community.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf module – Deploys a VMware virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file, placed on file system or HTTP server

Note

This module is part of the community.vmware collection (version 4.8.0).

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_deploy_ovf.

Synopsis

  • This module can be used to deploy a VMware VM from an OVF or OVA file, placed on file system or HTTP server

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

allow_duplicates

boolean

Whether or not to allow duplicate VM names. ESXi allows duplicates, vCenter may not.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

cluster

string

Cluster to deploy to.

This is a required parameter, if esxi_hostname is not set and hostname is set to the vCenter server.

esxi_hostname and cluster are mutually exclusive parameters.

datacenter

string

Datacenter to deploy to.

Default: "ha-datacenter"

datastore

string

Datastore to deploy to.

Default: "datastore1"

deployment_option

string

The key of the chosen deployment option.

disk_provisioning

string

Disk provisioning type.

Choices:

  • "flat"

  • "eagerZeroedThick"

  • "monolithicSparse"

  • "twoGbMaxExtentSparse"

  • "twoGbMaxExtentFlat"

  • "thin" ← (default)

  • "sparse"

  • "thick"

  • "seSparse"

  • "monolithicFlat"

enable_hidden_properties

boolean

added in community.vmware 3.11.0

Enable source properties that are marked as ovf:userConfigurable=false.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

esxi_hostname

string

The ESXi hostname where the virtual machine will run.

This is a required parameter, if cluster is not set and hostname is set to the vCenter server.

esxi_hostname and cluster are mutually exclusive parameters.

fail_on_spec_warnings

boolean

Cause the module to treat OVF Import Spec warnings as errors.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

folder

string

Absolute path of folder to place the virtual machine.

If not specified, defaults to the value of datacenter.vmFolder.

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.

inject_ovf_env

boolean

Force the given properties to be inserted into an OVF Environment and injected through VMware Tools.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

name

string

Name of the VM to work with.

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

networks

dictionary

key: value mapping of OVF network name, to the vCenter network name.

Default: {"VM Network": "VM Network"}

ovf

aliases: ova

path

Path to OVF or OVA file to deploy.

Required if url is not set.

ovf and url are mutually exclusive parameters.

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.

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.

Default: 443

power_on

boolean

Whether or not to power on the virtual machine after creation.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

properties

dictionary

The assignment of values to the properties found in the OVF as key value pairs.

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.

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

Resource Pool to deploy to.

Default: "Resources"

url

string

added in community.vmware 3.9.0

URL for OVA file to deploy.

Required if ovf is not set.

url and ovf are mutually exclusive parameters.

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.

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.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

wait

boolean

Wait for the host to power on.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

wait_for_ip_address

boolean

Wait until vCenter detects an IP address for the VM.

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

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Notes

Note

  • For use https as source need enable in firewall incoming 443 port

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

  • All variables and VMware object names are case sensitive.

Examples

- community.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    ovf: /path/to/ubuntu-16.04-amd64.ovf
    wait_for_ip_address: true
  delegate_to: localhost

# Deploys a new VM named 'NewVM' in specific datacenter/cluster, with network mapping taken from variable and using ova template from an absolute path
- community.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    datacenter: Datacenter1
    cluster: Cluster1
    datastore: vsandatastore
    name: NewVM
    networks: "{u'VM Network':u'{{ ProvisioningNetworkLabel }}'}"
    power_on: false
    ovf: /absolute/path/to/template/mytemplate.ova
  delegate_to: localhost

- community.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    datacenter: Datacenter1
    esxi_hostname: test-server
    datastore: test-datastore
    ovf: /path/to/ubuntu-16.04-amd64.ovf
  delegate_to: localhost

- community.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/xenial/release/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova
    wait_for_ip_address: true
  delegate_to: localhost

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

  • Alexander Nikitin (@ihumster)

  • Matt Martz (@sivel)