Ansible on Proxmox VE 8 Automation Complete Guide

Proxmox VE 8 release facts

| Item | Value | |---|---| | Base OS | Debian 12 Bookworm | | Kernel | 6.8 / 6.11 | | QEMU | 9.x | | LXC | 6.x | | Latest | 8.4 | | API | Proxmox REST API (port 8006) |

See also: Ansible for Proxmox: Automate VM and Container Management Complete Guide

Ansible-core compatibility

Use ansible-core 2.18 LTS. Required Python on the control node:

pip install proxmoxer requests

Collections:

collections:
  - name: community.general
    version: ">=10.0.0"

Inventory

[pve]
pve01 ansible_host=10.0.0.11
pve02 ansible_host=10.0.0.12
pve03 ansible_host=10.0.0.13
[pve:vars]
proxmox_api_host=pve01.lab.example.com
proxmox_api_user=automation@pve
proxmox_api_token_id=ansible
proxmox_api_token_secret='{{ vault_pve_token }}'

See also: How to Add a Disk to a VMware VM Using Ansible Playbook

Create a KVM VM

- name: Create KVM VM on Proxmox
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  tasks:
    - name: Create VM
      community.general.proxmox_kvm:
        api_host: "{{ proxmox_api_host }}"
        api_user: "{{ proxmox_api_user }}"
        api_token_id: "{{ proxmox_api_token_id }}"
        api_token_secret: "{{ proxmox_api_token_secret }}"
        validate_certs: false
        node: pve01
        name: app-01
        vmid: 110
        cores: 4
        memory: 8192
        net:
          net0: "virtio,bridge=vmbr0,tag=100"
        scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
        scsi:
          scsi0: "local-lvm:32"
        ide:
          ide2: "local:iso/ubuntu-24.04.iso,media=cdrom"
        ostype: l26
        state: present
- name: Start VM
      community.general.proxmox_kvm:
        api_host: "{{ proxmox_api_host }}"
        api_user: "{{ proxmox_api_user }}"
        api_token_id: "{{ proxmox_api_token_id }}"
        api_token_secret: "{{ proxmox_api_token_secret }}"
        validate_certs: false
        node: pve01
        name: app-01
        state: started

LXC container

- name: Create LXC on Proxmox
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  tasks:
    - name: Create container
      community.general.proxmox:
        api_host: "{{ proxmox_api_host }}"
        api_user: "{{ proxmox_api_user }}"
        api_token_id: "{{ proxmox_api_token_id }}"
        api_token_secret: "{{ proxmox_api_token_secret }}"
        validate_certs: false
        node: pve02
        hostname: ct-runner-01
        ostemplate: "local:vztmpl/debian-12-standard_12.7-1_amd64.tar.zst"
        cores: 2
        memory: 1024
        swap: 512
        disk: "local-lvm:8"
        netif:
          net0: "name=eth0,bridge=vmbr0,ip=dhcp"
        password: "{{ vault_ct_password }}"
        state: present
- name: Start container
      community.general.proxmox:
        api_host: "{{ proxmox_api_host }}"
        api_user: "{{ proxmox_api_user }}"
        api_token_id: "{{ proxmox_api_token_id }}"
        api_token_secret: "{{ proxmox_api_token_secret }}"
        validate_certs: false
        node: pve02
        hostname: ct-runner-01
        state: started

See also: Configure Ansible Dynamic Inventory for VMware in Simple Steps

Backup jobs

- name: Create backup job
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  tasks:
    - name: vzdump backup
      community.general.proxmox_backup:
        api_host: "{{ proxmox_api_host }}"
        api_user: "{{ proxmox_api_user }}"
        api_token_id: "{{ proxmox_api_token_id }}"
        api_token_secret: "{{ proxmox_api_token_secret }}"
        validate_certs: false
        node: pve01
        vmid: 110
        storage: pbs01
        mode: snapshot
        compress: zstd
        state: present

Dynamic inventory

Use community.general.proxmox inventory plugin:

# inventory.proxmox.yml
plugin: community.general.proxmox
url: https://pve01.lab.example.com:8006
user: automation@pve
token_id: ansible
token_secret: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.env', 'PROXMOX_TOKEN') }}"
validate_certs: false
want_facts: true

Best practices

Conclusion