Start a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine - Ansible module vmware_guest_powerstate

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

How to automate the change of power state from Powered Off to Powered On of the virtual machine guest “myvm” using Ansible Playbook and vmware_guest_powerstate.

Start a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine - Ansible module vmware_guest_powerstate

How to Start a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine with Ansible?

Ansible Start a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine

community.vmware.vmware_guest_powerstate
Manages power states of virtual machines in vCenter

Let's talk about the Ansible module vmware_guest_powerstate. The full name is community.vmware.vmware_guest_powerstate, which means that is part of the collection of modules to interact with VMware, community-supported. Manages power states of virtual machines in vCenter.

Parameters

hostname string / username string / password string / datacenter string / validate_certs boolean - connection details
state string - present / powered-off / powered-on / reboot-guest / restarted / shutdown-guest / suspended
force boolean - no/yes
answer string - A list of questions to answer, should one or more arise while waiting for the task to be complete.

The following parameters are useful in order to Start a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine using the module vmware_guest_powerstate. First of all, we need to establish the connection with VMware vSphere or VMware vCenter using a plethora of self-explicative parameters: hostname, username, password, datacenter, and validate_certs. Once the connection is successfully established you could specify the desired power state, in this case, "powered-on". You could also force the power state change using the force parameter, default disabled. You could also specify the reply to some answer that could arise while waiting for the task to complete. Some common uses are to allow a cdrom to be changed even if locked or to answer the question as to whether a VM was copied or moved.

Links

community.vmware.vmware_guest_powerstate

## Playbook How to Start a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine with Ansible.

code

vm_start.yml

---
- name: start vm Playbook
  hosts: localhost
  become: false
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - community.vmware
  pre_tasks:
    - include_vars: vars.yml
  tasks:
    - name: power on
      vmware_guest_powerstate:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
        state: powered-on

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"

inventory

localhost

execution

$ ansible-playbook vm_start.yml 
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit
localhost does not match 'all'
PLAY [start vm Playbook] ******************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [power on] ***********************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

idempotency

$ ansible-playbook vm_start.yml 
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit
localhost does not match 'all'
PLAY [start vm Playbook] ******************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [power on] ***********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0