VMware vCenter module

This module manages resources in VMware vCenter such as folders, datacenter, ESX host and clusters.

Description

VMware vCenter can be deployed either via an virtual appliance (vmware-vcsa module) or installed on a windows server. This module manages vCenter 5.1 resources via the vSphere API using rbvmomi gem:

+------------+         +---------+         +-----+
|            | vsphere | vCSA    |         | ESX |
|   Puppet   | +-----> +---------+ +-----> +-----+
| Management |   |                   |
|    Host    |   |     +---------+   |     +-----+
|            |    ---> | vCenter |    ---> | ESX |
+------------+         +---------+         +-----+

• vCenter resources in this module are NOT compatible with PuppetLabs-vCenter module.
• ESX resources operate on hosts once they are attached to vCenter.

Installation

$ puppet module install vmware/vcenter

Usage

Puppet management host (see diagram above) should install type/provider gem dependencies:

include vcenter::package

Warning: nokogiri gem is an implicit requirement:

• Nokogiri package is shipped with Puppet Enterprise, but typically not installed by default on the agent. The platform appropriate PE nokogiri gem should be installed on the management host (rather than building the gem).

• Open source puppet will automatically attempt to build nokogiri gem, but additional packages may be required for successful compilation (see tests/package.pp example and nokogiri installation documentation).

• This module ships with a custom version of rbvmomi gem for Ruby 1.8.7 compatibility.

Transport resource specifies rbvmomi connectivity info (see VIM.connect method for additional options):

# The name of the transport is referenced by other resource:
transport { 'lab':
  username => 'root',
  password => 'vmware',
  server   => 'vcsa.lab',
  options  => { 'insecure' => true },
}

All vCenter resources use the transport metaparameter to specify the connectivity used to manage the resource:

vc_datacenter { 'dc1':
  path      => '/dc1',
  ensure    => present,
  transport => Transport['lab'],
}

vc_folder { '/dc1/folder1':
  ensure    => absent,
  transport => Transport['lab'],
}

An ESX host can be attached and managed indirectly via vSphere API:

vcenter::host { $esx1['hostname']:
  path      => '/dc1',
  username  => 'root',
  password  => 'password',
  dateTimeConfig => {
    'ntpConfig' => {
      'server' => 'us.pool.ntp.org',
    },
    'timeZone' => {
      'key' => 'UTC',
    },
  },
  transport => Transport['lab'],
}

See tests folder for additional examples.