vSphere Plugin

Description

The vSphere plugin allows users to use a vSphere based infrastructure for deploying services and applications.

Plugin Requirements

• Python versions:
  • 2.7.x
• Permissions on vCenter:
  • To create and destroy virtual machines and storage:
    • On the datacenter:
      
      • Datastore/Allocate Space
      • Network/Assign Network
      • Virtual Machine/Configuration/Add or remove device
      • Virtual Machine/Configuration/Change CPU count
      • Virtual Machine/Configuration/Memory
      • Virtual Machine/Interaction/Power On
      • Virtual Machine/Inventory/Create from existing
    • On the specific resource pool:
      • Full permissions recommended
    • On the template(s) to be used
      • Virtual Machine/Provisioning/Customize
      • Virtual Machine/Provisioning/Deploy template
  • To create and destroy port groups:
    • On the datacenter:
      • Host/Configuration/Network configuration
  • To create and destroy distributed port groups:
    • On the datacenter:
      • dvPort group/Create
      • dvPort group/Delete

vSphere Environment

• You will require a working vSphere environment. The plugin was tested with version 5.5.

SSH Keys

• You will need SSH keys generated for both the manager and the application VM’s. If you are using the default key locations in the inputs, these can be created with the following commands:

  
ssh-keygen -b2048 -N "" -q -f ~/.ssh/cloudify-manager-kp.pem
ssh-keygen -b2048 -N "" -q -f ~/.ssh/cloudify-agent-kp.pem
  

OS Templates

• You need two OS templates of your preferred operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu Trusty) within the vSphere datastores. One for the Cloudify manager and one for the application VMs. The application VM template should accept the Cloudify agent public key for its root user. The Cloudify manager template must accept the cloudify manager public key. Note that you can choose to use same template for both the manager and the application VMs, in that case the shared template must accept both public keys.
• Both templates must have SSH activated and open on the firewall.
• Both templates must have VMWare tools installed. Instructions for this can be found on the VMWare site. Please note, however, that the instructions on this site give incorrect tools for importing keys (it should be using rpm --import <key> rather than the apt-key equivalent). After following the instructions you should also run: chkconfig vmtoolsd on.
• It is also necessary to install the deployPkg plugin on the VM according to VMWare documentation
• The template should not have any network interfaces.

Types

cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Server

Derived From: cloudify.nodes.Compute

Properties:

• server key-value server configuration.

  • name server name. Note that this MUST NOT contain any characters other than A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphens (-), and underscores (_, which will be converted to hyphens). It must not be entirely composed of digits (0-9). It will have a unique suffix appended to it, allowing multiple instances for one node. If the name parameter is not specified, the node name from the blueprint will be used, with the same restrictions applying
  • template virtual machine template from which server will be spawned. For more information, see the Misc section - Virtual machine template.
  • cpus number of CPUs.
  • memory amount of RAM, in MB.

• networking key-value server networking configuration.

  • domain the DNS suffix to use on this server.
  • dns_servers list of DNS servers.
  • connect_networks list of existing networks to which server will be connected, described as key-value objects. The network(s) must be described as:
    • name Name of port group or distributed port group on vSphere.
    • management signifies if it’s a management network (false by default). Only one connected network can be management. This network will have its IP listed under the runtime property ‘ip’, but will not otherwise have any impact on the way this interface is configured.
    • external signifies if it’s an external network (false by default). Only one connected network can be external. This network will be the first network attached to the server and will have its IP listed under the runtime property ‘public_ip’, but will not otherwise have any impact on the way this interface is configured.
    • switch_distributed signifies if network is connected to a distributed switch (false by default).
    • use_dhcp use DHCP to obtain an ip address (true by default).
    • network network cidr (for example, 10.0.0.0/24). It will be used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
    • gateway network gateway ip. It will be used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
    • ip server ip address. It will be used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.

• connection_config key-value vSphere environment configuration. If not specified, values that were used for Cloudify bootstrap process will be used.

  • username vSphere username.
  • password user password.
  • host vCenter host name or IP.
  • port vCenter port for SDK (443 by default).
  • datacenter_name datacenter name.
  • resource_pool_name name of a resource pool. If you do not with to use a resource pool this must be set to ‘Resources’ as this is the base resource pool on vSphere.
  • auto_placement signifies whether to use vSphere’s auto-placement instead of the plugin’s. Must be true if you are using clusters. (false by default).

Runtime properties:

• name Name of the server on vsphere and in the OS
• ip Management IP address of the server (as determined by finding the IP of whichever network is set as management), or the IP of the first attached network on the server (if no management interface is set). This will be null/None if there are no attached networks.
• public_ip External IP address of server (as determined by finding the IP of whichever network is set as external), or nothing if there is no network set as external.
• vsphere_server_id Internal ID of server on vsphere (e.g. vm-1234)
• networks list of key-value details of attached networks
  • distributed Whether or not this is a distributed network
  • name The name of this network
  • mac The MAC address of the NIC on this network
  • ip The IP address assigned to the NIC on this network, or None if there is no IP

cloudify.vsphere.nodes.WindowsServer

Derived From: cloudify.nodes.Compute

Properties:

• windows_password The password to set for the administrator account on the Windows system. If this is not supplied then the value under properties.agent_config.password will be used. If neither are supplied, an error will be raised when running install workflows.

• windows_timezone The timezone to set the Windows system to. It will default to 90 (GMT without daylight savings (approximately UTC)). If you wish to set this it must be set to an appropriate integer value

• windows_organization The organization name to set on the Windows system. It will default to: Organization

• custom_sysprep A custom sysprep answers file to use for full customization of Windows. Please note that this should be verified to work beforehand, as any errors will only appear on Windows and will not be visible to the plugin. Please note also that any scripts, etc, which attempt to work on the VM after the custom sysprep must be tolerant of multiple retries, as the plugin cannot detect when the custom sysprep has finished so will provide the server as soon as IPs are assigned (which will be before customization is complete).

• server key-value server configuration.

  • name server name. Note that this MUST NOT contain any characters other than A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphens (-), and underscores (_, which will be converted to hyphens). It must not be entirely composed of digits (0-9). It will be truncated at 8 characters to permit a unique identifier suffix, allowing multiple instances for one node. If the name parameter is not specified, the node name from the blueprint will be used, with the same restrictions applying
  • template virtual machine template from which server will be spawned. For more information, see the Misc section - Virtual machine template.
  • cpus number of CPUs.
  • memory amount of RAM, in MB.

• networking key-value server networking configuration.

  • domain the DNS suffix to use on this server.
  • dns_servers list of DNS servers.
  • connect_networks list of existing networks to which server will be connected, described as key-value objects. The network(s) must be described as:
    • name Name of port group or distributed port group on vSphere.
    • management signifies if it’s a management network (false by default). Only one connected network can be management. This network will have its IP listed under the runtime property ‘ip’, but will not otherwise have any impact on the way this interface is configured.
    • external signifies if it’s an external network (false by default). Only one connected network can be external. This network will be the first network attached to the server and will have its IP listed under the runtime property ‘public_ip’, but will not otherwise have any impact on the way this interface is configured.
    • switch_distributed signifies if network is connected to a distributed switch (false by default).
    • use_dhcp use DHCP to obtain an ip address (true by default).
    • network network cidr (for example, 10.0.0.0/24). It will be used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
    • gateway network gateway ip. It will be used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
    • ip server ip address. It will be used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.

• connection_config key-value vSphere environment configuration. If not specified, values that were used for Cloudify bootstrap process will be used.

  • username vSphere username.
  • password user password.
  • host vCenter host name or IP.
  • port vCenter port for SDK (443 by default).
  • datacenter_name datacenter name.
  • resource_pool_name name of a resource pool. If you do not with to use a resource pool this must be set to ‘Resources’ as this is the base resource pool on vSphere.
  • auto_placement signifies whether to use vSphere’s auto-placement instead of the plugin’s. Must be true if you are using clusters. (false by default).

Runtime properties:

• name Name of the server on vsphere and in the OS
• ip Management IP address of the server (as determined by finding the IP of whichever network is set as management)
• public_ip External IP address of server (as determined by finding the IP of whichever network is set as external)
• vsphere_server_id Internal ID of server on vsphere (e.g. vm-1234)
• networks list of key-value details of attached networks
  • distributed Whether or not this is a distributed network
  • name The name of this network
  • mac The MAC address of the NIC on this network
  • ip The IP address assigned to the NIC on this network, or None if there is no IP

cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Network

Derived From: cloudify.nodes.Network

Properties:

• network key-value network configuration.
  • name network name
  • vlan_id vLAN identifier which will be assignee to the network.
  • vswitch_name vSwitch name to which the network will be connected
• connection_config key-value vSphere environment configuration. Same as for cloudify.vsphere.server type.

Runtime properties:

• network_name Name of the network on vsphere
• switch_distributed True if this is a distributed port group, False otherwise.

cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Storage

Derived From: cloudify.nodes.Volume

Properties:

• storage key-value storage disk configuration.
  • storage_size disk size in GB.
• connection_config key-value vSphere environment configuration. Same as for cloudify.vsphere.server type.

Runtime properties:

• attached_vm_id Internal ID of attached server on vsphere (e.g. vm-1234)
• attached_vm_name Name of the attached server on vsphere and in the OS
• datastore_file_name The datastore and filename on that datastore of this virtual disk. e.g. “[Datastore-1] myserver-a12b3/myserver-a12b3_1.vmdk”
• scsi_id SCSI ID in the form of bus_id:unit_id, e.g. “0:1”

Examples

Example I

  
example_server:
    type: cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Server
    properties:
        networking:
            domain: example.com
            dns_servers: ['8.8.8.8']
            connected_networks:
                -   name: example_management_network
                    management: true
                    switch_distributed: false
                    use_dhcp: true
                -   name: example_external_network
                    external: true
                    switch_distributed: true
                    use_dhcp: false
                    network: 10.0.0.0/24
                    gateway: 10.0.0.1
                    ip: 10.0.0.2
                -   name: example_network
                    switch_distributed: false
                    use_dhcp: true
            server:
                name: example_server
                template: example_server_template
                cpus: 1
                memory: 512
    relationships:
        - type: cloudify.relationships.depends_on
          target: example_network

example_network:
    type: cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Network
    properties:
        network:
            name: example_network
            vlan_id: 101
            vswitch_name: vSwitch0
            switch_distributed: false

example_storage:
    type: cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Storage
    properties:
        storage:
            storage_size: 1
    relationships:
        - target: example_server
          type: cloudify.vsphere.storage_connected_to_server