How to compute template values from content library item

[Satak]

Terraform Version

v0.12.24

vSphere Provider Version

v1.17.0

Affected Resource(s)

• vsphere_virtual_machine
• vsphere_content_library_item

Terraform Configuration Files

provider "vsphere" {
  user                 = var.username
  password             = var.password
  vsphere_server       = "localhost"
  allow_unverified_ssl = true
}

data "vsphere_datacenter" "dc" {
  name = "dc1"
}

data "vsphere_datastore" "datastore" {
  name          = "datastore1"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

data "vsphere_resource_pool" "pool" {
  name          = "cluster1/Resources"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

data "vsphere_network" "network" {
  name          = "public"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

data "vsphere_content_library" "library" {
  name = "img-library"
}

data "vsphere_content_library_item" "item" {
  name       = "windows-2019-in-content-library"
  library_id = data.vsphere_content_library.library.id
}

// can you compute template object from content library item?
data "vsphere_virtual_machine" "template" {
  name          = "windows-2019"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

resource "vsphere_virtual_machine" "vm" {
  name             = "terraform-test"
  resource_pool_id = data.vsphere_resource_pool.pool.id
  datastore_id     = data.vsphere_datastore.datastore.id

  num_cpus = 2
  memory   = 8192

  // how would you get guest_id from the content library template?
// this is not possible :(
  guest_id = data.vsphere_content_library_item.item.guest_id

  network_interface {
    network_id = data.vsphere_network.network.id
  }

  clone {
    template_uuid = data.vsphere_content_library_item.item.id

    customize {
      network_interface {
        ipv4_address = "10.0.0.10"
        ipv4_netmask = 24
      }
      ipv4_gateway = "10.0.0.1"
    }
  }

}

Debug Output

N/A

Panic Output

N/A

Expected Behavior

Expecting to compute template values like guest_id from content library item/template.

Actual Behavior

It's not documented how to compute template values from content library item.
It seems that the content library item only exports it's id value and nothing else.
This is not possible:

  guest_id = data.vsphere_content_library_item.item.guest_id

How to compute template values from content library item e.g. disk size and guest_id?

Steps to Reproduce

N/A

Important Factoids

N/A

References

• Support for Template Deployment from VMWare Content Library #291

[bill-rich]

Hi @Satak! Unfortunately there is not currently a way to get template values from content library. The content library API has limited information. I believe this is due to the fact that content library items do not necessarily need to be templates.

I have a PR (#1014) open to help alleviate the problem. Once that is merged and released, you can work around the lack of config attributes on content library items by first deploying a VM from content library, and then using that as your source.

Another option is to deploy the VM from content library, and leave guest_id blank. The only caveat is that you will need to ignore guest_id changes using the following:

lifecycle {
  ignore_changes: [ "guest_id" ]
}

[ghost]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.

If you feel this issue should be reopened, we encourage creating a new issue linking back to this one for added context. If you feel I made an error 🤖 🙉 , please reach out to my human friends 👉 [email protected]. Thanks!