How to Deploy VM’s in Hyper-V with Ansible

admin | October 14, 2022

Thought it would be fun to do…..

If you can find another public repo that has it working online. Please send me a message so I can kick myself.

• This role will allow you to use a vhdx image to deploy vm’s in hyperv

• It will use the vm name to create a sub-folder to place the new vm image in

• It will configure the network switch

• It will setup the vlan tag/id and enable it

• It will also set the smart-paging file location to the destination path of the vm

• It will configure the OS network configuration

• It will power on the machine and wait for response successfully

• It can also remove vms

• You can also call the role with tags if you want…

How to use this role: ansible-hyperv repo is set to private you must request access

1.You must first download the git repository into your roles directory usually ansible/role/

a.git clone git@github.com:Perfect10NickTailor/ansible-hyperv.git

https://github.com/Perfect10NickTailor/ansible-hyperv

2.Now you want edit the hosts.client file name file or create it if it doesn’t exist under your “ansible/inventory/dev:staging:prod” directory. This is a good way to separate environments with ansible, inside each environment you should have a hosts.file like indicated below.

Example file: hosts.dev, hosts.staging, hosts.prod

b.Put your server under the appropriate group inside the file and save

i.testmachine1.nicktailor.com ansible_host=192.168.1.101 (the ip is pointed to the hypervisor)

Note: If there is no group simply list the server outside grouping, the –limit flag will pick it

up.

3.Now inside this directory you should see hosts & host_vars, group_vars

Descriptions:

c.Hosts. – is where you will list your servers under specific groups which tell the playbook (what the server is, if it the server should have a specific task run on it, and how to find it)

d.Host_vars – Inside this directory is where you list the server by name which is you will list under hosts. Inside these files you pass variable parameters to the specific roles when running your playbook. Without these the playbook cant do the tasks you want it to.

e.Group_vars – Are how a way to group variables for sets of servers and this keeps code cleaners and easier to manage.

Operational Use:

4.Move inside host_var

f.cd host_var

g.create a file called {{ servername }} and save it for us its testmachine1.nicktailor.com

5.Now inside this directory you should see hosts & host_vars, group_vars

Descriptions:

h.Hosts. – is where you will list your servers under specific groups which tell the playbook (what the server is, if it the server should have a specific task run on it, and how to find it)

i.Host_vars – Inside this directory is where you list the server by name which is you will list under hosts. Inside these files you pass variable parameters to the specific roles when running your playbook. Without these the playbook cant do the tasks you want it to.

j.Group_vars – Are how a way to group variables for sets of servers and this keeps code cleaners and easier to manage.

Operational Use:

6.Move inside host_var

k.cd host_var

l.create a file called {{ servername }} and save it for us its testmachine1.nicktailor.com

m.add the following parameters to your inventory file and save.

passed parameters: example: inventory/host_vars/testmachine.nicktailor.com

vms:

– type: testserver

name: “nicktest“

cpu: 2

memory: 4096MB

network:

ip: 192.168.23.26

netmask: 255.255.255.0

gateway: 192.168.23.254

dns: 192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18

# network_switch: ‘External Virtual Switch’

network_switch: ‘Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch’

vlanid: 1113

# source-image

src_vhd: ‘Z:\volumes\devops\devopssysprep\devopssysprep.vhdx‘

# destination will be created in Z:\\volumes\servername\servername.vhdx by default

# to change the paths you need to update the prov_vm.yml’s first three task paths

Running your playbook:

1.You must run your play book from inside parent directory always “ansible”

2.Now there is a playbook called createvm.yml in the ansible directory which simply calls the ansible-hyperv role inside the roles directory.

Example: of ansible/createvm.yml

—

– name: Provision VM

hosts: hypervdev.nicktailor.com

gather_facts: no

tasks:

– import_tasks: roles/ansible-hyperv/tasks/prov_vm.yml

Command:

ansible-playbook –i inventory/dev/hosts createvm.yml ––limit=’testmachine1.nicktailor.com‘

• -i : This flag tells ansibe-playbook command which hosts file to use, these are always defined by environment like hosts.dev or hosts.staging

• -u : this is the ssh_user you will be connecting to the servers with

• -Kkb : this tells ansible that you will be using sudo su – for the ssh_user when running all role/tasks

• -ask-beocme : is saying become root

• -limit=’server’ : this allows you to segement which server you want to run the playbook against.

Successful example run of the book:

[ntailor@ansible-home ~]$ ansible-playbook –i inventory/hosts createvm.yml –limit=’testmachine1.nicktailor.com‘

PLAY [Provision VM] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Create directory structure] **************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => (item={‘type’: ‘testservers‘, ‘name’: ‘nicktest‘, ‘cpu‘: 2, ‘memory’: ‘4096MB’, ‘network’: {‘ip‘: ‘192.168.23.36’, ‘netmask’: ‘255.255.255.0’, ‘gateway’: ‘192.168.23.254’, ‘dns‘: ‘192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18‘}, ‘network_switch‘: ‘Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch’, ‘vlanid‘: 1113, ‘src_vhd‘: ‘C:\\volumes\\devops\\devopssysprep\\devopssysprep.vhdx‘})

TASK [Check whether vhdx already exists] *******************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Clone vhdx] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************

changed: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => (item={‘changed’: False, ‘invocation’: {‘module_args‘: {‘path’: ‘Z:\\\\volumes\\\\devops\\nicktest\\nicktest.vhdx‘, ‘checksum_algorithm‘: ‘sha1’, ‘get_checksum‘: False, ‘follow’: False, ‘get_md5’: False}}, ‘stat’: {‘exists’: False}, ‘failed’: False, ‘item’: {‘type’: ‘testservers‘, ‘name’: ‘nicktest‘, ‘cpu‘: 2, ‘memory’: ‘4096MB’, ‘network’: {‘ip‘: ‘192.168.23.36’, ‘netmask’: ‘255.255.255.0’, ‘gateway’: ‘192.168.23.254’, ‘dns‘: ‘192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18‘}, ‘network_switch‘: ‘Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch’, ‘vlanid‘: 1113, ‘src_vhd‘: ‘C:\\volumes\\devops\\devopssysprep\\devopssysprep.vhdx‘}, ‘ansible_loop_var‘: ‘item’})

TASK [set_fact] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com]

TASK [debug] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => {

“path_folder“: “Z:\\\\volumes\\\\devops\\nicktest\\nicktest.vhdx”

}

TASK [set_fact] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com]

TASK [debug] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => {

“page_folder“: “Z:\\\\volumes\\\\devops\\nicktest”

}

TASK [Create VMs] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************

changed: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => (item={‘type’: ‘testservers‘, ‘name’: ‘nicktest‘, ‘cpu‘: 2, ‘memory’: ‘4096MB’, ‘network’: {‘ip‘: ‘192.168.23.36’, ‘netmask’: ‘255.255.255.0’, ‘gateway’: ‘192.168.23.254’, ‘dns‘: ‘192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18‘}, ‘network_switch‘: ‘Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch’, ‘vlanid‘: 1113, ‘src_vhd‘: ‘C:\\volumes\\devops\\devopssysprep\\devopssysprep.vhdx‘})

TASK [Set SmartPaging File Location for new Virtual Machine to use destination image path] *****************************************************************************************

TASK [Set Network VlanID] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Configure VMs IP] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [add_host] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

changed: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => (item={‘changed’: True, ‘failed’: False, ‘item’: {‘type’: ‘testservers‘, ‘name’: ‘nicktest‘, ‘cpu‘: 2, ‘memory’: ‘4096MB’, ‘network’: {‘ip‘: ‘192.168.23.36’, ‘netmask’: ‘255.255.255.0’, ‘gateway’: ‘192.168.23.254’, ‘dns‘: ‘192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18‘}, ‘network_switch‘: ‘Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch’, ‘vlanid‘: 1113, ‘src_vhd‘: ‘C:\\volumes\\devops\\devopssysprep\\devopssysprep.vhdx‘}, ‘ansible_loop_var‘: ‘item’})

TASK [Poweron VMs] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Wait for VM to be running] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com -> localhost] => (item={‘type’: ‘testservers‘, ‘name’: ‘nicktest‘, ‘cpu‘: 2, ‘memory’: ‘4096MB’, ‘network’: {‘ip‘: ‘192.168.23.36’, ‘netmask’: ‘255.255.255.0’, ‘gateway’: ‘192.168.23.254’, ‘dns‘: ‘192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18‘}, ‘network_switch‘: ‘Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch’, ‘vlanid‘: 1113, ‘src_vhd‘: ‘C:\\volumes\\devops\\devopssysprep\\devopssysprep.vhdx‘})

TASK [debug] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [testmachine1.nicktailor.com] => {

“wait”: {

“changed”: false,

“msg“: “All items completed”,

“results”: [

{

“ansible_loop_var“: “item”,

“changed”: false,

“elapsed”: 82,

“failed”: false,

“invocation”: {

“module_args“: {

“active_connection_states“: [

“ESTABLISHED”,

“FIN_WAIT1”,

“FIN_WAIT2”,

“SYN_RECV”,

“SYN_SENT”,

“TIME_WAIT”

“connect_timeout“: 5,

“delay”: 0,

“exclude_hosts“: null,

“host”: “192.168.23.36”,

“msg“: null,

“path”: null,

“port”: 5986,

“search_regex“: null,

“sleep”: 1,

“state”: “started”,

“timeout”: 100

}

“item”: {

“cpu“: 2,

“memory”: “4096MB”,

“name”: “nicktest“,

“network”: {

“dns“: “192.168.0.17,192.168.0.18“,

“gateway”: “192.168.23.254”,

“ip“: “192.168.23.36”,

“netmask”: “255.255.255.0”

“network_switch“: “Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface #6 – Virtual Switch”,

“src_vhd“: “C:\\volumes\\devops\\devopssysprep\\devopssysprep.vhdx”,

“type”: “testservers“,

“vlanid“: 1113

“match_groupdict“: {},

“match_groups“: [],

“path”: null,

“port”: 5986,

“search_regex“: null,

“state”: “started”

}

]

}

PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

testmachine1.nicktailor.com : ok=15 changed=7 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0

admin October 14, 2022 Ansible, windowsOne Comment »

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One Comment to How to Deploy VM’s in Hyper-V with Ansible

Daris Greenwood says:

March 25, 2024 at 3:49 am

you have a fantastic blog right here! would you like to make some welcome blog posts on my blog?

Reply

Nick Tailor's Technical Blog

A detail-minded individual, combining strong technical understanding and communication skills with experiences in Systems Administration, Engineering, Automation; a proven methodical problem solver.

How to Deploy VM’s in Hyper-V with Ansible

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