community.vmware.vmware_dvswitch module – Create or remove a Distributed Switch

Note

This module is part of the community.vmware collection (version 4.8.1).

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_dvswitch.

Synopsis

  • This module can be used to create, remove a Distributed Switch.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

contact

dictionary

Dictionary which configures administrator contact name and description for the Distributed Switch.

description

string

Description or other details.

name

string

Administrator name.

datacenter_name

aliases: datacenter

string

The name of the datacenter that will contain the Distributed Switch.

Required if folder is not provided.

Mutually exclusive with folder parameter.

description

string

Description of the Distributed Switch.

discovery_operation

string

Select the discovery operation.

Required if state=present.

Choices:

  • "both"

  • "advertise"

  • "listen" ← (default)

discovery_proto

aliases: discovery_protocol

string

Link discovery protocol between Cisco and Link Layer discovery.

Required if state=present.

cdp: Use Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

lldp: Use Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).

disabled: Do not use a discovery protocol.

Choices:

  • "cdp" ← (default)

  • "lldp"

  • "disabled"

folder

string

Destination folder, absolute path to place dvswitch in.

The folder should include the datacenter.

Required if datacenter is not provided.

Mutually exclusive with datacenter parameter.

Examples:

folder: /datacenter1/network

folder: datacenter1/network

folder: /datacenter1/network/folder1

folder: datacenter1/network/folder1

folder: /folder1/datacenter1/network

folder: folder1/datacenter1/network

folder: /folder1/datacenter1/network/folder2

health_check

dictionary

Dictionary which configures Health Check for the Distributed Switch.

Default: {"teaming_failover": false, "teaming_failover_interval": 0, "vlan_mtu": false, "vlan_mtu_interval": 0}

teaming_failover

boolean

Teaming and failover health check.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

teaming_failover_interval

integer

Teaming and failover health check interval (minutes).

The default value is 1 in the vSphere Client if the Teaming and failover health check is enabled.

Default: 0

vlan_mtu

boolean

VLAN and MTU health check.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

vlan_mtu_interval

integer

VLAN and MTU health check interval (minutes).

The default value is 1 in the vSphere Client if the VLAN and MTU health check is enabled.

Default: 0

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.

mtu

integer

The switch maximum transmission unit.

Required if state=present.

Accepts value between 1280 to 9000 (both inclusive).

Default: 1500

multicast_filtering_mode

string

The multicast filtering mode.

basic mode: multicast traffic for virtual machines is forwarded according to the destination MAC address of the multicast group.

snooping mode: the Distributed Switch provides IGMP and MLD snooping according to RFC 4541.

Choices:

  • "basic" ← (default)

  • "snooping"

net_flow

dictionary

Dictionary which configures the Net Flow for the Distributed Switch.

Default: {"active_flow_timeout": 60, "collector_port": 0, "idle_flow_timeout": 15, "internal_flows_only": false, "observation_domain_id": 0, "sampling_rate": 4096}

active_flow_timeout

integer

The time, in seconds, to wait before sending information after the flow is initiated.

Default: 60

collector_ip

string

The IP Address (IPv4 or IPv6) of the NetFlow collector.

collector_port

integer

The Port of the NetFlow collector.

Default: 0

idle_flow_timeout

integer

The time, in seconds, to wait before sending information after the flow is initiated.

Default: 15

internal_flows_only

boolean

If True, data on network activity between vms on the same host will be collected only.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

observation_domain_id

integer

Identifies the information related to the switch.

Default: 0

sampling_rate

integer

The portion of data that the switch collects.

The sampling rate represents the number of packets that NetFlow drops after every collected packet.

If the rate is 0, NetFlow samples every packet, that is, collect one packet and drop none.

If the rate is 1, NetFlow samples a packet and drops the next one, and so on.

Default: 4096

switch_ip

string

added in community.vmware 4.3.0

Assign an IP address to see the distributed switch as a single network device in the NetFlow collector.

This is instead of as multiple devices corresponding to each host.

In an IPv6 environment, the ESXi hosts ignore the switch IP address.

network_policy

dictionary

Dictionary which configures the different default security values for portgroups.

If set, these options are inherited by the portgroups of the DVS.

forged_transmits

boolean

Indicates whether forged transmits are allowed.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

mac_changes

boolean

Indicates whether mac changes are allowed.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

promiscuous

boolean

Indicates whether promiscuous mode is allowed.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

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

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.

state

string

If set to present and the Distributed Switch does not exist, the Distributed Switch will be created.

If set to absent and the Distributed Switch exists, the Distributed Switch will be deleted.

Choices:

  • "present" ← (default)

  • "absent"

switch_name

aliases: switch, dvswitch

string / required

The name of the distribute vSwitch to create or remove.

switch_version

aliases: version

string

The version of the Distributed Switch to create.

The version must match the version of the ESXi hosts you want to connect.

The version of the vCenter server is used if not specified.

Required if state=present.

string

The prefix used for the naming of the uplinks.

Only valid if the Distributed Switch will be created. Not used if the Distributed Switch is already present.

Uplinks are created as Uplink 1, Uplink 2, etc. pp. by default.

Default: "Uplink "

integer

Quantity of uplink per ESXi host added to the Distributed Switch.

The uplink quantity can be increased or decreased, but a decrease will only be successfull if the uplink isn’t used by a portgroup.

Required if state=present.

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)

Notes

Note

  • 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

- name: Create dvSwitch
  community.vmware.vmware_dvswitch:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    datacenter: '{{ datacenter }}'
    switch: dvSwitch
    version: 6.0.0
    mtu: 9000
    uplink_quantity: 2
    discovery_protocol: lldp
    discovery_operation: both
    state: present
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create dvSwitch with all options
  community.vmware.vmware_dvswitch:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    datacenter: '{{ datacenter }}'
    switch: dvSwitch
    version: 6.5.0
    mtu: 9000
    uplink_quantity: 2
    uplink_prefix: 'Uplink_'
    discovery_protocol: cdp
    discovery_operation: both
    multicast_filtering_mode: snooping
    health_check:
      vlan_mtu: true
      vlan_mtu_interval: 1
      teaming_failover: true
      teaming_failover_interval: 1
    net_flow:
        collector_ip: 192.168.10.50
        collector_port: 50034
        observation_domain_id: 0
        switch_ip: 192.168.10.40
        active_flow_timeout: 60
        idle_flow_timeout: 15
        sampling_rate: 4096
        internal_flows_only: false
    state: present
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Delete dvSwitch
  community.vmware.vmware_dvswitch:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    datacenter: '{{ datacenter }}'
    switch: dvSwitch
    state: absent
  delegate_to: localhost

Return Values

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

Key

Description

result

string

information about performed operation

Returned: always

Sample: "{'changed': False, 'contact': None, 'contact_details': None, 'description': None, 'discovery_operation': 'both', 'discovery_protocol': 'cdp', 'dvswitch': 'test', 'health_check_teaming': False, 'health_check_teaming_interval': 0, 'health_check_vlan': False, 'health_check_vlan_interval': 0, 'mtu': 9000, 'multicast_filtering_mode': 'basic', 'net_flow_active_flow_timeout': 60, 'net_flow_collector_ip': '192.168.10.50', 'net_flow_collector_port': 50034, 'net_flow_idle_flow_timeout': 15, 'net_flow_internal_flows_only': False, 'net_flow_observation_domain_id': 0, 'net_flow_sampling_rate': 4096, 'net_flow_switch_ip': '192.168.10.40', 'result': 'DVS already configured properly', 'uplink_quantity': 2, 'uplinks': ['Uplink_1', 'Uplink_2'], 'version': '6.6.0'}"

Authors

  • Joseph Callen (@jcpowermac)

  • Abhijeet Kasurde (@Akasurde)

  • Christian Kotte (@ckotte)