vmware_guest error: Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file

[Jason B]

SUMMARY

When attempting to provision a new vmware VM using the vmware_guest module to VSAN storage, I am getting the following error:

```msg": "Failed to create a virtual machine : Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file [some_other_non_vsan_storage_cluster_not_connected_to_ESXI_Cluster] Linux_Base_Template/Linux_Base_Template.vmtx".```

Same problem documented in: Ansible Issue: 28649 --- I have attempted the fix that is documented there by added a disk section ( see above ) with the datastore variable ( we have many datastores ). The templates live on a separate storage system NOT connected to ESXi Clusters that are configured for VSAN. * This works perfectly by manually cloning via vCenter to the target ESXi Cluster. * This works perfectly if I am provisioning to ESXi clusters that have the "[some_other_non_vsan_storage_cluster_not_connected_to_ESXI_Cluster] " connected to it. * This works perfectly by executing vmware powercli NEW-VM command here is the code for that: https://thesleepyadmins.com/2018/09/08/deploy-multiple-vms-using-powercli-and-vmware-template

Code:

```

msg": "Failed to create a virtual machine : Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file [some_other_non_vsan_storage_cluster_not_connected_to_ESXI_Cluster] Linux_Base_Template/Linux_Base_Template.vmtx". "invocation": { "module_args": { "name": "TMPBLDLNXLL0001", "hostname": "vCenterServer", "username": "XXXXXXXXXX", "password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER", "annotation": "Test VSAN provisioning", "template": "Linux-8_Base_Template", "datacenter": "devnulldc", "folder": "devnulldc/vm/Sandbox", "cluster": "CL-03", "disk": [ { "size_gb": 50, "type": "thin", "datastore": "['vSAN']", "autoselect_datastore": null, "controller_number": null, "controller_type": null, "disk_mode": null, "filename": null, "size": null, "size_kb": null, "size_mb": null, "size_tb": null, "unit_number": null } ], "hardware": { "num_cpus": 2, "memory_mb": 4096, "num_cpu_cores_per_socket": 2, "hotadd_cpu": false, "hotremove_cpu": false, "hotadd_memory": false, "nested_virt": false, "scsi": "paravirtual", "boot_firmware": null, "cpu_limit": null, "cpu_reservation": null, "max_connections": null, "mem_limit": null, "mem_reservation": null, "memory_reservation_lock": null, "secure_boot": null, "version": null, "virt_based_security": null, "iommu": null }, "networks": [ { "name": "BlackholeNet", "type": "static", "ip": "987.65.43.21", "netmask": "255.255.255.0", "gateway": "987.65.43.1", "device_type": "vmxnet3", "dvswitch_name": "vDSwitch", "start_connected": true } *** Truncated ***

```

** Note obviously I have masked a lot of information ( like IP address, etc ) ***

[Jason B]

Forgot to mention I have a issue opened here:   vmware_guest error: Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file · Issue #1201 · ansible-collections/community.vmware · GitHub

[Christopher Bachmeyer]

Did you find a resolution to this by chance?  

I just ran into the issue when I changed datastores.  I was using a general datastore holding templates but the goal was to use the same datastore of the Content library and use those templates. 

"msg": "Failed to create a virtual machine : Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file [<datastore_name>] W2K19_STD/W2K19_STD.vmtx"}

Thanks. 

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

This sounds like a datastore permissions issue within VMware related to the user ID you are using with the module. When we build our server provisioning workflow we had to create a special user ID for provisioning and grant it specific rights with VMware so it could do the things needed on the proper datastores, create VMs, manage networks, etc.

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services, OISM
Mobile: 202.355.4123

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[Christopher Bachmeyer]

Thanks, Walter.  I am going to check on this.  I too had established a specific service account with all of the necessary rights for vSphere provisioning.  It's quite possible 

something was missed regarding the datastore holding the content library. 

I did find this issue too which indicates the Python pyvmomi library may not have support for the Content Library.  

    https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/37007  

I hope it is a creds issue though. 

[Jason B]

The "solution" I ended up implementing is a work around.  I simply put the template on the VSAN datastore - and named it something like [template]-vsan.  And added logic, so that template would be referenced when the vsan datastore was selected. This has been working for me for months now.