community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session module – Create or remove a Port Mirroring session.

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_vspan_session.

Synopsis

  • This module can be used to create, delete or edit different kind of port mirroring sessions.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

description

string

The description for the session.

destination_port

string

Destination port that received the mirrored packets.

Also any port designated in the value of this property can not match the source port in any of the Distributed Port Mirroring session.

destination_vm

dictionary

With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session.

name

string

Name of the VM.

nic_label

string

Label of the network interface card to use.

enabled

boolean

Whether the session is enabled.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

encapsulation_vlan_id

integer

VLAN ID used to encapsulate the mirrored traffic.

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.

mirrored_packet_length

integer

An integer that describes how much of each frame to mirror.

If unset, all of the frame would be mirrored.

Setting this property to a smaller value is useful when the consumer will look only at the headers.

The value cannot be less than 60.

name

string / required

Name of the session.

normal_traffic_allowed

boolean

Whether or not destination ports can send and receive “normal” traffic.

Setting this to false will make mirror ports be used solely for mirroring and not double as normal access ports.

Choices:

  • false

  • 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.

sampling_rate

integer

Sampling rate of the session.

If its value is n, one of every n packets is mirrored.

Valid values are between 1 to 65535.

session_type

string

Select the mirroring type.

In encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource session, Distributed Ports can be used as source entities, and IP address can be used as destination entities.

In remoteMirrorDest session, VLAN IDs can be used as source entities, and Distributed Ports can be used as destination entities.

In remoteMirrorSource session, Distributed Ports can be used as source entities, and uplink ports name can be used as destination entities.

In dvPortMirror session, Distributed Ports can be used as both source and destination entities.

Choices:

  • "encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource"

  • "remoteMirrorDest"

  • "remoteMirrorSource"

  • "dvPortMirror" ← (default)

source_port_received

string

Source port for which received packets are mirrored.

source_port_transmitted

string

Source port for which transmitted packets are mirrored.

source_vm_received

dictionary

With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session.

name

string

Name of the VM.

nic_label

string

Label of the network interface card to use.

source_vm_transmitted

dictionary

With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session.

name

string

Name of the VM.

nic_label

string

Label of the network interface card to use.

state

string / required

Create or remove the session.

Choices:

  • "present"

  • "absent"

strip_original_vlan

boolean

Whether to strip the original VLAN tag.

If false, the original VLAN tag will be preserved on the mirrored traffic.

If encapsulation_vlan_id has been set and this property is false, the frames will be double tagged with the original VLAN ID as the inner tag.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

switch

aliases: switch_name

string / required

The name of the distributed vSwitch on which to add or remove the mirroring session.

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 distributed mirroring session.
  community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    switch_name: dvSwitch
    state: present
    name: Basic Session
    enabled: true
    description: "Example description"
    source_port_transmitted: 817
    source_port_received: 817
    destination_port: 815
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create remote destination mirroring session.
  community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    switch_name: dvSwitch
    state: present
    name: Remote Session
    enabled: true
    description: "Example description"
    source_port_received: 105
    destination_port: 815
    session_type: "remoteMirrorDest"
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Delete remote destination mirroring session.
  community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    switch_name: dvSwitch
    state: absent
    name: Remote Session
  delegate_to: localhost

Authors

  • Peter Gyorgy (@gyorgypeter)