Deploy a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine from a Template - Ansible module vmware_guest

How to automate the deployment of a virtual machine guest from “mytemplate” template using Ansible Playbook and vmware_guest module.

May 13, 2022

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How to Deploy a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine from a Template 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 Deploy a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine from a Template

community.vmware.vmware_guest
Manages virtual machines in vCenter

Let’s talk 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 the manual for the full list.

demo

How to Deploy a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine from a Template with Ansible. I’m going to show you how to deploy a Virtual Machine named “myvm” from a template “mytemplate” without any customization.

code

vm_deploy_template.yml

---
- name: deploy vm from template 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: clone VM
      vmware_guest:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
        datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
        cluster: "{{ vcenter_cluster }}"
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        folder: "{{ vcenter_destination_folder }}"
        template: "{{ vm_template }}"

vars.yml

---
vcenter_hostname: "vmware.example.com"
vcenter_datacenter: "vmwaredatacenter"
vcenter_validate_certs: false
vcenter_username: "[email protected]"
vcenter_password: "MySecretPassword123"
vm_name: "myvm"
vcenter_destination_folder: "myvm"
vm_state: "poweroff"
vm_template: "mytemplate"

inventory

localhost

execution

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory vm_deploy_template.yml
PLAY [deploy vm from template demo] ***************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [create folder] ******************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [clone 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_deploy_template.yml
PLAY [deploy vm from template demo] ***************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [create folder] ******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [clone 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 Deploy a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine from a Template with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.