Create a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine - Ansible module vmware_guest

How to automate the creation of a virtual machine guest with 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, and 10 GB storage thin-provisioned using Ansible Playbook and vmware_guest module.

May 12, 2022

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How to create a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine with Ansible?

I’m going to show you a live demo and some simple Ansible code. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot

Ansible creates a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine

community.vmware.vmware_guest
Manages virtual machines in vCenter

Today we’re talking about the Ansible module vmware_guest. The full name is community.vmware.vmware_guest, which means that is part of the collection of modules to interact with VMware, community-supported. It’s a module pretty stable and out for years. It manages virtual machines in vCenter.

Parameters

The module vmware_guest has a very long list of parameters to customize all your needs to create a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine. Please refer to manual for the full list.

demo

How to create a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine with Ansible. I’m going to show you how to create a Virtual Machine named “myvm” with the following resources:

1 CPU
1 GB of RAM
10 GB of storage, thin-provisioned in the datastore “Datastore-1” network card name “VM Network”, type “vmxnet3”

code

create_vm.yml

---
- name: create vm demo
  hosts: localhost
  become: false
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - community.vmware
  pre_tasks:
      - include_vars: vars.yml
  tasks:
      - name: create folder
        vcenter_folder:
          hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
          username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
          password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
          validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
          datacenter_name: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
          folder_name: "{{ vcenter_destination_folder }}"
          folder_type: vm
          state: present
      - name: create VM
        vmware_guest:
          hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
          username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
          password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
          validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
          datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
          name: "{{ vm_name }}"
          folder: "{{ vcenter_destination_folder }}"
          state: "{{ vm_state }}"
          guest_id: "{{ vm_guestid }}"
          cluster: "{{ vcenter_cluster }}"
          disk:
            - size_gb: "{{ vm_disk_gb }}"
              type: "{{ vm_disk_type }}"
              datastore: "{{ vm_disk_datastore }}"
          hardware:
            memory_mb: "{{ vm_hw_ram_mb }}"
            num_cpus: "{{ vm_hw_cpu_n }}"
            scsi: "{{ vm_hw_scsi }}"
          networks:
            - name: "{{ vm_net_name }}"
              device_name: "{{ vm_net_type }}"

vars.yml

---
vcenter_hostname: "vmware.example.com"
vcenter_datacenter: "vmwaredatacenter"
vcenter_validate_certs: false
vcenter_username: "[email protected]"
vcenter_password: "MySecretPassword123"
vm_name: "myvm"
vm_guestid: "centos64Guest"
vm_disk_gb: 10
vm_disk_type: "thin"
vm_disk_datastore: "Datastore-1"
vm_hw_ram_mb: 1024
vm_hw_cpu_n: 1
vm_hw_scsi: "paravirtual"
vm_net_name: "VM Network"
vm_net_type: "vmxnet3"
vcenter_destination_folder: "myvm"
vm_state: "poweroff"

inventory

localhost

execution

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory vm_create.yml
PLAY [Create VM demo] *****************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Create folder] ******************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [Create VM] **********************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=3    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

idempotency

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory vm_create.yml
PLAY [Create VM demo] *****************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Create folder] ******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Create VM] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

after execution

ansible_module_vmware_guest after execution

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know how to create a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.