Create VM from template using vsphere_guest module

[Robert Williams]

Hello, I am new to Ansible and am having trouble spinning up a vm from a template using Ansible. I am unsure on what to put for "hosts" in my playbook. Should this be the vcenter hostname , vsphere hostname or something else? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

PlayBook

---

- hosts: vmcreate

  gather_facts: false

  connection: local

  tasks:

    - vsphere_guest:

       vcenter_hostname: vcloud.example.com

       username: username

       password: password

       guest: test01

       from_template: yes

       template_src: 20.10_LAB

       cluster: ABC - vCloud - Lab

       resource_pool: "/ABC"

       esxi:

         datacenter: 'vCloud - Charleston, SC'

         hostname: vCloud - Lab

Error Message

ansible-playbook create_appVCLOUD.yml

 [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************

Thanks,

[J Hawkesworth]

In this case you can probably just use

hosts: localhost

because vsphere_guest will be using an api to talk to your vcenter.

By the way, there is a lot of development work going on around the vmware_guest module at the moment. If you can test it out on latest development version of ansible, now would be a good time to report any issues.

Jon

[Robert Williams]

Here is the error message when I use localhost  in the playbook.

ERROR MESSAGE

Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file

PLAYBOOK: create_appVCLOUD.yml *************************************************

1 plays in create_appVCLOUD.yml

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [vsphere_guest] ***********************************************************

task path: /etc/ansible/create_appVCLOUD.yml:6

Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/core/cloud/vmware/vsphere_guest.py

<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: root

<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162="` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162 `" ) && sleep 0'

<127.0.0.1> PUT /tmp/tmp_bDCQ3 TO /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162/vsphere_guest.py

<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162/ /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162/vsphere_guest.py && sleep 0'

<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python2 /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162/vsphere_guest.py; rm -rf "/root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1484165467.41-270348352264162/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'

An exception occurred during task execution. The full traceback is:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/tmp/ansible_vw2rQu/ansible_module_vsphere_guest.py", line 1909, in <module>

    main()

  File "/tmp/ansible_vw2rQu/ansible_module_vsphere_guest.py", line 1776, in main

    viserver.connect(vcenter_hostname, username, password)

  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/pysphere/vi_server.py", line 101, in connect

  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/pysphere/resources/VimService_services.py", line 2170, in RetrieveServiceContent

  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/pysphere/ZSI/client.py", line 295, in Send

  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 1227, in connect

    HTTPConnection.connect(self)

  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 807, in connect

    self.timeout, self.source_address)

  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/socket.py", line 571, in create_connection

    raise err

socket.error: [Errno 111] Connection refused

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {

    "changed": false, 

    "failed": true, 

    "invocation": {

        "module_name": "vsphere_guest"

    }, 

    "module_stderr": "Traceback (most recent call last):\n  File \"/tmp/ansible_vw2rQu/ansible_module_vsphere_guest.py\", line 1909, in <module>\n    main()\n  File \"/tmp/ansible_vw2rQu/ansible_module_vsphere_guest.py\", line 1776, in main\n    viserver.connect(vcenter_hostname, username, password)\n  File \"build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/pysphere/vi_server.py\", line 101, in connect\n  File \"build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/pysphere/resources/VimService_services.py\", line 2170, in RetrieveServiceContent\n  File \"build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/pysphere/ZSI/client.py\", line 295, in Send\n  File \"/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py\", line 1227, in connect\n    HTTPConnection.connect(self)\n  File \"/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py\", line 807, in connect\n    self.timeout, self.source_address)\n  File \"/usr/lib64/python2.7/socket.py\", line 571, in create_connection\n    raise err\nsocket.error: [Errno 111] Connection refused\n", 

    "module_stdout": "", 

    "msg": "MODULE FAILURE"

}

        to retry, use: --limit @/etc/ansible/create_appVCLOUD.retry

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************

localhost                  : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1   

[Robert Williams]

I tried adding local but that did not help. Here is the output:

Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file

PLAYBOOK: create_appVCLOUD.yml *************************************************

1 plays in create_appVCLOUD.yml

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************