nvdimm

dictionary

Add or remove a virtual NVDIMM device to the virtual machine.

VM virtual hardware version must be 14 or higher on vSphere 6.7 or later.

Verify that guest OS of the virtual machine supports PMem before adding virtual NVDIMM device.

Verify that you have the Datastore.Allocate space privilege on the virtual machine.

Make sure that the host or the cluster on which the virtual machine resides has available PMem resources.

To add or remove virtual NVDIMM device to the existing virtual machine, it must be in power off state.

Default: {}

label

string

The label of the virtual NVDIMM device to be removed or configured, e.g., “NVDIMM 1”.

This parameter is required when state is set to absent, or present to reconfigure NVDIMM device size. When add a new device, please do not set label.

size_mb

integer

Virtual NVDIMM device size in MB.

Default: 1024

state

string

Valid value is present or absent.

If set to absent, then the NVDIMM device with specified label will be removed.

Choices:

  • "present"

  • "absent"

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

Use the given resource pool for virtual machine operation.

This parameter is case sensitive.

Resource pool should be child of the selected host parent.

When not specified Resources is taken as default value.

snapshot_src

string

Name of the existing snapshot to use to create a clone of a virtual machine.

This parameter is case sensitive.

While creating linked clone using linked_clone parameter, this parameter is required.

state

string

Specify the state the virtual machine should be in.

If state is set to present and virtual machine exists, ensure the virtual machine configurations conforms to task arguments.

If state is set to absent and virtual machine exists, then the specified virtual machine is removed with it’s associated components.

If state is set to one of the following poweredon, powered-on, poweredoff, powered-off, present, restarted, suspended and virtual machine does not exists, virtual machine is deployed with the given parameters.

If state is set to poweredon or powered-on and virtual machine exists with powerstate other than powered on, then the specified virtual machine is powered on.

If state is set to poweredoff or powered-off and virtual machine exists with powerstate other than powered off, then the specified virtual machine is powered off.

If state is set to restarted and virtual machine exists, then the virtual machine is restarted.

If state is set to suspended and virtual machine exists, then the virtual machine is set to suspended mode.

If state is set to shutdownguest or shutdown-guest and virtual machine exists, then the virtual machine is shutdown.

If state is set to rebootguest or reboot-guest and virtual machine exists, then the virtual machine is rebooted.

Powerstate powered-on and powered-off is added in version 2.10.

Choices:

  • "absent"

  • "poweredon"

  • "powered-on"

  • "poweredoff"

  • "powered-off"

  • "present" ← (default)

  • "rebootguest"

  • "reboot-guest"

  • "restarted"

  • "suspended"

  • "shutdownguest"

  • "shutdown-guest"

state_change_timeout

integer

If the state is set to shutdownguest, by default the module will return immediately after sending the shutdown signal.

If this argument is set to a positive integer, the module will instead wait for the virtual machine to reach the poweredoff state.

The value sets a timeout in seconds for the module to wait for the state change.

Default: 0

template

aliases: template_src

string

Template or existing virtual machine used to create new virtual machine.

If this value is not set, virtual machine is created without using a template.

If the virtual machine already exists, this parameter will be ignored.

This parameter is case sensitive.

From version 2.8 onwards, absolute path to virtual machine or template can be used.

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

This is required if name is not supplied.

If virtual machine does not exists, then this parameter is ignored.

Please note that a supplied UUID will be ignored on virtual machine creation, as VMware creates the UUID internally.

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)

vapp_properties

list / elements=dictionary

A list of vApp properties.

For full list of attributes and types refer to: https://code.vmware.com/apis/704/vsphere/vim.vApp.PropertyInfo.html

Default: []

id

string

Property ID.

Required per entry.

operation

string

The remove attribute is required only when removing properties.

type

string

Value type, string type by default.

value

string

Property value.

wait_for_customization

boolean

Wait until vCenter detects all guest customizations as successfully completed.

When enabled, the VM will automatically be powered on.

If vCenter does not detect guest customization start or succeed, failed events after time wait_for_customization_timeout parameter specified, warning message will be printed and task result is fail.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

wait_for_customization_timeout

integer

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

Be careful when setting this value since the time guest customization took may differ among guest OSes.

Default: 3600

wait_for_ip_address

boolean

Wait until vCenter detects an IP address for the virtual machine.

This requires vmware-tools (vmtoolsd) to properly work after creation.

vmware-tools needs to be installed on the given virtual machine in order to work with this parameter.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

wait_for_ip_address_timeout

integer

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

Default: 300

Notes

Note

  • Please make sure that the user used for community.vmware.vmware_guest has the correct level of privileges.

  • For example, following is the list of minimum privileges required by users to create virtual machines.

  • DataStore > Allocate Space

  • Virtual Machine > Configuration > Add New Disk

  • Virtual Machine > Configuration > Add or Remove Device

  • Virtual Machine > Inventory > Create New

  • Network > Assign Network

  • Resource > Assign Virtual Machine to Resource Pool

  • Module may require additional privileges as well, which may be required for gathering facts - e.g. ESXi configurations.

  • Use SCSI disks instead of IDE when you want to expand online disks by specifying a SCSI controller.

  • Uses SysPrep for Windows VM (depends on ‘guest_id’ parameter match ‘win’) with PyVmomi.

  • In order to change the VM’s parameters (e.g. number of CPUs), the VM must be powered off unless the hot-add support is enabled and the state=present must be used to apply the changes.

  • For additional information please visit Ansible VMware community wiki - https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/VMware.

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

Examples

- name: Create a virtual machine on given ESXi hostname
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    folder: /DC1/vm/
    name: test_vm_0001
    state: poweredon
    guest_id: centos64Guest
    # This is hostname of particular ESXi server on which user wants VM to be deployed
    esxi_hostname: "{{ esxi_hostname }}"
    disk:
    - size_gb: 10
      type: thin
      datastore: datastore1
    hardware:
      memory_mb: 512
      num_cpus: 4
      scsi: paravirtual
    networks:
    - name: VM Network
      mac: aa:bb:dd:aa:00:14
      ip: 10.10.10.100
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      device_type: vmxnet3
    wait_for_ip_address: true
    wait_for_ip_address_timeout: 600
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: deploy_vm

- name: Create a virtual machine from a template
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    folder: /testvms
    name: testvm_2
    state: poweredon
    template: template_el7
    disk:
    - size_gb: 10
      type: thin
      datastore: g73_datastore
    # Add another disk from an existing VMDK
    - filename: "[datastore1] testvms/testvm_2_1/testvm_2_1.vmdk"
    hardware:
      memory_mb: 512
      num_cpus: 6
      num_cpu_cores_per_socket: 3
      scsi: paravirtual
      memory_reservation_lock: true
      mem_limit: 8096
      mem_reservation: 4096
      cpu_shares_level: "high"
      mem_shares_level: "high"
      cpu_limit: 8096
      cpu_reservation: 4096
      max_connections: 5
      hotadd_cpu: true
      hotremove_cpu: true
      hotadd_memory: false
      version: 12 # Hardware version of virtual machine
      boot_firmware: "efi"
    cdrom:
        - controller_number: 0
          unit_number: 0
          state: present
          type: iso
          iso_path: "[datastore1] livecd.iso"
    networks:
    - name: VM Network
      mac: aa:bb:dd:aa:00:14
    wait_for_ip_address: true
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: deploy

- name: Clone a virtual machine from Windows template and customize
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: datacenter1
    cluster: cluster
    name: testvm-2
    template: template_windows
    networks:
    - name: VM Network
      ip: 192.168.1.100
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      gateway: 192.168.1.1
      mac: aa:bb:dd:aa:00:14
      domain: my_domain
      dns_servers:
      - 192.168.1.1
      - 192.168.1.2
    - vlan: 1234
      type: dhcp
    customization:
      autologon: true
      dns_servers:
      - 192.168.1.1
      - 192.168.1.2
      domain: my_domain
      password: new_vm_password
      runonce:
      - powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File C:\Windows\Temp\ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1 -ForceNewSSLCert -EnableCredSSP
  delegate_to: localhost

- name:  Clone a virtual machine from Linux template and customize
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
    state: present
    folder: /DC1/vm
    template: "{{ template }}"
    name: "{{ vm_name }}"
    cluster: DC1_C1
    networks:
      - name: VM Network
        ip: 192.168.10.11
        netmask: 255.255.255.0
    wait_for_ip_address: true
    customization:
      domain: "{{ guest_domain }}"
      dns_servers:
        - 8.9.9.9
        - 7.8.8.9
      dns_suffix:
        - example.com
        - example2.com
      script_text: |
        #!/bin/bash
        touch /tmp/touch-from-playbook
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Rename a virtual machine (requires the virtual machine's uuid)
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    uuid: "{{ vm_uuid }}"
    name: new_name
    state: present
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Remove a virtual machine by uuid
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    uuid: "{{ vm_uuid }}"
    state: absent
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Remove a virtual machine from inventory
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: vm_name
    delete_from_inventory: true
    state: absent
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Manipulate vApp properties
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: vm_name
    state: present
    vapp_properties:
      - id: remoteIP
        category: Backup
        label: Backup server IP
        type: string
        value: 10.10.10.1
      - id: old_property
        operation: remove
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Set powerstate of a virtual machine to poweroff by using UUID
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    uuid: "{{ vm_uuid }}"
    state: poweredoff
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Deploy a virtual machine in a datastore different from the datastore of the template
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    name: "{{ vm_name }}"
    state: present
    template: "{{ template_name }}"
    # Here datastore can be different which holds template
    datastore: "{{ virtual_machine_datastore }}"
    hardware:
      memory_mb: 512
      num_cpus: 2
      scsi: paravirtual
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create a diskless VM
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ dc1 }}"
    state: poweredoff
    cluster: "{{ ccr1 }}"
    name: diskless_vm
    folder: /Asia-Datacenter1/vm
    guest_id: centos64Guest
    datastore: "{{ ds1 }}"
    hardware:
        memory_mb: 1024
        num_cpus: 2
        num_cpu_cores_per_socket: 1

- name: Create a VM with multiple disks of different disk controller types
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    folder: /DC1/vm/
    name: test_vm_multi_disks
    state: poweredoff
    guest_id: centos64Guest
    datastore: datastore1
    disk:
    - size_gb: 10
      controller_type: 'nvme'
      controller_number: 0
      unit_number: 0
    - size_gb: 10
      controller_type: 'paravirtual'
      controller_number: 0
      unit_number: 1
    - size_gb: 10
      controller_type: 'sata'
      controller_number: 0
      unit_number: 2
    hardware:
      memory_mb: 512
      num_cpus: 4
      version: 14
    networks:
    - name: VM Network
      device_type: vmxnet3
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: deploy_vm

- name: Create a VM with NVDIMM device
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    folder: /DC1/vm/
    name: test_vm_nvdimm
    state: poweredoff
    guest_id: centos7_64Guest
    datastore: datastore1
    hardware:
      memory_mb: 512
      num_cpus: 4
      version: 14
    networks:
    - name: VM Network
      device_type: vmxnet3
    nvdimm:
      state: present
      size_mb: 2048
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: deploy_vm

Return Values

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

Key

Description

instance

dictionary

metadata about the new virtual machine

Returned: always

Sample: "None"

Authors

  • Loic Blot (@nerzhul)

  • Philippe Dellaert (@pdellaert)

  • Abhijeet Kasurde (@Akasurde)