Automation with Ansible (10) - Create VMs from VCenter with Multi Environment Architecture

Introduction

From this series, all folder structure will be followed from the previous Multi environment stucture.

The steps to create VMs are;

1. Create Inventory file
2. Create Variables
   • Shared variables
   • Group variables
3. Create Ansible Playbook
   • Creating VMs from CentOS Template
   • Set Network interface
   • Add MAC Address to dhcpd.conf
   • Reboot

Reference

• Github code

Folders/Files list

\---ansible
    |   CreateVMs.yaml
    |   
    +---inventory
    |   +---shared_vars
    |   |       shared-secrets.yml (empty)
    |   |       shared-vars.yml (empty)
    |   |       
    |   \---test
    |       +---dmz
    |       |   |   vm_hosts
    |       |   |   
    |       |   \---group_vars
    |       |           vcenter.yml 
    |       |           
    |       \---internal
    |           |   vm_hosts
    |           |   
    |           \---group_vars
    |                   secrets.yml (empty)
    |                   vcenter.yml
    |                   
    \---tasks
            load-vars.yml            

Create Inventory file

filename: vm_hosts

[docker-vms]
docker01 ipaddr="10.200.0.150"
docker02 ipaddr="10.200.0.151"
docker03 ipaddr="10.200.0.152"
docker04 ipaddr="10.200.0.153"
docker05 ipaddr="10.200.0.154"

Add all computers as many as you want to have

Create Variables

Loading Shared and Group Variables

Loading variables from Shared and Group. "{{ inventory_dir }}" is the directory specified from ansible-playbook command line.

---
- include_vars: "inventory/shared_vars/shared-secrets.yml"
- include_vars: "inventory/shared_vars/shared-vars.yml"
- include_vars: "{{ inventory_dir }}/group_vars/secrets.yml"
- include_vars: "{{ inventory_dir }}/group_vars/vcenter.yml"
- include_vars: "{{ inventory_dir }}/group_vars/docker.yml"

Shared Variables

There are no common data for this task

filename: inventory/shared_vars/shared-vars.yaml

Individual Variables

filename: inventory/{Environment}/{Internal or DMZ}/group_vars/vcenter.yaml

---
vcenter_hostname: 10.200.0.11
vcenter_validate_certs: no
vcenter_username: administrator@vsphere.local
vcenter_password: vcenter_password
vcenter_template: CentOS_Template
vcenter_cluster: VSphere_Cluster_Name
vcenter_resource: /Resources
vcenter_vm_folder: Docker
vcenter_vm_network: "Test-LAN"

Please check the Series 2 for the detail information.

Create Ansible Playbook

The connection will be local from ns01 node which provides following services

• DNS and DHCP
• Ansible playbook
• Docker Image build
• Maven and Java compile

---
- hosts: all
  pre_tasks:
    - include_tasks: tasks/load-vars.yml
  connection: local
  become: yes
  tasks:
  - name: createVM from Template
    vsphere_guest:
      vcenter_hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      guest: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      from_template: yes
      template_src: "{{ vcenter_template }}"
      cluster: "{{ vcenter_cluster }}"
      resource_pool: "{{ vcenter_resource }}"
      vm_extra_config:
        folder: "{{ vcenter_vm_folder }}"
  - name: Reconfigre network card
    vsphere_guest:
      vcenter_hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      guest: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      state: reconfigured
      vm_nic:
        nic1:
          type: vmxnet3
          network: "{{ vcenter_vm_network }}"
          network_type: standard  
      esxi:
        datacenter: FlairTest
  - name: Retrieve Cloned VM
    vsphere_guest:
      vcenter_hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      guest: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      vmware_guest_facts: yes
    register: clonedvm
  - name: Update DHCPD Entry
    blockinfile:   
      path: /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
      marker: ""
      state: present
      insertafter: EOF
      block: |
        host {{ inventory_hostname }} {
            option host-name "{{ inventory_hostname }}";
            ddns-hostname "{{ inventory_hostname }}";
            hardware ethernet {{ clonedvm.ansible_facts.hw_eth0.macaddress }};
            fixed-address {{ hostvars[inventory_hostname]['ipaddr'] }};
        }
  - name: Restart DHCPD from ansible host
    become: yes
    shell: 'systemctl restart dhcpd'
    async: 30
    poll: 0
    ignore_errors: true

  - name: Boot Cloned VM
    vsphere_guest:
      vcenter_hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      guest: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      state: powered_on
  - debug:
      var: clonedvm 

Running command

For Internal Docker VMs

[ansible@ns01 ansible]$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/test/internal/vm_hosts Vsphere-CreateVM.yaml --extra-vars "ansible_sudo_pass=root_password" --ask-pass

For DMZ Docker VMs

[ansible@ns01 ansible]$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/test/dmz/vm_hosts Vsphere-CreateVM.yaml --extra-vars "ansible_sudo_pass=root" --ask-pass

"-i" is the option for the inventory. "{{ inventory_dir}}" will be the folder from this option. In this case, "{{ inventory_dir }}" will return "inventory/test/dmz".

"--ask-pass" is not necessary. This is to run command from remote connection with root permmission. However, for the consistency for the rest command, just used from the command

Result

Summary

Next tutorial will show you how to build docker cluster which created from this tutorial