How to Add a Disk to a VMware VM Using Ansible Playbook

Introduction

• Module: community.vmware.vmware_guest_disk
• Purpose: Manage disks related to virtual machines in a given vCenter infrastructure

The Ansible module vmware_guest_disk is part of the community-supported collection of modules for interacting with VMware. It manages disks associated with virtual machines within a specified vCenter infrastructure.

Parameters Overview

• Connection Details:

  • hostname (string)
  • username (string)
  • password (string)
  • datacenter (string)
  • validate_certs (boolean)

• SCSI Controller Details:

  • scsi_controller (string)
  • unit_number (string)
  • scsi_type (string)

• Disk Size:

  • size_kb / size_mb / size_gb / size_tb (string)

• Disk Mode:

  • disk_mode (string: persistent, independent_persistent, independent_nonpersistent)

To add a disk to a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine using the vmware_guest_disk module, you must first establish a connection to VMware vSphere or VMware vCenter. This is done using parameters such as hostname, username, password, datacenter, and validate_certs.

Once connected, you can specify the desired disk configuration to add a new disk to the virtual machine. The required parameters are datacenter and unit_number. The datacenter parameter identifies the datacenter to which the virtual machine belongs.

The disk must be connected to a SCSI controller inside the virtual machine, so parameters like scsi_controller, unit_number, and scsi_type are essential. You can specify the disk size using units like KB, MB, GB, or TB.

One crucial parameter is disk_mode, which defaults to persistent. Other options include independent_persistent and independent_nonpersistent.

For more detailed information, refer to the official community.vmware.vmware_guest_disk documentation.

Playbook Example

I’ll Playbooknstrate how to add a 1GB additional disk to a Virtual Machine named “myvm” using an Ansible Playbook. The disk will be added to SCSI controller number 1, unit number 1.

Playbook

• vm_add_disk.yml

---
- name: vm disk Playbook
  hosts: localhost
  become: false
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - community.vmware
  pre_tasks:
    - include_vars: vars.yml
  tasks:
    - name: add disk to vm
      vmware_guest_disk:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        validate_certs: "{{ vcenter_validate_certs }}"
        datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        disk:
          - size_gb: "{{ vm_disk_gb }}"
            type: "{{ vm_disk_type }}"
            datastore: "{{ vm_disk_datastore }}"
            state: present
            scsi_controller: "{{ vm_disk_scsi_controller }}"
            unit_number: "{{ vm_disk_scsi_unit }}"
            scsi_type: "{{ vm_disk_scsi_type }}"
            disk_mode: "{{ vm_disk_mode }}"

Variables: vars.yml

---
vcenter_hostname: "vmware.example.com"
vcenter_datacenter: "vmwaredatacenter"
vcenter_validate_certs: false
vcenter_username: "[email protected]"
vcenter_password: "MySecretPassword123"
vm_name: "myvm"
vm_disk_gb: 1
vm_disk_type: "thin"
vm_disk_datastore: "datastore"
vm_disk_scsi_controller: 1
vm_disk_scsi_unit: 1
vm_disk_scsi_type: 'paravirtual'
vm_disk_mode: 'persistent'

Inventory

localhost

Execution

Run the following command to execute the playbook:

$ ansible-playbook vm_add_disk.yml

Expected output:

[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit
localhost does not match 'all'
PLAY [vm disk Playbook] *******************************************************************************
TASK [include_vars] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [add disk to vm] *****************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

before execution

after execution

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

This Playbooknstrates a successful disk addition to the specified virtual machine using Ansible. Now you know how to Add disk to VMware vSphere Virtual Machine with Ansible.

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