VM Creation and Provisioning Framework

Introduction

The ansible scripts can be used to create virtual machine with specific configurations on VMWare Hyperviser (ESX/ESXi). The scripts configure and secure the machines with the company policy standards, and then install necessary software packages.

There are following scripts:

create_vm.yml: Creates, Configures, Secures Virtual Machines and installs base packages packages
create_vms.yml: Same as create_vm.yml but performs operations in parallel
decommission_vm.yml: Deconfigures, Uninstalls packages and Deletes Virtual machines
update_windows.yml: Updates all windows machines for security update
inventory.yml: [NOT A SCRIPT] A list of machines in form of array.

Quick Usage

Creating Virtual Machines, Configure, Secure and Install base packages in PARALLEL (options same as create_vm.yml) ansible-playbook -i localhost, create_vms.yml
Creating Virtual Machines, Configure, Secure and Install base packages ansible-playbook create_vm.yml
Only Create Virtual Machines (Skip Configure, Secure and Installation of Base packages) ansible-playbook create_vm.yml --tags=vm_provision
Configure, Secure and Installation of Base packages, Assuming Machines are already created and running (any or combination of configuration, security, base_packages) ansible-playbook create_vm.yml --tags=configuration,security,base_packages
Deconfigure and Delete Virtual Machine (Decommissioning Process) ansible-playbook decommission_vm.yml
Update Windows Machines ansible-playbook update_windows.yml

Configuration

Inventory - List of Servers to be managed

The inventory is being managed in a different way here, compared to the standard way of managing hosts. To easily manage the inventory and specify configurations

Sample Inventory

---
irving_database_servers:
  - vm_ip: "10.106.176.46"
    vm_name: "JAYDEEP009"
    vm_template: "2012_R2_STD Fusion"
    os: "win"
    packages: "sql_client"    # Comma separated special indentification of base packages
    data_partitions: []
      
  - vm_ip: "10.106.176.45"
    vm_name: "JAYDEEP007"
    vm_template: "Fusion_RHEL6_Template"
    os: "linux"

irving_jboss_servers:
  - vm_ip: "10.106.176.45"
    vm_name: "JAYDEEP007"
    vm_template: "Fusion_RHEL6_Template"
    os: "linux"

irving_apache_servers:
  - vm_ip: "10.106.176.46"
    vm_name: "JAYDEEP009"
    vm_template: "2012_R2_STD Fusion"
    packages: "sql_client"
    os: "win"
    data_partitions: []

# The inventory variable below should be assigned with the target list variable
inventory: "{{ irving_database_servers }} + {{ irving_database_servers }}"

Tip: You can also assign the inventory variable from the command line

ansible-playbook -i localhost, create_vms.yml --extra-vars "inventory={{irving_jboss_servers}}"

VM Configurations

As shown in the inventory.yml file, some parameters have to be specified per VM. Following parameters are mendatory to specify in the invetory file per host.

vm_ip: "<target_ip_address_of_the_machine>"
vm_name: "<unique_host_name>"
vm_template: "<the_template_name_to_be_used_to_clone_the_machine_from>"
os: "win | linux"

There is a list of common variables in config/common.yml file. The common variables are the default value to be used if explicit value is not specified in the inventory file. The variable can always be overridden in the inventory file (make sure to remove the "default_" from the variable name).

For example: