Docs: PE 2.7 » Cloud Provisioning » VMware Provisioning


Provisioning With VMware

Puppet Enterprise provides support for working with VMware virtual machine instances using vSphere and vCenter. Using actions of the puppet node_vmware sub-command, you can create new machines, view information about existing machines, classify and configure machines, and tear machines down when they’re no longer needed.

The main actions used for vSphere cloud provisioning include:

  • puppet node_vmware list for viewing existing instances
  • puppet node_vmware create for creating new instances
  • puppet node_vmware terminate for destroying no longer needed instances.

If you’re new to VMware vSphere, you should start by looking at the vSphere documentation.

Listing VMware vSphere Instances

Let’s get started by listing the machines currently on our vSphere server. You do this by running the puppet node_vmware list command.

$ puppet node_vmware list

If you haven’t yet confirmed your vSphere server’s public key hash in your ~/.fog file, you’ll receive an error message containing said hash: 

$ puppet node_vmware list
notice: Connecting ...·
err: The remote system presented a public key with hash
431dd5d0412aab11b14178290d9fcc5acb041d37f90f36f888de0cebfffff0a8 but
we're expecting a hash of <unset>.  If you are sure the remote system is
authentic set vsphere_expected_pubkey_hash: <the hash printed in this
message> in ~/.fog
err: Try 'puppet help node_vmware list' for usage

Confirm that you are communicating with the correct, trusted vSphere server by checking the hostname in your ~/.fog file, then add the hash to the .fog file as follows:

:vsphere_expected_pubkey_hash: 431dd5d0412aab11b14178290d9fcc5acb041d37f90f36f888de0cebfffff0a8

Now you should be able to run the puppet node_vmware list command and see a list of existing virtual machines:

$ puppet node_vmware list
notice: Connecting ...
notice: Connected to vc01.example.com as cloudprovisioner (API version 4.1)
notice: Finding all Virtual Machines ... (Started at 12:16:01 PM)
notice: Control will be returned to you in 10 minutes at 12:26 PM if locating is unfinished.
Locating:          100% |ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo| Time: 00:00:34
notice: Complete
/Datacenters/Solutions/vm/master_template
powerstate: poweredOff
name:       master_template
hostname:   puppetmaster.example.com
instanceid: 5032415e-f460-596b-c55d-6ca1d2799311
ipaddress:  ---.---.---.---
template:   true

/Datacenters/Solutions2/vm/puppetagent
powerstate: poweredOn
name:       puppetagent
hostname:   agent.example.com
instanceid: 5032da5d-68fd-a550-803b-aa6f52fbf854
ipaddress:  192.168.100.218
template:   false

This shows that you’re connected to your vSphere server and shows an available VMware template ( at master_template). Also shown are two virtual machines (puppetmaster.example.com and agent.example.com). VMware templates contain the information needed to build new virtual machines, such as the operating system, hardware configuration, and other details.

Specifically, list will return all of the following information:

  • The location of the template or machine
  • The status of the machine (for example, poweredOff or poweredOn)
  • The name of the template or machine on the vSphere server
  • The host name of the machine
  • The instanceid of the machine
  • The IP address of the machine (note that templates don’t have IP addresses)
  • The type of entry - either a VMware template or a virtual machine

Creating a New VMware Virtual Machine

Puppet Enterprise can create and manage virtual machines from VMware templates using the node_vmware create action.

$ puppet node_vmware create --name=newpuppetmaster --template="/Datacenters/Solutions/vm/master_template"
notice: Connecting ...
notice: Connected to vc01.example.com as cloudprovisioner (API version 4.1)
notice: Locating VM at /Datacenters/Solutions/vm/master_template (Started at 12:38:58 PM)
notice: Control will be returned to you in 10 minutes at 12:48 PM if locating (1/2) is unfinished.
Locating (1/2):    100% |ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo| Time: 00:00:16
notice: Starting the clone process (Started at 12:39:15 PM)
notice: Control will be returned to you in 10 minutes at 12:49 PM if starting (2/2) is unfinished.
Starting (2/2):    100% |ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo| Time: 00:00:03
---
name: newpuppetmaster
power_state: poweredOff
...
status: success

Here node_vmware create has built a new virtual machine named newpuppetmaster with a template of /Datacenters/Solutions/vm/master_template. (This is the template seen earlier with the list action.) The virtual machine will be powered on, which may take several minutes to complete.

The following video demonstrates the above and some other basic functions:

Starting, Stopping and Terminating VMware Virtual Machines

You can start, stop, and terminate virtual machines with the start, stop, and terminate actions.

To start a virtual machine:

$ puppet node_vmware start /Datacenters/Solutions/vm/newpuppetmaster

You can see we’ve specified the path to the virtual machine we wish to start, in this case /Datacenters/Solutions/vm/newpuppetmaster.

To stop a virtual machine, use:

$ puppet node_vmware stop /Datacenters/Solutions/vm/newpuppetmaster

This will stop the running virtual machine (which may take a few minutes).

Lastly, we can terminate a VMware instance. Be aware this will:

  • Force-shutdown the virtual machine
  • Delete the virtual machine AND its hard disk images

This is a destructive and permanent action that should only be taken when you wish to delete the virtual machine and its data!

The following video demonstrates the termination process and some other related functions:

Getting more help

The puppet node_vmware command has extensive in-line help and a man page.

To see the available actions and command line options, run:

$ puppet help node_vmware
USAGE: puppet node_vmware <action> 

This subcommand provides a command line interface to work with VMware vSphere
Virtual Machine instances.  The goal of these actions is to easily create
new virtual machines, install Puppet onto them, and clean up when they're
no longer required.

OPTIONS:
--mode MODE                    - The run mode to use (user, agent, or master).
--render-as FORMAT             - The rendering format to use.
--verbose                      - Whether to log verbosely.
--debug                        - Whether to log debug information.

ACTIONS:
create       Create a new VM from a template
find         Find a VMware Virtual Machine
list         List VMware Virtual Machines
start        Start a Virtual Machine
stop         Stop a running Virtual Machine
terminate    Terminate (destroy) a VM

See 'puppet man node_vmware' or 'man puppet-node_vmware' for full help.

You can get help on individual actions by running:

$ puppet help node_vmware <ACTION>

For example:

$ puppet help node_vmware start

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