Deploy VMs using Ansible
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Up-ing this topic in case it helps finding testers.
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Thanks stormi. Still no testers thou. I found one critical bug that effectively prevents deployment
. Reconfiguration of existing VMs works as expected 
. I have prepared a commit to fix a bunch of bugs I found in the mean time but I haven't pushed it to GitHub repo yet. To lazy I guess 
. If someone is eager to test, I'll push it right away. -
Hi everyone. For anyone interested in testing, GitHub repo is now updated with latest commit that includes fixes for a number of bugs including a bug that effectively prevented deployment of new VMs. Also, the module is now based on the latest Ansible 2.8 devel code base.
As always, any testing feedback would be very much appreciated, good or bad.
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@bvitnik
I cant do any testing yet tho my internet is not connected until oct 31..
But I will see what I can help with later on -
@Adde just wondered how you sent these letters to the forum
... magic ... without the internetzzz... -
@borzel Shhhh....Not so loud,,, my boss can hear u
Kidding....lol sitting at work, there I have internet
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I am running XCP-NG vn 7.6 on two HP Proliant 380G5s and would love to help develop. I'll get it going and let you know how it goes. My machines don't run anything that is mission critical so if something breaks - it's all good. I don't check forums very often so if you want to communicate directly I can be reached at bitsprocket at g mail dot com
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@BitSprocket Hi. Thanks for stopping by. Info in the first post is a little outdated. I'll update it soon. The main thing is that my Ansible module for deployment of VMs is now merged in upstream Ansible so you should just get development version of Ansible to get access to my module. Feel free to ask me anything here. I'll be glad to help you get it up and running.
UPDATE: I've updated the first post with fresh info.
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I just set up xcp-ng on a host, in the next week or so, i might give this a try! thank you for putting together this module!
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@desnudopenguino Thanks
.I've updated the first post with some more info and clarified some confusing stuff.
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I hate to be one of those double posters... Forgive me, as I have not been following the whole split of xenserver opensource vs. closed source. Just not sure which forum gets checked more often these days.
I was testing out this ansible module with XenServer 7.1 CU2 and running into some errors.
Posted about it here: -
@jthompson333 No problem. I'm following both forums so I'll try to respond same day.
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First post has been updated with new info. Another module has been merged upstream. Also some bugs were fixed.
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A milestone has been achieved
. All of my modules have been merged upstream. I've updated the first post with new info.That will most probably be all for Ansible 2.8. I'm keeping some improvements and possibly more modules for Ansible 2.9. Currently, I'm thinking about what other modules could be useful so I could implement them. Any suggestion or wish would be much appreciated.
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Great news , i will test your module in our DR environment and will provide any feedbacks (good or bad ) , please bear with me .....
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@bvitnik I can confirm the most simple of tasks where I used your module to create a new VM based on an existing template.
I'm still figuring out how to use this best.
Does setting an IP work on any template (e.g. Linux Ubuntu) with XenTools installed?
MM
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@jedimarcus Network configuration (IP, subnet, gateway) only works for Windows guests because there is proper support for it in XenServer Guest Tools for Windows. There is no such support (as far as I know) in XenServer Guest Tools for *nix based systems. Unlike tools for Windows, tools for *nix based systems only contain a few xenstore tools and a daemon (xe-daemon) that collects OS metrics. There is no management agent.
My idea is to write a proper agent for *nix based systems at some point but it won't be any time soon. Maybe Citrix (or Vates
?) will implement one before I do.For now, you can use custom based network configuration trough xenstore and custom scripts. It's described in Notes section of the module documentation.
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Hello all,
I try to create a playbook to deploy a Windows Server 2016 VM.
I see a lot of examples with this parameter : register: deploy.
But there is no reference in the parameters guide. Maybe a mistake ? -
@Ced76 "register" is not a module parameter. It's Ansible task parameter. Take a look at Ansible documentation for registered variables:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_variables.html#registering-variables
Basically what "register: deploy" does is that is says "define a variable called deploy and put a return value of the module in it". A return value of the module in this case are numerous VM facts you can find in "deploy.instance" (sub)variable. Registered variable is accessible in any subsequent task of the same play. Also "deploy" here is just a random name chosen. You can name your registered variables however you like.
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@bvitnik Understood. Sorry but i'm newbie on Ansible
Doesn't see that this variable was not in the xenxerver_guest module part.
I try to create a lab with these objectives :
1- Provision Windows Server 2016 VMs on XCP-NG (or XenServer) after building my own Windows Server 2016 template (using best practices)
2- Define some roles on these VMs (Active Directory, IIS, SQL Server etc.)Hope it'll be possible ...
Thanks.
