Ansible-vSphere-Bulk-Import

Overview

This Ansible playbook provides an easy method to create multiple VMs from templates in VMware vSphere. It's based on vmware_guest module.

Parameters could be supplied via CSV file or default_ variables.

Installation and usage

To run this playbook tou have to install Ansible and additional modules. For example in Ubuntu Linux 22.04 run:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible python3-pip -y
pip install pyvmomi
pip install netaddr

Download project files from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/omnimod/Ansible-vSphere-Bulk-Import.git

Copy vars-deploy-vms.yaml.example file to vars-deploy-vms.yaml and edit it to update default values for your environment. For additional information on default values look for Default values paragraph:

cp vars-deploy-vms.yaml.example vars-deploy-vms.yaml

Copy vms.csv.example to vms.csv and edit it to specify VMs parameters. For additional information about .csv file look for CSV file paragraph:

cp vms.csv.example vms.csv

To create VMs run the playbook:

ansible-playbook deploy-vsphere-vms.yaml

Default values

vars-deploy-vms.yaml contains predefined variables and default values which can be used to create new VMs. If you don't supply parameters in CSV file, default values from vars-deploy-vms.yaml or VM template will be used during VMs creation. The list of accepted predefined variables and default values:

• vsphere_url - FQDN or IP address of vCenter Server to connect to.
• vsphere_login - login to connect to vCenter Server (administrator@vsphere.local or something else).
• vsphere_password - password to connect to vCenter Server.
• validate_certs - set True if certificate validation is needed.
• batch_size - number of VMs deployed simultaneously.
• async_timeout - maximum time in seconds after which the virtual machine deployment task will be considered failed. Default value is 600 seconds. Increase it if VM takes more time to deploy and customize.
• retries - number of retries before the start of the next batch (if batch_size permits). Default value is 300. Increase it if VM takes more time to deploy and customize.
• delay - delay in seconds between retries. Default value is 2. Increase it if VM takes more time to deploy and customize.
• debug - set True if you want to get additional information during playbook execution for debugging purposes.
• ignore_errors - continue if one ore more VMs deployment tasks failed.
• input_file - path to the CSV file.
• def_vm_template - default VM template to create new VMs for (this and other def_ values will be override by values from CSV file for specific VM).
• def_vm_cluster - vSphere cluster where you want to place new VMs.
• def_vm_resource_pool - vSphere resource pool where you want to place new VMs.
• def_vm_folder - vSphere folder where you want to place new VMs.
• def_vm_datacenter - vSphere datacenter where you want to place new VMs.
• def_disk_type - disk provisioned type: thin, thick, or eagerzeroedthick.
• def_disk_mode - disk mode: persistent, independent_persistent, or independent_nonpersistent.
• def_datastore - datastore to place VMs disks.
• def_network_netmask - netmastk.
• def_network_gateway - gateway.
• def_network_domain - domain name.
• def_vm_password - guest OS default account password (root or administrator).
• def_vm_state - VM state after creation: poweredon or poweredoff.
• def_wait_for_ip_address - wait for the current VM fully boot and gets IP address before creating next one.
• def_network_dns_servers - list of DNS servers.

CSV file

vms.csv is a comma-separated file which containes input parameters for created VMs. The list of accepted parameters/columns:

• name - VM name. This parameter is required.
• cluster - vSphere cluster where you want to place new VMs.
• domainadmin - login to join VM to domain.
• domainadminpassword - password to join VM to domain.
• dns_servers - list of DNS servers.
• dns_suffix - DNS suffix to search.
• joindomain - Join VM to domain: true of false.
• orgname - company name.
• password - guest OS default account password (root or administrator).
• timezone - time zone.
• datacenter - vSphere datacenter where you want to place new VMs.
• folder - vSphere folder where you want to place new VMs.
• memory_mb - amount of RAM in MB for VM.
• num_cpus - number of CPUs for VM.
• num_cpu_cores_per_socket - number of cores per socket. For example if you specified num_cpus = 8 and num_cpu_cores_per_socket = 4, VM will have two sockets with 4 cores in each.
• secure_boot - enable secure boot: true or false.
• resource_pool - vSphere resource pool where you want to place new VMs.
• state - VM state after creation: poweredon or poweredoff.
• template - template to create VM from.
• wait_for_ip_address - wait for the current VM fully boot and gets IP address before creating next one.
• disk{n}.size_gb - size of disk{n} in GB, where n - is the number of disk, for exaple disk0.size_gb, disk1.size_gb, disk2.size_gb, etc. You can create VM with multiple virtual disks. For example setting disk0.size_gb = 40, disk1.size_gb = 20, disk2.size_gb = 1 will create a VM with three disks of 40 GB, 20 GB, and 1 GB respectively. You have to define disk{n}.size_gb parameter for each virtual disk in VM template.
• disk{n}.type - disk n provisioned type: thin, thick, or eagerzeroedthick.
• disk{n}.disk_mode - disk n mode: persistent, independent_persistent, or independent_nonpersistent.
• disk{n}.datastore - datastore to place VMs disk n.
• network{n}.name - portgroup name to connect virtual nic to, where n - is the number of virtual nic, for example network0.name, network1.name, network2.name, etc. You can create VM with multiple virtual nics. For example setting network0.name = "VM Network", network1.name = "VM Network 2", network2.name = "VM Network 3" will create a VM with three nics and connect them to networks "VM Network", "VM Network 2", "VM Network 3" respectively. You have to define network{n}.name parameter for each virtual nic in VM template.
• network{n}.ip - set static IP for nic n.
• network{n}.netmask - set netmask for nic n.
• network{n}.gateway - set default gateway for nic n.
• network{n}.dns_servers - set DNS servers for nic n. You can specify multiple DNS servers separated by comma, for example: "192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3". If you do that, don't forget to use double quotes to escape comma character.
• network{n}.domain - set domain name for nic n.

You can skip some parameters in CSV file or completly remove the whole column. In this case playbook will use default values from vars-deploy-vms.yaml file.