ESXi-vm-provision

Simple script to provision a new Virtual Machine on a ESXi Host 5.0+

Example

1. enable SSH on ESXi

   http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vcli.migration.doc_50%2Fcos_upgrade_technote.1.4.html

2. download template to datastore (default is /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/template.tar.gz)

   wget URL_TEMPLATE -O /tmp/template.tar.gz
   scp /tmp/template.tar.gz vmhost:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/
   

3. download script to host and set execution permission, e.g.

   curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eramo-software/esxi-vm-provision/master/esxi-vm-provision.sh" | ssh vmhost "cat > /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/esxi-vm-provision.sh ; chmod +x /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/esxi-vm-provision.sh"
   

4. execute script

   ssh vmhost "sh /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/esxi-vm-provision.sh --name Robin --ip 192.168.0.100 --gateway 192.168.0.1 --dns 192.168.0.150 --hostname robin"
   

Usage

esxi-vm-provision.sh -n name [OPTIONS]

Creates a new Virtual Machine on a VMWare ESXi Host based on a template.

 Options:
  -n, --name        Name of the new Virtual Machine
  -u, --username    Username to create
  -p, --password    Password for the created user
  -H, --hostname    Set hostname
  -s, --size        Resizes main disk to n MB
  -x, --size_aux    Creates another disk and attaches it
  -P, --path        Path in ESXi Host to store VM files (defaults to /vmfs/volumes/datastore1)
  -I, --image       Path to a template image (defaults to /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/template.tar.gz)
  -i, --ip          IP address for the new VM
  -N, --netmask     Netmask for the new VM (default is 255.255.255.0)
  -g, --gateway     Gateway IP address for the new VM
  -D, --dns         DNS Server IP address
  -m, --memory      Reconfigures the amount of RAM 
  -k, --public_key  Defines a new publick key to register on new machine
  -d, --debug       Print debugging information
  -h, --help        Display this help and exit

Creating a template VM

It's simply a linux virtual machine with VMWare Guest Tools, the SSH server and the insecure key (included on the repository and hard-coded into the main script file).

1. create new VM with name Template (ESXi has some limitations on disk types, so it's better to create this VM on a ESXi server itself)

2. install VMWare Tools:

   1. Activate the installation on the host

   2. Inside VM, execute:

      sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
      tar xzvf /media/cdrom/VMwareTools*.tar.gz -C /tmp/
      cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/
      sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d
      

3. put the insecure key with root access on vm, as root execute:

   echo "ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDHbX6SCVslixgMzi2CTOsjhISl1aurDtn4SaAF4AGNUKd5xgwp/0RuSUCe2mTTAHdeqNl+C5IXzPPR+zxrWEGkFw9C17wHALswpmUJ9ibEfITvRXUvPJ9xAPy5ARBjfhlkZav7239/hLCo1MnzMHu+KilufL50e5e6JKSFi/SjkDw2110NgCnj86gTBP783/X9sZIdHH0opHC3z0CpxdOl2FBzTJ6Y9uNISgdmgHbAjPvsWwHlxcxhV1fbUHmJ0J/hIrVw6kmSHhxEUBxIA6Ok+Qpaq2kWOc0Kdw5En1HF99BnACQRkgLXLhRDM54LCSVs7Zj+WKasDG3gRePAQVKh template" > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
   

Packaging

The only requirements in packaging are:

1. edit .vmx to remove bios info and set uuid.action to 'change'

   sed -i "s/uuid\.bios = \"[^\"]*\"/uuid.bios = \"\"/" Template.vmx
   echo "uuid.action = \"change\"" >> Template.vmx
   

2. compress vm with .tar.gz

   tar -zcf template.tar.gz Template/