vSphere Plugin

Get the latest docs.

You are looking at documentation for an older release. Not what you want? Use the version selector on the top banner or click here.

The vSphere plugin enables you to use a vSphere-based infrastructure for deploying services and applications.

Plugin Requirements

Python versions:
- 2.7.x
Permissions on vCenter:
- To create and tear down 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 tear down port groups:
  - On the datacenter:
    - Host/Configuration/Network configuration
- To create and tear down distributed port groups:
  - On the datacenter:
    - dvPort group/Create
    - dvPort group/Delete

vSphere Plugin Configuration

The vSphere plugin requires credentials and endpoint setup information in order to authenticate and interact with vSphere.

Accessing Secrets

It is recommended that you store your credentials as secrets. You can do this using the CLI. Secrets can then be accessed inside your blueprints, as follows:

 external_network:
    type: cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Network
    properties:

      connection_config:
        username: { get_secret: vsphere_username }
        password: { get_secret: vcenter_password }
        host: { get_secret: vcenter_hostname_or_ip }
        datacenter_name: { get_secret: datacenter_name }

Providing Credentials as Environment Variables that are not Stored as Secrets

If you do not use secret storage, you must provide the following credentials as environment variables:

       connection_config:
        username: { vsphere_username }
        password: { vcenter_password }
        host: { vcenter_hostname_or_ip }
        datacenter_name: { datacenter_name }

vSphere Environment

You require a working vSphere environment. The plugin was tested with vSphere infrastructure versions 6.0 and 6.5.

SSH Keys

You need SSH keys to be generated for both the Manager and the application VM’s. If you are using the default key locations in the inputs, you can create them using 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 for your preferred operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu Trusty) within the vSphere datastores, one for Cloudify Manager and one for the application VMs. The application VM template must 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 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 provide incorrect tools for importing keys (it should be using rpm --import <key> rather than the apt-key equivalent). After following the instructions, run chkconfig vmtoolsd on.
It is also necessary to install the deployPkg plugin on the VM, according to the VMWare documentation.
The template must not have any network interfaces.

Types

Tip

Each type has a connection_config property. It can be used to pass parameters for authentication.

cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Server

Derived From: cloudify.nodes.Compute

Properties:

use_existing_resource - Indicate that the VM has already been created you want to begin using it. Should be used together with the server:name property. Note: Cloudify will not delete or perform any other lifecycle operations aside from monitoring and agent installation if configured.
server - The key-value server configuration.
- name - The server name. Note that this MUST NOT contain any characters other than A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphens (-), and underscores (_). Underscores are converted to hyphens. It must not be entirely composed of digits (0-9). The name will have a unique suffix appended to it, enabling multiple instances for one node. If the name parameter is not specified, the node name from the blueprint is used, with the same restrictions applying.
- template - The virtual machine template from which the server is spawned. For more information, see the Misc section - Virtual machine template.
- cpus - The number of CPUs.
- memory - The amount of RAM, in MB.
networking - The key-value server networking configuration.
- domain - The DNS suffix to use on this server.
- dns_servers - The list of DNS servers.
- connect_networks - The list of existing networks to which the server ise connected, described as key-value objects. The network(s) must be described as:
  - name - The name of the port group or distributed port group on vSphere.
  - management - Signifies if the network is a management network (false by default). Only one connected network can be management. This network has its IP address listed under the ip runtime property, but will not otherwise have any impact on how this interface is configured.
  - external - Signifies if the network is an external network (false by default). Only one connected network can be external. This network is the first network that is attached to the server and has its IP address listed under the public_ip runtime property, but does not otherwise have any impact on how this interface is configured.
  - switch_distributed - Signifies if the network is connected to a distributed switch (false by default).
  - use_dhcp - Use DHCP to obtain an IP address (true by default).
  - network - The network cidr (for example, 10.0.0.0/24). It is used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
  - gateway - The network gateway IP address. It is used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
  - ip - The server IP address. It is used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
connection_config - The key-value vSphere environment configuration.
- username - The vSphere username.
- password - The user password.
- host - The vCenter host name or IP address.
- port - The vCenter port for SDK (443 by default).
- datacenter_name - The datacenter name.
- resource_pool_name - The name of a resource pool. If you do not need 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 - The nme of the server on vSphere and in the OS.
ip - The 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 is null/None if there are no attached networks.
public_ip - The external IP address of the server (as determined by finding the IP of whichever network is set as external), or Noneif there is no network set as external.
vSphere_server_id - The internal ID of the server on vSphere (e.g. vm-1234).
networks - The list of key-value details of the attached networks.
- distributed - Whether 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 address.

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, the value under properties.agent_config.password is used. If neither are supplied, an error is raised when running install workflows.
windows_timezone - The timezone to which to set the Windows system. It defaults to 90 (GMT without daylight savings (approximately UTC)). To specify this, it must be set to an appropriate integer value
windows_organization - The organization name to set on the Windows system. It defaults to Organization.
custom_sysprep - A custom sysprep answers file to use for full customization of Windows. 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. Note also that any scripts, etc, that attempt to work on the VM after the custom sysprep must be tolerant of multiple retries, because the plugin does not detect when the custom sysprep has finished, so provides the server as soon as the IP addresses are assigned (which will be before customization is complete).
server The 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 is truncated at 8 characters to permit a unique identifier suffix, enabling multiple instances for one node. If the name parameter is not specified, the node name from the blueprint is used, with the same restrictions applying.
- template - The virtual machine template from which the server is spawned. For more information, see the Misc section - Virtual machine template.
- cpus - The number of CPUs.
- memory - The amount of RAM, in MB.
networking - The key-value server networking configuration.
- domain - The DNS suffix to use on this server.
- dns_servers - The list of DNS servers.
- connect_networks - The list of existing networks to which the server will be connected, described as key-value objects. The network(s) must be described as:
  - name - The name of the port group or distributed port group on vSphere.
  - management - Signifies if the network is a management network (false by default). Only one connected network can be management. This network has its IP address listed under the ip runtime property, but will not otherwise have any impact on how this interface is configured.
  - external - Signifies if the network is an external network (false by default). Only one connected network can be external. This network is the first network that is attached to the server and has its IP address listed under the public_ip runtime property, but does not otherwise have any impact on how this interface is configured.
  - switch_distributed - Signifies if the network is connected to a distributed switch (false by default).
  - use_dhcp - Use DHCP to obtain an IP address (true by default).
  - network - The network cidr (for example, 10.0.0.0/24). It is used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
  - gateway - The network gateway IP address. It is used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
  - ip - The server IP address. It is used by the plugin only when use_dhcp is false.
connection_config - The key-value vSphere environment configuration.
- username - The vSphere username.
- password - The user password.
- host - The vCenter host name or IP address.
- port - The vCenter port for SDK (443 by default).
- datacenter_name - The datacenter name.
- resource_pool_name - The name of a resource pool. If you do not need 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 - The name of the server on vSphere and in the OS.
ip - The Management IP address of the server (as determined by finding the IP address of whichever network is set as management).
public_ip - The external IP address of the server (as determined by finding the IP of whichever network is set as external).
vSphere_server_id - The internal ID of the server on vSphere (e.g. vm-1234).
networks - The list of key-value details of the attached networks.
- distributed - Whether 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 address.

cloudify.vsphere.nodes.Network

Derived From: cloudify.nodes.Network

Properties:

network - The key-value network configuration.
- name - The network name.
- vlan_id - The vLAN identifier that will be assigned to the network.
- vSwitch_name - The vSwitch name to which the network will be connected
connection_config - The key-value vSphere environment configuration. Same as for cloudify.vsphere.server type.

Runtime Properties:

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

Runtime Properties:

attached_vm_id - The internal ID of the attached server on vSphere (e.g. vm-1234).
attached_vm_name - The 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 - The SCSI ID, in the form 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

Node by Node Explanation

Creates a server. In the server, the networking property domain name is specified as example.com. In addition, the DNS server 8.8.8.8, and three existing networks to which to connect example_management_network, example_external_network and example_network are specified. In the server property, the server name as is specified as example_server, and the vm template name as example_server_template. The number of CPUs is specified as 1, and the RAM as 512 MB.
Creates a network. The network name is specified as example_network, the network vLAN ID as 101, and an existing vSwitch name to connect to as example_vSwitch.
Creates a virtual hard disk. The required storage size is specified as 1 GB and this storage is added to the example_server vm.