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community.vmware.vmware_host_inventory – VMware ESXi hostsystem inventory source

Note

This plugin is part of the community.vmware collection (version 1.15.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.vmware.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.vmware.vmware_host_inventory.

New in version 1.11.0: of community.vmware

Synopsis

  • Get VMware ESXi hostsystem as inventory hosts from VMware environment.
  • Uses any file which ends with vmware.yml, vmware.yaml, vmware_host_inventory.yml, or vmware_host_inventory.yaml as a YAML configuration file.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this inventory.

  • Python >= 2.7
  • PyVmomi
  • requests >= 2.3
  • vSphere Automation SDK - For tag feature

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Configuration Comments
cache
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
ini entries:

[inventory]
cache = no

env:ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE
Toggle to enable/disable the caching of the inventory's source data, requires a cache plugin setup to work.
cache_connection
string
ini entries:

[defaults]
fact_caching_connection = None

[inventory]
cache_connection = None

env:ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION
env:ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_CONNECTION
Cache connection data or path, read cache plugin documentation for specifics.
cache_plugin
string
Default:
"memory"
ini entries:

[defaults]
fact_caching = memory

[inventory]
cache_plugin = memory

env:ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN
env:ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN
Cache plugin to use for the inventory's source data.
cache_prefix
string
Default:
"ansible_inventory_"
ini entries:

[default]
fact_caching_prefix = ansible_inventory_

[inventory]
cache_prefix = ansible_inventory_

env:ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX
env:ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX
Prefix to use for cache plugin files/tables
cache_timeout
integer
Default:
3600
ini entries:

[defaults]
fact_caching_timeout = 3600

[inventory]
cache_timeout = 3600

env:ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT
env:ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_TIMEOUT
Cache duration in seconds
compose
dictionary
Default:
{}
Create vars from jinja2 expressions.
filters
list / elements=string
Default:
[]
This option allows client-side filtering hosts with jinja templating.
When server-side filtering is introduced, it should be preferred over this.
groups
dictionary
Default:
{}
Add hosts to group based on Jinja2 conditionals.
hostname
string / required
env:VMWARE_HOST
env:VMWARE_SERVER
Name of vCenter or ESXi server.
hostnames
list / elements=string
Default:
["name"]
A list of templates in order of precedence to compose inventory_hostname.
Ignores template if resulted in an empty string or None value.
You can use property specified in properties as variables in the template.
keyed_groups
list / elements=string
Default:
[{"key": "summary.runtime.powerState", "separator": ""}]
Add hosts to group based on the values of a variable.
leading_separator
boolean
added in 2.11 of ansible.builtin
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
Use in conjunction with keyed_groups.
By default, a keyed group that does not have a prefix or a separator provided will have a name that starts with an underscore.
This is because the default prefix is "" and the default separator is "_".
Set this option to False to omit the leading underscore (or other separator) if no prefix is given.
If the group name is derived from a mapping the separator is still used to concatenate the items.
To not use a separator in the group name at all, set the separator for the keyed group to an empty string instead.
password
string / required
env:VMWARE_PASSWORD
Password of vSphere user.
Accepts vault encrypted variable.
port
integer
Default:
443
env:VMWARE_PORT
Port number used to connect to vCenter or ESXi Server.
properties
list / elements=string
Default:
["name", "customValue", "summary.runtime.powerState"]
Specify the list of VMware schema properties associated with the ESXi hostsystem.
These properties will be populated in hostvars of the given ESXi hostsystem.
Each value in the list can be a path to a specific property in hostsystem object or a path to a collection of hostsystem objects.
summary.runtime.powerState are required if keyed_groups is set to default.
Please make sure that all the properties that are used in other parameters are included in this options.
In addition to ESXi hostsystem's properties, the following are special values
Use customValue to populate ESXi hostsystem's custom attributes. customValue is only supported by vCenter and not by ESXi.
Use all to populate all the properties of the virtual machine. The value all is time consuming operation, do not use unless required absolutely.
proxy_host
string
added in 1.12.0 of community.vmware
env:VMWARE_PROXY_HOST
Address of a proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.
The format is a hostname or a IP.
This feature depends on a version of pyvmomi>=v6.7.1.2018.12.
proxy_port
integer
added in 1.12.0 of community.vmware
env:VMWARE_PROXY_PORT
Port of the HTTP proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.
resources
list / elements=string
Default:
[]
A list of resources to limit search scope.
Each resource item is represented by exactly one 'vim_type_snake_case:list of resource names pair and optional nested resources
Key name is based on snake case of a vim type name; e.g host_system correspond to vim.HostSystem
strict
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If yes make invalid entries a fatal error, otherwise skip and continue.
Since it is possible to use facts in the expressions they might not always be available and we ignore those errors by default.
use_extra_vars
boolean
added in 2.11 of ansible.builtin
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
ini entries:

[inventory_plugins]
use_extra_vars = no

env:ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_USE_EXTRA_VARS
Merge extra vars into the available variables for composition (highest precedence).
username
string / required
env:VMWARE_USER
env:VMWARE_USERNAME
Name of vSphere user.
Accepts vault encrypted variable.
validate_certs
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
env:VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS
Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid.
Set to false when certificates are not trusted.
with_nested_properties
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
This option transform flatten properties name to nested dictionary.
with_path
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Include ESXi hostsystem's path.
Set this option to a string value to replace root name from 'Datacenters'.
with_sanitized_property_name
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
This option allows property name sanitization to create safe property names for use in Ansible.
Also, transforms property name to snake case.
with_tags
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Include tags and associated hosts.
Requires 'vSphere Automation SDK' library to be installed on the given controller machine.
Please refer following URLs for installation steps

Examples

# Sample configuration file for VMware Host dynamic inventory
    plugin: community.vmware.vmware_host_inventory
    strict: False
    hostname: 10.65.223.31
    username: administrator@vsphere.local
    password: Esxi@123$%
    validate_certs: False
    with_tags: True

# Using compose
    plugin: community.vmware.vmware_host_inventory
    hostname: 10.65.223.31
    username: administrator@vsphere.local
    password: Esxi@123$%
    validate_certs: False
    properties:
    - name
    - summary
    - config.lockdownMode
    compose:
        ansible_user: "'root'"
        ansible_connection: "'ssh'"

Authors

  • Abhijeet Kasurde (@Akasurde)

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2021 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/vmware/vmware_host_inventory_inventory.html