Manage Vmware Machines With Ansible

Here we are looking on how to use Ansible to connect to vCenters and manage VMs. The focus will be on using quick playbooks for cloning and deleting a current template VM.

We can see the playbook for the creation process for cloning and deleting VMs. The playbook creation process will involve setting up variables, tasks, and handlers, and will be broken down into simple, easy-to-follow steps. Sample playbooks will be provided as a starting point for managing VMs in vCenter using Ansible.

Clone a VM in Vcenter with Ansible Playbook

- hosts: localhost

gather_facts: no

vars:

vcenter_server: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

vcenter_user: "User-Name"

vcenter_pass: "Password"

datacenter_name: "DC-Name"

cluster_name: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

resources_pool: "RG-Name"

template_vm: "Template-Name"

serv:

- vm1

- vm2

tasks:

- name: Clone the template

vmware_guest:

hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"

username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"

password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"

resource_pool: "rahul-test"

validate_certs: False

name: "{{ item }}"

template: "{{ template_vm }}"

datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"

folder: /{{ datacenter_name }}/vm

state: poweredon

wait_for_ip_address: yes

register: "r"

with_items: "{{ serv }}"

- debug :

msg: "This is the Host-IPs: {{ item.instance.ipv4 }} {{ item.instance.hw_name }}"

with_items: "{{ r.results}}"

loop_control:

label: "{{ item.instance.hw_name }}"

Shutdown a VM in Vcenter with Ansible Playbook

- hosts: localhost

gather_facts: no

vars:

vcenter_server: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

vcenter_user: "User-Name"

vcenter_pass: "Password"

datacenter_name: "DC-Name"

cluster_name: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

tasks:

- name: Shutdown the template

vmware_guest:

hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"

username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"

password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"

validate_certs: False

name: "{{ item}}"

datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"

folder: /{{ datacenter_name }}/vm

state: poweredoff

wait_for_ip_address: yes

loop:

- vm1

- vm2

Delete a VM in Vcenter with Ansible Playbook

- hosts: localhost

gather_facts: no

vars:

vcenter_server: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

vcenter_user: "User-Name"

vcenter_pass: "Password"

datacenter_name: "DC-Name"

cluster_name: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

tasks:

- name: Delete the template

vmware_guest:

hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"

username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"

password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"

validate_certs: False

name: "{{ item}}"

datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"

folder: /{{ datacenter_name }}/vm

state: absent

wait_for_ip_address: yes

loop:

- vm1

- vm2