community.vmware.vmware_guest_screenshot module – Create a screenshot of the Virtual Machine console.

Note

This module is part of the community.vmware collection (version 6.1.0).

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_guest_screenshot.

Synopsis

  • This module is used to take screenshot of the given virtual machine when virtual machine is powered on.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

cluster

string

The name of cluster where the virtual machine is running.

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

esxi_hostname and cluster are mutually exclusive.

datacenter

string

The datacenter name to which virtual machine belongs to.

esxi_hostname

string

The ESXi hostname where the virtual machine is running.

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

esxi_hostname and cluster are mutually exclusive.

folder

string

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

This is a required parameter, only if multiple VMs are found with same name.

The folder should include the datacenter. ESXi server’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 server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_HOST will be used instead.

local_path

path

If not set, the created screenshot file will be kept in the directory of the virtual machine on ESXi host. If set to a valid path on local machine, then the screenshot file will be downloaded from ESXi host to the local directory.

If not download screenshot file to local machine, you can open it through the returned file URL in screenshot facts manually.

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 virtual machine.

This is a required parameter, if parameter uuid or moid is not supplied.

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string

The password of the vSphere vCenter 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 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

The 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

The 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.

username

aliases: admin, user

string

The username of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_USER will be used instead.

uuid

string

UUID of the instance to gather facts if known, this is VMware’s unique identifier.

This is a required parameter, if parameter 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.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

Notes

Note

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

  • All variables and VMware object names are case sensitive.

  • Modules may rely on the ‘requests’ python library, which does not use the system certificate store by default. You can specify the certificate store by setting the REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE environment variable. Note having this variable set may cause a ‘false’ value for the ‘validate_certs’ option to be ignored in some cases. Example: ‘export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/your/ca_bundle.pem’

Examples

- name: take a screenshot of the virtual machine console
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_screenshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "{{ folder_name }}"
    name: "{{ vm_name }}"
    local_path: "/tmp/"
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: take_screenshot

- name: Take a screenshot of the virtual machine console using MoID
  community.vmware.vmware_guest_screenshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "{{ folder_name }}"
    moid: vm-42
    local_path: "/tmp/"
  delegate_to: localhost
  register: take_screenshot

Return Values

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

Key

Description

screenshot_info

dictionary

display the facts of captured virtual machine screenshot file

Returned: always

Sample: {"download_file_size": 2367, "download_local_path": "/tmp/", "result": "success", "screenshot_file": "[datastore0] test_vm/test_vm-1.png", "screenshot_file_url": "https://test_vcenter/folder/test_vm/test_vm-1.png?dcPath=test-dc&dsName=datastore0", "task_complete_time": "2019-05-25T10:35:04.412622Z", "task_start_time": "2019-05-25T10:35:04.215016Z", "virtual_machine": "test_vm"}

Authors

  • Diane Wang (@Tomorrow9)