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VMware: scenario guide for vmware_tools connection plugin (#72080)
* VMware: scenario guide for vmware_tools connection plugin Scenario doc to guide user about the usage of vmware_tools using connection plugin. Signed-off-by: Abhijeet Kasurde <akasurde@redhat.com> * review comments Signed-off-by: Abhijeet Kasurde <akasurde@redhat.com>pull/55921/head
Abhijeet Kasurde
4 years ago
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.. _vmware_tools_connection:
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************************************
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Using vmware_tools connection plugin
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************************************
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.. contents::
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:local:
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Introduction
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============
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This guide will show you how to utilize VMware Connection plugin to communicate and automate various tasks on VMware guest machines.
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Scenario requirements
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=====================
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* Software
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* Ansible 2.9 or later must be installed.
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* We recommend installing the latest version with pip: ``pip install Pyvmomi`` on the Ansible control node
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(as the OS packages are usually out of date and incompatible) if you are planning to use any existing VMware modules.
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* Hardware
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* vCenter Server 6.5 and above
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* Access / Credentials
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* Ansible (or the target server) must have network access to either the vCenter server
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* Username and Password for vCenter with required permissions
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* VMware tools or openvm-tools with required dependencies like Perl installed on the given virtual machine
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Caveats
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=======
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- All variable names and VMware object names are case sensitive.
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- You need to use Python 2.7.9 version in order to use ``validate_certs`` option, as this version is capable of changing the SSL verification behaviors.
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Example description
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===================
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User can run playbooks against VMware virtual machines using ``vmware_tools`` connection plugin.
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In order work with ``vmware_tools`` connection plugin, you will need to specify hostvars for the given virtual machine.
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For example, if you want to run a playbook on a virtual machine called ``centos_7`` located at ``/Asia-Datacenter1/prod/centos_7`` in the given vCenter, you will need to specify hostvars as follows:
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.. code-block:: ini
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[centos7]
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host1
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[centos7:vars]
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# vmware_tools related variables
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ansible_connection=vmware_tools
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ansible_vmware_host=10.65.201.128
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ansible_vmware_user=administrator@vsphere.local
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ansible_vmware_password=Esxi@123$%
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ansible_vmware_validate_certs=no
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# Location of the virtual machine
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ansible_vmware_guest_path=Asia-Datacenter1/vm/prod/centos_7
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# Credentials
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ansible_vmware_tools_user=root
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ansible_vmware_tools_password=Secret123
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Here, we are providing vCenter details and credentials for the given virtual machine to run the playbook on.
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If your virtual machine path is ``Asia-Datacenter1/prod/centos_7``, you specify ``ansible_vmware_guest_path`` as ``Asia-Datacenter1/vm/prod/centos_7``. Please take a note that ``/vm`` is added in the virtual machine path, since this is a logical folder structure in the VMware inventory.
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Let us now run following playbook,
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.. code-block:: yaml
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---
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- name: Example showing VMware Connection plugin
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hosts: centos7
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tasks:
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- name: Gather information about temporary directory inside VM
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shell: ls /tmp
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Since Ansible utilizes the ``vmware-tools`` or ``openvm-tools`` service capabilities running in the virtual machine to perform actions, in this use case it will be connecting directly to the guest machine.
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For now, you will be entering credentials in plain text, but in a more advanced playbook this can be abstracted out and stored in a more secure fashion using :ref:`ansible-vault` or using `Ansible Tower credentials <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-tower/latest/html/userguide/credentials.html>`_.
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What to expect
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--------------
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Running this playbook can take some time, depending on your environment and network connectivity. When the run is complete you will see:
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.. code-block:: yaml
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{
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"changed": true,
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"cmd": "ls /tmp",
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"delta": "0:00:00.005440",
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"end": "2020-10-01 07:30:56.940813",
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"rc": 0,
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"start": "2020-10-01 07:30:56.935373",
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"stderr": "",
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"stderr_lines": [],
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"stdout": "ansible_command_payload_JzWiL9\niso",
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"stdout_lines": ["ansible_command_payload_JzWiL9", "iso", "vmware-root"]
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}
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Troubleshooting
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---------------
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If your playbook fails:
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- Check if the values provided for username and password are correct.
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- Check if the path of virtual machine is correct. Please mind that ``/vm/`` needs to be provided while specifying virtual machine location.
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