Get VMware vSphere Virtual Machine UUID - Ansible module vmware_guest_info

By Luca Berton · Published 2024-01-01 · Category: troubleshooting

How to automate the gathering of UUID of a specific “myvm” VMware vSphere Virtual Machine using Ansible Playbook and vmware_guest_info module.

Get VMware vSphere Virtual Machine UUID - Ansible module vmware_guest_info

How to Get VMware vSphere Virtual Machine UUID with Ansible?

Ansible Get VMware vSphere Virtual Machine UUID

community.vmware.vmware_guest_info
Gather info about a single VM

Let's talk about the Ansible module vmware_guest_info. The full name is community.vmware.vmware_guest_info, which means that is part of the collection of modules to interact with VMware, community-supported. The module's purpose is to gather info about a single VM.

Parameters

hostname string / port integer / username string / password string / datacenter string / validate_certs boolean - connection details
name string - Virtual machine name

The following parameters are useful in order to Get VMware vSphere Virtual Machine UUID using the module vmware_guest_info. First of all, we need to establish the connection with VMware vSphere or VMware vCenter using a plethora of self-explicative parameters: hostname, port, username, password, datacenter, and validate_certs. Once the connection is successfully established you could specify the virtual machine name to obtain all information about it.

Playbook

How to Get VMware vSphere Virtual Machine UUID with Ansible.

code

vm_uuid.yml

---
- name: vm UUID Playbook
  hosts: localhost
  become: false
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - community.vmware
  pre_tasks:
    - include_vars: vars.yml
  tasks:
    - name: Get VM UUID
      vmware_guest_info:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
        validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
      register: detailed_vm_info
    - name: print VM UUID
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        var: detailed_vm_info.instance.hw_product_uuid

vars.yml

---
vcenter_hostname: "vmware.example.com"
vcenter_datacenter: "vmwaredatacenter"
vcenter_validate_certs: false
vcenter_username: "username@vsphere.local"
vcenter_password: "MySecretPassword123"
vm_name: "myvm"

execution

$ ansible-playbook vm_uuid.yml 
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost
does not match 'all'
PLAY [vm UUID Playbook] ***************************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] ***************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Get VM UUID] ****************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [print VM UUID] **************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "detailed_vm_info.instance.hw_product_uuid": "4225a846-b176-892d-0e27-10a4106269a0"
}
PLAY RECAP ************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

idempotency

$ ansible-playbook vm_uuid.yml 
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost
does not match 'all'
PLAY [vm UUID Playbook] ***************************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] ***************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Get VM UUID] ****************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [print VM UUID] **************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "detailed_vm_info.instance.hw_product_uuid": "4225a846-b176-892d-0e27-10a4106269a0"
}
PLAY RECAP ************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
vSphere