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knife vSphere

Gem Version Build Status Inline docs

Please refer to the CHANGELOG for version history and known issues.

Installation

If you're using ChefDK, simply install the Gem:

$ chef gem install knife-vsphere

If you're using bundler, simply add Chef and knife-vsphere to your Gemfile:

gem 'chef'
gem 'knife-vsphere

This plugin is distributed as a Ruby Gem. To install it, run:

$ gem install knife-vsphere

Depending on your system's configuration, you may need to run this command with root privileges.

Configuration

For initial development, the plugin targets all communication at a vCenter instance rather than at specific hosts. Only named user authentication is currently supported; you can add the credentials to your knife.rb file:

knife[:vsphere_host] = "vcenter-hostname"
knife[:vsphere_user] = "privileged username" # Domain logins may need to be "[email protected]"
knife[:vsphere_pass] = "your password"       # or %Q(mypasswordwithfunnycharacters)
knife[:vsphere_dc] = "your-datacenter"

The vSphere password can also be stored in a base64 encoded version (to visually obfuscate it) by prepending 'base64:' to your encoded password. For example:

knife[:vsphere_pass] = "base64:Zm9vYmFyCg=="

If you get the following error, you may need to disable SSL certificate checking:

ERROR: OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0
state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed

knife[:vsphere_insecure] = true

Credentials can also be specified on the command line for multiple vSphere servers/data centers

Description:

This is an Chef Knife plugin to interact with VMware's vSphere. This plugin currently supports the following:

Listings:

  • VMs
  • Folders
  • Templates
  • Datastores
  • VLANs (currently requires distributed vswitch)
  • Resource Pools and Clusters
  • Customization Specifications
  • Hosts in a Pool or Cluster
  • Network cards and VLANs for a VM

VM Operations:

  • Power on/off
  • Clone (with optional chef bootstrap and run list)
  • Delete
  • VMDK addition
  • Migrate
  • Add network
  • Connect/disconnect network
  • Delete network
  • Change network
  • Enable VNC remote console

Clone-specific customization options (for Linux guests):

  • Destination folder
  • CPU core count
  • CPU cores per socket
  • Memory size
  • Memory reservation
  • DNS settings
  • Hostname / Domain name
  • IP addresses / default gateway
  • vlan (currently requires distributed vswitch)
  • datastore
  • resource pool

Note: For Windows guests we can run sysprep

Basic Examples:

Here are some basic usage examples to help get you started.

  • This clones from a VMware template and bootstraps chef into it. It uses the generic DHCP options.
$ knife vsphere vm clone MACHINENAME --template TEMPLATENAME --bootstrap --cips dhcp
  • This clones a vm from a VMware template bootstraps chef, then uses a Customization template called "SPEC" to help bootstrap. Also calls a different SSH user and Password.
$ knife vsphere vm clone MACHINENAME --template TEMPLATENAME --bootstrap --cips dhcp \
  --cspec SPEC --ssh-user USER --ssh-password PASSWORD

Note: add a -f FOLDERNAME if you put your --template in someplace other then root folder, and use --dest-folder FOLDERNAME if you want your VM created in FOLDERNAME rather than the root.

A full basic example of cloning from a folder, and putting it in the "Datacenter Root" directory is the following:

$ knife vsphere vm clone MACHINENAME --template TEMPLATENAME -f LOCATIONOFTEMPLATE \
  --bootstrap --start --cips dhcp --dest-folder /
  • Listing the available VMware templates
$ knife vsphere template list
Template Name: ubuntu16-template
$ knife vsphere template list -f FOLDERNAME
Template Name: centos7-template
  • Deleting a machine.
$ knife vsphere vm delete MACHINENAME (-P will remove from the chef server)

Subcommands

This plugin provides the following Knife subcommands. Specific command options can be found by invoking the subcommand with a --help flag

knife vsphere vm list

Enumerates the Virtual Machines registered in the target datacenter. Only name is currently displayed.

-r, --recursive    - Recurse down through sub-folders to the specified folder
--only-folders     - Print only folder names. Implies recursive

knife vsphere vm find

Search for Virtual Machines matching criteria in the specified pool and display selected fields

Required arguments:

--pool POOL_NAME           -Name of the pool to search in

OPTIONS:

--pool-path                  do not search for pool name,pool argument is an exact path

CRITERIA:

--match-ip IP                match ip
--match-name VMNAME          match name
--match-os OS                match os
--match-tools TOOLSSTATE     match tools state
--powered-off                Show only stopped machines
--powered-on                 Show only started machines

FIELDS:

--alarms                     show alarm status
--cpu                        Show cpu
--esx-disk                   Show esx disks
--full-path                  Show full path
--hostname                   show hostname
--host_name                  Show name of the VM's host
--ip                         Show primary ip
--networks                   Show all networks and IPs
--os                         Show os details
--os-disks                   Show os disks
--ram                        Show ram
--snapshots                  Show snapshots
--tools                      show tools status

Example:

$ knife vsphere vm find --snapshots --full-path --pool XXX-YYYY --cpu --ram --esx-disk \
    --os-disk --os --match-name my_machine_1 --alarms --tools --ip --ips \
    --match-ip 123 --match-tools toolsOk

knife vsphere vm state

Manage power state of a virtual machine, aka turn it off and on

-s STATE, --state STATE    - The power state to transition the VM into; one of on|off|suspended|reboot
-w PORT, --wait-port PORT  - Wait for VM to be accessible on a port
-g, --shutdown             - Guest OS shutdown (format: -s off -g)
-r, --recursive            - Recurse down through sub-folders to the specified folder to find the VM

knife vsphere pool list

Enumerates the Resource Pools and Clusters registered in the target datacenter.

knife vsphere template list

Enumerates the VM Templates registered in the target datacenter. Only name is currently displayed.

-f FOLDER       - Look inside the designated folder, default is the root folder

knife vsphere customization list

Enumerates the customization specifications registered in the target datacenter. Only name is currently displayed.

knife vsphere vm clone

Clones an existing VM template into a new VM instance, optionally applying an existing customization specification. If customization arguments such as --chost and --cdomain are specified, or if the customization sepcification fetched from vSphere is considered, a default customization specification will be attempted.

  • For windows, a sysprep based unattended customization in workgroup mode will be attempted (host name being the VM name unless otherwise specified).

  • For Linux, a fixed named customization using the vmname as the host name unless otherwise specified.

This command has many options which which to customize your VM.

Chef bootstrap options

These options alter the way that your VM will be bootstrapped with Chef after it is created. It is not necessary to bootstrap the VM, but at the very least --bootstrap is required to do so.

--bootstrap - Bootstrap the VM after cloning. Implies --start
--bootstrap-ipv4 - Force using an IPv4 address when a NIC has both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
--bootstrap-msi-url URL - Location of the Chef Client MSI if not default from chef.io
--bootstrap-nic INTEGER - Network interface to use when multiple NICs are defined on a template.
--bootstrap-proxy PROXY_URL - The proxy server for the node being bootstrapped
--bootstrap-vault-file VAULT_FILE - A JSON file with a list of vault(s) and item(s) to be updated
--bootstrap-vault-item VAULT_ITEM - A single vault and item to update as "vault:item"
--bootstrap-vault-json VAULT_JSON - A JSON string with the vault(s) and item(s) to be updated
--bootstrap-version VERSION - The version of Chef to install
--distro DISTRO - Bootstrap a distro using a template
--fqdn SERVER_FQDN - Fully qualified hostname for bootstrapping
--hint HINT_NAME[=HINT_FILE] Specify Ohai Hint to be set on the bootstrap target.  Use multiple --hint options to specify multiple hints.
--identity-file IDENTITY_FILE - SSH identity file used for authentication
--json-attributes - A JSON string to be added to the first run of chef-client
--node-name NAME - The Chef node name for your new node
--no-host-key-verify - Disable host key verification
--node-ssl-verify-mode [peer|none] - Whether or not to verify the SSL cert for all HTTPS requests
--prerelease - Install the pre-release chef gems
--run-list RUN_LIST - Comma separated list of roles/recipes to apply
--secret-file SECRET_FILE - A file containing the secret key to use to encrypt data bag item values
--ssh-password PASSWORD - SSH password
--ssh-port PORT - SSH port
--ssh-user USERNAME - SSH username
--sysprep_timeout TIMEOUT - Wait TIMEOUT seconds for sysprep event before continuing with bootstrap
--tags TAG1,TAG2 - Tag the node with the given list of tags

Customization options

These options are related to the customization of the VM by the vSphere agent. They include hardware settings and networking.

--ccpu CUST_CPU_COUNT - Number of CPUs
--ccorespersocket CUST_CPU_CORES_PER_SOCKET - Number of CPU Cores per Socket
--cdomain CUST_DOMAIN - Domain name for customization
--cgw CUST_GW - CIDR IP of gateway for customization
--chostname CUST_HOSTNAME - Unqualified hostname for customization
--cips CUST_IPS - Comma-delimited list of CIDR IPs for customization, or *dhcp* to configure that interface to use DHCP
--cmacs CUST_MACS - Comma-delimited list of MAC addresses, or *auto* to configure that interface to use automatically generated MAC address
--cplugin CUST_PLUGIN_PATH - Path to plugin that implements KnifeVspherePlugin.customize_clone_spec and/or KnifeVspherePlugin.reconfig_vm
--cplugin-data CUST_PLUGIN_DATA - String of data to pass to the plugin.  Use any format you wish.
--cram CUST_MEMORY_GB - Gigabytes of RAM
--cram_reservation CUST_MEMORY_RESERVATION_GB - Gigabytes of RAM
--cspec CUST_SPEC - The name of any customization specifications that are defined in vCenter to apply
--ctz CUST_TIMEZONE - Timezone in valid 'Area/Location' format
--cvlan CUST_VLANS - Comma-delimited list of VLAN names for the network adapters to join
--disable-customization - By default customizations will be applied to the customization specification (see below).  Disable these convention with this switch (default value is `false`)
--random-vmname - Creates a random VMNAME starts with vm-XXXXXXXX
--random-vmname-prefix - Change the VMNAME prefix

VMware options

These options alter the way the VM is created, such as to decide where it is placed.

--datastore STORE    - The datastore into which to put the cloned VM
--datastorecluster STORE - The datastorecluster into which to put the cloned VM
--dest-folder FOLDER - The folder into which to put the cloned VM
--resource-pool POOL|CLUSTER - The resource pool into which to put the cloned VM. Also accepts a cluster name.
--start - Start the VM after cloning.
--sw-uuid SWITCH_UUIDS - Comma-delimited list of virtual switch UUIDs to attach to the network adapters, or *auto* to automatically assign virtual switch
--template TEMPLATE - The source VM / Template to clone from
--template-file TEMPLATE - Full path to location of template to use

Examples

$ knife vsphere vm clone NewNode --template UbuntuTemplate --cspec StaticSpec \
    --cips 192.168.0.99/24,192.168.1.99/24 \
    --chostname NODENAME --cdomain NODEDOMAIN

The customization specification defaults can be disabled using the --disable-customization true switch. If you specify a --cspec with this option, that spec will still be applied.

NOTE: if you are specifying a --cspec and the cloning process appears to not be properly applying the spec as defined on vSphere, consider using --disable-customization true as the conventions described above could be erroneously interfering with the spec as defined on vSphere.

Customization specifications can also be specified in code using the --cplugin and/or --cplugin-data arguments. See the plugins section for examples.

The --bootstrap-vault-* options can be used to send chef-vault items to be updated during the hand-off to knife bootstrap.

Example using --bootstrap-vault-json:

$  knife vsphere vm clone NewNode UbuntuTemplate --cspec StaticSpec \
    --cips 192.168.0.99/24,192.168.1.99/24 \
    --chostname NODENAME --cdomain NODEDOMAIN \
    --start true --bootstrap true \
    --bootstrap-vault-json '{"passwords":"default","appvault":"credentials"}'

knife vsphere vm config VMNAME PROPERTY VALUE

Sets a vSphere property, such as CPU or disk, on a VM

See "http://pubs.vmware.com/vi3/sdk/ReferenceGuide/vim.vm.ConfigSpec.html" for allowed PROPERTY values (any property of type xs:string or numeric is supported)."

Examples:

$ knife vsphere vm config myvirtualmachine memoryMB 4096

knife vsphere vm toolsconfig

--empty           - allows clearing string properties

Sets properties in tools property. See "https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk25pubs/ReferenceGuide/vim.vm.ToolsConfigInfo.html" for available properties and types.

Examples:

$ knife vsphere vm toolsconfig myvirtualmachine syncTimeWithHost false
$ knife vsphere vm toolsconfig myvirtualmachine pendingCustomization -e

knife vsphere vm delete NAME

Deletes an existing VM, removing it from vSphere inventory and deleting from disk, optionally deleting it from Chef as well.

--purge|-P        - Delete the client and node from Chef as well
-N                - Specify the name of the node and client to delete if it differs from NAME (requires -P)

knife vsphere vm snapshot

Manages the snapshots for an existing VM, allowing for creation, removal, and reverting of snapshots.

--list            - List the current tree of snapshots
--create SNAPSHOT - Create a new snapshot off of the current snapshot
--remove SNAPSHOT - Remove a named snapshot.
--revert SNAPSHOT - Revert to a named snapshot.
--revert-current  - Revert to current snapshot.
--start           - Starts the VM after a successful revert
--wait            - Wait for creation/removal to complete rather than returning immediately
--find            - Find the VM instead of specifying the folder with -F
--dump-memory     - Dump the memory when creating the snapshot (default: false)
--quiesce         - Quiesce the VM before snapshotting (default: false)

knife vsphere vm cdrom

--datastore DATASTORE - Datastore the image is stored in
--iso                 - Path and filename of the ISO
--attach              - Attach the iso immediately
--disconnect          - Disconnect any iso currently attached
--recursive           - Search for the VM recursively
--folder              - Search for the VM in the specified folder
--on_boot BOOL        - Set the Attach On Boot Boolean

knife vsphere vm disk extend

--diskname DISKNAME - The name of the disk that will be extended (use when vm has multiple disks)

Note: SIZE is in kilobytes

knife vsphere vm disk list

Lists the disks attached to VMNAME

knife vsphere datastore list

Lists all known datastores with capacity and usage

knife vsphere datastore maxfree

Gets the datastore with the most free space

--regex           - Pattern to match the datastore name
--vlan            - Require listed vlan available to datastore's parent
--pool            - Pool or Cluster to search for datastores in

knife vsphere datastore file

Uploads files to a datastore and downloads files from a datastore

--upload-file       - Upload specified local file to remote
--download-file     - Download specified remote file to local
--remote-file FILE  - Remote file name and path
--local-file FILE   - Local file name and path

knife vsphere datastorecluster list

Lists all known datastorecluster with capacity and usage

knife vsphere datastorecluster maxfree

Gets the datastorecluster with the most free space

--regex           - Pattern to match the datastore name

knife vsphere vm execute

Executes a program on the guest. Requires vCenter 5.0 or higher.

Command path must be absolute. For Linux guest operating systems, /bin/bash is used to start the program. For Solaris guest operating systems, /bin/bash is used to start the program if it exists. Otherwise /bin/sh is used.

Arguments are optional, and allow for redirection in Linux and Solaris.

--exec-user USERNAME - The username on the guest to execute as.
--exec-passwd PASSWD - The password for the user executing as.
--exec-dir DIRECTORY - Optional: Working directory to execute in. Will default to $HOME of user.

knife vsphere vm vncset

Enable VNC remote console.

Required arguments:

--vnc-port PORT           -Port to run VNC on
--vnc-password PASSWORD   -Password for connecting to VNC

knife vsphere vm vmdk

Adds VMDK to VM.

Optional arguments

--vmdk-type TYPE - VMDK type, "thick" or "thin", defaults to "thin"

knife vsphere vm markastemplate

Will traverse the folder tree looking for the VM by name. By default the folder inspected with be the root folder. --folder should be specified if traversing should be in some other folder than the root. Once found the VM will be converted into a template. This means the VM will become a template and no longer be available as a Virtual Machine. The name given to the template will be the name of VM from which it was created.

knife vsphere hosts list --pool

Lists all hosts in given Pool

knife vsphere vm migrate

Migrate VM to resource pool/datastore/host. Resource pool and datastore are mandatory.

--folder FOLDER                   - folder in which to search for VM
--resource-pool POOL        - destination resource pool
--dest-host HOST            - destination host (optional)
--dest-datastore DATASTORE  - destination datastore, accesible to HOST
--priority PRIORITY         - migration priority (optional, default defaultPriority )

knife vsphere vm net

Set networking state for VMNAME by connecting/disconnecting network interfaces. Posible states are up/down.

knife vsphere vm network set

Set NETWORKNAME on first interface of VMNAME. Works for both standard and distributed switches.

--nic INTEGER     - NIC to change (optional, default 0)

knife vsphere vm network set example1.test.com vlan123
knife vsphere vm network set example2.test.com vlan234 --nic 1

knife vsphere vm network add VMNAME NETWORKNAME

Add a network card to a VM and connect it to a network.

--adapter-type STRING      - Adapter type eg e1000,vmxnet3
--mac-address STRING       - Adapter MAC address eg. AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

knife vsphere vm network list VMNAME

List the network cards and their VLAN that are connected to a VM.

knife vsphere vm network delete VMNAME NICNAME

Delete a network card from a VM.

knife vsphere vm wait sysprep

Wait for vm finishing Sysprep

--sleep SLEEP      - The time in seconds to wait between queries for CustomizationSucceeded event. Default: 60 seconds
--timeout TIMEOUT  - The timeout in seconds before aborting. Default: 300 seconds

knife vsphere cpu ratio

Lists the ratio between assigned virtual CPUs and physical CPUs on all hosts.

Example:

$ knife vsphere cpu ratio
Output:
### Cluster Cluster1 ###
host1.domain.com: 1.8125
host2.domain.com: 2.40625
host3.domain.com: 1.8125

### Cluster Cluster2 ###
host4.domain.com: 1.8125
host5.domain.com: 2.40625

knife vsphere vlan list

Lists all the VLANs in the datacenter

knife vsphere vlan create

Creates a vlan (port group on a distributed virtual switch) with the given name and VLAN ID. If you have multiple distributed switches then use the --switch option to set the switch

Developing, or using the latest code

The master version of this code may be ahead of the gem itself. If it's in master you can generally consider it ready to use. To use master instead of what's published on Ruby gems:

$ gem uninstall knife-vsphere
$ git clone [email protected]:chef-partners/knife-vsphere.git # or your fork
$ cd knife-vsphere
$ rake build                                           # Take note of the version
$ gem install pkg/knife-vsphere-1.1.1.gem              # Use the version above

If you are doing development, then you can run the plugin out of a checked out copy of the source:

$ bundle install # only needs to be done once
$ bundle exec knife vsphere ...

Plugins

knife-vsphere supports some plugins, currently only for the clone operation.

Plugins let you write code to further customize the operation you are sending to vCenter.

The basic idea is that plugins expose well known methods to knife, which are then run at particular times. The values returned from your methods are passed directly to vSphere.

Below are examples of the potential implementations that would be saved to an rb file and passed in the --cplugin argument.

Getting help

If the software isn't behaving the way you think, or you're having trouble doing something, we're happy to help. Try this checklist:

  • Are you running the latest version? gem list knife-vsphere. You can always upgrade with gem install knife-vsphere
  • Try running the same command with -VV to add additional logging messages
  • Are there any errors in the vSphere console or logs?
  • Search for known issues at https://github.com/chef-partners/knife-vsphere/issues

If you're still having problems, head on over to the issues page and create a new issue. Please include:

  • A description of what you are trying to do, what you are seeing
  • The version number of knife-vsphere and of vSphere itself
  • The exact command you're running and the output (sanitize anything you don't want public!)

License

Authors

Copyright
  Copyright © 2011-2013 Ezra Pagel
  Copyright © 2015-2017 Chef Software, Inc

VMware vSphere is a trademark of VMware, Inc.

Apache License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Software changes provided by Nicholas Brisebois at Dell SecureWorks. For more information on Dell SecureWorks security services please browse to http://www.secureworks.com

© Dell SecureWorks 2015

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Chef knife plug-in for VMware vSphere

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