Unable to use the module to query Vmware host

[Alstar Films]

Hi Guys,

For the most part I have got anisble almost working to talk to my Esxi host. I have created my playbook to use the module "vmware_get_facts" but when I run my "ansible-playbook vmware.yml" file I get the error

"FAILED! => {"changed": false, "failed": true, "msg": "pyvmomi is required for this module"}
[WARNING]: Could not create retry file '/etc/ansible/playbooks/vmware.retry'. [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'/etc/ansible/playbooks/vmware.retry'"

My python version is 2.7 and I have installed the PyVmomi module using pip install pyvmomi and then pip install --upgrade pyvmomi, however i still get the error which says the module isnt installed? (wierd).
I have gotten past all the authentication errors but sadly stuck on this...

Any ideas?!

-A

[Brian Coca]

pyvmomi needs to be installed on the machine on which you execute
vmware_get_facts.


----------
Brian Coca

[Alstar Films]

That would be my CentOS machine from which I am running the command correct?

[Brian Coca]

Depends, cannot say w/o looking at play and verbose output


----------
Brian Coca

[Alstar Films]

This is my play

---

- hosts: vmware

  connection: ssh

  become: yes

  become_method: sudo

  gather_facts: no

  tasks:

  - name: Gather Vmware Facts

    vmware_vm_facts:

     hostname: SAE3201

     username: root

     password: XXXXX

     validate_certs: false

This is my error log

Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/extras/cloud/vmware/vmware_vm_facts.py
ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: root
SSH: EXEC sshpass -d13 ssh -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o User=root -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/home/ansible/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r sae3201 '/bin/sh -c '"'"'( umask 77 && mkdir -p "echo ~/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507" && echo ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507="echo ~/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507" ) && sleep 0'"'"''
PUT /tmp/tmpovJ3oH TO //.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507/vmware_vm_facts.py
SSH: EXEC sshpass -d13 sftp -o BatchMode=no -b - -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o User=root -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/home/ansible/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r '[sae3201]'
ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: root
SSH: EXEC sshpass -d13 ssh -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o User=root -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/home/ansible/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r sae3201 '/bin/sh -c '"'"'chmod u+x //.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507/ //.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507/vmware_vm_facts.py && sleep 0'"'"''
ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: root
SSH: EXEC sshpass -d13 ssh -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o User=root -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/home/ansible/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r -tt sae3201 '/bin/sh -c '"'"'/usr/bin/python //.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507/vmware_vm_facts.py; rm -rf "//.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1490120215.48-188286845186507/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'"'"''
fatal: [sae3201]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"failed": true,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"hostname": "sae3201",
"password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER",
"username": "root",
"validate_certs": false
},
"module_name": "vmware_vm_facts"
},

"msg": "pyvmomi is required for this module"

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:42:52 PM UTC+4, Alstar Films wrote:

[Brian Coca]

the plugin is not designed to run on the vm itself, but against
vsphere, since you installed the library on the controller, that is
where you need to run it (i added delegate_to: localhost for this).
Otherwise you would need it installed on the target vm and have it
access vsphere.

tasks:
- name: Gather Vmware Facts

delegate_to: localhost

vmware_vm_facts:
hostname: SAE3201
username: root
password: XXXXX
validate_certs: false

----------
Brian Coca

[Alstar Films]

Hi Brian,

I ran the playbook with the locahost option and this is what I get now.. I expected a different result though

===============

==================
[ansible@ansible ansible]$ sudo ansible-playbook playbooks/vmware.yml

PLAY [sae3201] **************************************************************

TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [sae3201]

TASK [Gather Vmware Facts] *****************************************************
ok: [sae3201 -> localhost]

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
sae3201 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:42:52 PM UTC+4, Alstar Films wrote:

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On 24.03.2017 12:39, Alstar Films wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> I ran the playbook with the locahost option and this is what I get
> now.. I
> expected a different result though

And what did you expect? We are mind readers, yet...

> [ansible@ansible ansible]$ sudo ansible-playbook playbooks/vmware.yml
>
>
> PLAY [sae3201]
> **************************************************************
>
> TASK [setup]
> *******************************************************************
> ok: [sae3201]
>
> TASK [Gather Vmware Facts]
> *****************************************************
> ok: [sae3201 -> localhost]
>
> PLAY RECAP
> *********************************************************************
> sae3201 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

It's working fine, everything is ok.

--
Kai Stian Olstad

[Alstar Films]

Sure, I should have been a little more detailed in my expectation then. What I meant was that the output doesn't tell me anything worthwhile, unless this is what the module is meant for. It just queried my vmware host and reported back saying OK? I mean what "facts" did it gather or outputted? Unless this is the purpose of the module...

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:42:52 PM UTC+4, Alstar Films wrote:

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On 24.03.2017 13:47, Alstar Films wrote:
> Sure, I should have been a little more detailed in my expectation then.
> What I meant was that the output doesn't tell me anything worthwhile,
> unless this is what the module is meant for. It just queried my vmware
> host
> and reported back saying OK? I mean what "facts" did it gather or
> outputted? Unless this is the purpose of the module...

You can add -v to ansible-playbook and you see the output of the modules
on screen.


If you would like to use the values in Ansible you will need register
the output in a variable
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_variables.html#registered-variables

To get the content of the variable on screen you can use the debug
module to print out the content.

--
Kai Stian Olstad

[Alstar Films]

Thanks Kai! the -v did the trick and I can now see all the vm's listed! Fun times

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:42:52 PM UTC+4, Alstar Films wrote:

[Alstar Films]

The formatting of the output is a little messy but will see if i can get a clean output somehow..

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:42:52 PM UTC+4, Alstar Films wrote:

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On 24.03.2017 14:03, Alstar Films wrote:
> The formatting of the output is a little messy but will see if i can
> get a
> clean output somehow..

You can add this under the [defaults] section in ansible.cfg to get a
more human readable format.

stdout_callback = debug


or you can register the output and print it.

- name: Gather Vmware Facts

vmware_vm_facts:
hostname: SAE3201
username: root
password: XXXXX
validate_certs: false

delegate_to: localhost
register: vm_results

- debug: var=results


--
Kai Stian Olstad

[Alstar Films]

Hi Kai.. ur a star!!

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:42:52 PM UTC+4, Alstar Films wrote:

[ameri...@optonline.net]

Hi Kai thank you for you help I just got mine to work as well with you info you provided.