Chef and VMware

VMware, Inc. is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies that provides cloud computing and platform virtualization software and services. This page outlines the different tools that can be used to integrate Chef with the VMware platform.

For discussions on VMware and Chef, visit the VMware{code} Slack team, located in the #chef channel.

knife

There are multiple knife plugins that interact with the VMware stack in different ways. The following knife plugins are directly supported by Chef:

knife-vsphere

[GitHub]

Supports vCenter > 5.0
Most VMware compute use cases are covered
The main starting point for Chef and VMware

These are the necessary settings for your config.rb file:

knife[:vsphere_host] = 'vcenter-hostname'
knife[:vsphere_user] = 'privileged username' # Domain logins may need to be "user@domain.com"
knife[:vsphere_pass] = 'password' # or %Q(mypasswordwithfunnycharacters)
knife[:vsphere_dc] = 'your-datacenter'
knife[:vsphere_insecure] = true # Set this if you have self signed certs

Usage Examples

Clone from a VMware template and bootstrap Chef with generic DHCP options:

knife vsphere vm clone MACHINENAME --template TEMPLATENAME --bootstrap --cips dhcp

Clone a virtual machine from a VMware template, use a customization template called “SPEC” to assist the bootstrapping process, and specify the SSH user and password:

knife vsphere vm clone MACHINENAME --template TEMPLATENAME --bootstrap --cips dhcp \
--cspec SPEC --connection-user USER --connection-password PASSWORD

Note

Add a -f FOLDERNAME if you put your --template in a directory other than the root folder. Use --dest-folder FOLDERNAME if you want your VM created in FOLDERNAME instead of the root folder.

Clone from a folder into the “Datacenter Root” directory:

knife vsphere vm clone MACHINENAME --template TEMPLATENAME -f /path/to/template \
--bootstrap --start --cips dhcp --dest-folder /

List the available VMware templates:

knife vsphere template list
Template Name: ubuntu16-template
knife vsphere template list -f FOLDERNAME
Template Name: centos7-template

Delete a machine:

knife vsphere vm delete MACHINENAME

This command can be used with the -P option to remove the machine from the Chef Infra Server.

knife-vcenter

[GitHub]

Supports vCenter >= 6.5 REST API
Supports the main use cases of knife: bootstrap, create, destroy, and list
If you have the VCSA or are planning on upgrading to vCenter 6.5+, this is the plugin to use

The main settings for your config.rb:

knife[:vcenter_username] = 'USERNAME'
knife[:vcenter_password] = 'PASSWORD'
knife[:vcenter_host] = '172.16.20.2'
knife[:vcenter_disable_ssl_verify] = true # if you want to disable SSL checking

Usage Examples

Clone a machine:

knife vcenter vm clone example-01 --targethost 172.16.20.3 --folder example --connection-password \
P@ssw0rd! --datacenter Datacenter --template ubuntu16-template -N example-01
Creating new machine
Waiting for network interfaces to become available...
ID: vm-183
Name: example-01
Power State: POWERED_ON
Bootstrapping the server by using bootstrap_protocol: ssh and image_os_type: linux

Waiting for sshd to host (10.0.0.167)
...

Delete a machine:

knife vcenter vm delete example-01 -N example-01 --purge

The output is similar to the following:

Creating new machine
Waiting for network interfaces to become available...
ID: vm-183
Name: example-01
Power State: POWERED_ON
Bootstrapping the server by using bootstrap_protocol: ssh and image_os_type: linux

Waiting for sshd to host (10.0.0.167)
WARNING: Deleted node example-01
WARNING: Deleted client example-01

knife-vrealize

[GitHub]

The knife-vrealize plugin supports both vRealize Automation and vRealize Orchestrator.

Note

For knife-vrealize 6.0.4 and earlier, see the documentation for knife-vrealize 6.0.4 and downgrade the VMware vRA Gem to version 1.7.0.

Note

knife-vrealize 7.0.0 and later supports vRealize Automation 8.x.

knife-vrealize 6.0.3 and earlier supports vRealize Automation 7.x.

The knife-vrealize gem supports the main use cases of knife: bootstrap, create, destroy, and list. It directly integrates with vRealize Automation to call out predetermined blueprints or catalogs, and can integrate directly with vRealize Orchestrator to call out predetermined workflows.

config.rb Settings

The main settings for your config.rb file are:

knife[:vra_username] = 'USERNAME'
knife[:vra_password] = 'PASSWORD'
knife[:vra_base_url] = 'https://vra.example.local'
knife[:vra_tenant]   = 'tenant'
knife[:vra_disable_ssl_verify] = true # if you want to disable SSL checking.

Additional config.rb settings are required to integrate with vRealize Orchestrator:

knife[:vro_username] = 'USERNAME'
knife[:vro_password] = 'PASSWORD'
knife[:vro_base_url] = 'https://vra.example.local:8281'

knife-vrealize Common Parameters

--image-mapping: The image mapping for the deployment which specifies the OS image for the virtual machine.
--flavor-mapping: The flavor mapping of the target deployment which specifies the CPU count and RAM of a VM.
--project-id: The project ID of the target deployment.
--name: The name of the newly created deployment. The name must be unique.
--version: The version of the catalog for the deployment. If left blank, the latest version will be used.
--ssh-password: If a Linux host, the password to use during bootstrap.
--winrm-password: If a Windows host, the password to use during bootstrap.
--image-os-type: Windows or Linux.
--bootstrap-protocol: WinRM or SSH
--server-create-timeout: The number of seconds to wait for the server to complete. Increase this if your vRealize Automation environments takes more than 10 minutes to give you a server. Default value: 600 seconds.
--bootstrap-version: Specify a specific Chef Infra Client version if your group is not current.

Usage Examples

Create a server from vRealize Automation:

If you want to create a server from a catalog blueprint, find the catalog ID with the knife vra catalog list command. After the resource is created, knife will attempt to bootstrap it.

Each blueprint may require different parameters to complete provisioning. See your vRealize Automation administrator with questions. knife will attempt to provide any helpful error messages from vRealize Automation if they are available.

knife vra server create CATALOG_ID --name NAME --project-id PROJECT_ID \
  --image-mapping IMAGE_MAPPING --flavor-mapping FLAVOR_MAPPING --image-os-type OS_TYPE --connection-protocol PROTOCOL \
  -P PASSWORD --extra-param KEY=TYPE:VALUE

The output is similar to the following:

Catalog request b1f13afe-d7c1-4647-8866-30681fc7f63d submitted.
Waiting for request to complete.
Current request status: CREATE_INPROGRESS...............
Catalog request complete.

Request Status: CREATE_SUCCESSFUL

Deployment ID: b1f13afe-d7c1-4647-8866-30681fc7f63d
Deployment Name: test_dep-2
IP Address: 10.30.236.21
Owner Names: USERNAME
Bootstrapping the server by using connection_protocol: ssh and image_os_type: linux

Waiting for sshd to host (10.30.236.21)............
...

Delete a server from vRealize Automation:

knife vra server delete CATALOG_ID --purge

The output is similar to the following:

Deployment ID: 2e1f6632-1613-41d1-a07c-6137c9639609
Deployment Name: test_dep-2
IP Address: 10.30.236.21
Status: SUCCESS
Owner Names: USERNAME

Do you really want to delete this server? (Y/N) y
Destroy request 5e390a9d-1340-489d-94be-b4eb1df98c53 submitted.
Waiting for request to complete.
Current request status: CHECKING_APPROVAL...
...

If you supply the --purge option, the server will also be removed from the Chef Infra Server.

Execute a vRealize Orchestrator workflow:

This requires the workflow name. If your workflow name is not unique in your vRealize Orchestrator workflow list, you can specify a workflow ID with --vro-workflow-id ID. You can find the workflow ID from the vRealize Orchestrator UI; however, the workflow name is still required.

knife vro workflow execute WORKFLOW_NAME KEY1=VALUE1 KEY2=VALUE2

The output is similar to the following:

Starting workflow execution...
Workflow execution 4028eece4effc046014f27da864d0187 started. Waiting for it to complete...
Workflow execution complete.

Output Parameters:
outkey1: some value (string)

Workflow Execution Log:
2015-08-13 09:17:57 -0700 info: cloudadmin: Workflow 'Knife Testing' has started
2015-08-13 09:17:58 -0700 info: cloudadmin: Workflow 'Knife Testing' has completed

Test Kitchen

The following Test Kitchen drivers for VMware are directly supported by Chef:

kitchen-vsphere (chef-provisioning-vsphere)

[GitHub]

Built into the chef-provisioning-vsphere driver
A community driven project, with Chef Partners maintaining the releases
Leverages the typical Test Kitchen workflow for vCenter > 5.0+
There is a kitchen-vsphere gem, but it is not supported at this time

Usage Examples

There is an example cookbook that attempts to capture everything required. The following is a basic kitchen.yml example:

---
driver:
name: vsphere
driver_options:
  host: FQDN or IP of vCenter
  user: 'administrator@vsphere.local'
  password: 'PASSWORD'
  insecure: true
machine_options:
 start_timeout: 600
 create_timeout: 600
 ready_timeout: 90
 bootstrap_options:
   use_linked_clone: true
   datacenter: 'Datacenter'
   template_name: 'ubuntu16'
   template_folder: 'Linux'
   resource_pool: 'Cluster'
   num_cpus: 2
   memory_mb: 4096
   ssh:
     user: ubuntu
     paranoid: false
     password: PASSWORD
     port: 22

provisioner:
  name: chef_zero
  sudo_command: sudo

verifier:
  name: inspec

transport:
  username: root or ssh enabled user
  password: PASSWORD for root or user

platforms:
  - name: ubuntu-18.04
  - name: centos-8

suites:
  - name: default
    run_list:
      - recipe[COOKBOOK::default]
    attributes:

kitchen-vcenter

[GitHub]

Supports vCenter >= 6.5 REST API
Leverages the typical Test Kitchen workflow for vCenter >= 6.5+
If you have the VCSA or are planning on upgrading to vCenter 6.5+, use this plugin

Usage Examples

The following is a basic kitchen.yml for vCenter:

driver:
  name: vcenter
  vcenter_username: <%= ENV['VCENTER_USER'] || "administrator@vsphere.local" %>
  vcenter_password: <%= ENV['VCENTER_PASSWORD'] || "password" %>
  vcenter_host: vcenter.chef.io
  vcenter_disable_ssl_verify: true
  driver_config:
    targethost: 172.16.20.41
    datacenter: "Datacenter"

platforms:
  - name: ubuntu-2004
    driver_config:
      template: ubuntu16-template
  - name: centos-8
    driver_config:
      template: centos7-template

kitchen-vra

[GitHub]

An integration point with vRealize Automation and Test Kitchen
For companies required to use vRealize Automation this is a natural progression for Chef Development

Usage Examples

The following is a basic kitchen.yml example:

driver:
  name: vra
  username: user@corp.local
  password: password
  tenant: tenant
  base_url: https://vra.corp.local
  verify_ssl: true

platforms:
- name: centos6
  driver:
    catalog_id: e9db1084-d1c6-4c1f-8e3c-eb8f3dc574f9
- name: centos7
  driver:
    catalog_id: c4211950-ab07-42b1-ba80-8f5d3f2c8251

kitchen-vro

[GitHub]

An integration point with vRealize Orchestrator and Test Kitchen
Leverages specific Workflows in vRealize Orchestrator if it is required by VMware admins

Usage Examples

The following is a basic kitchen.yml example:

driver:
  name: vro
  vro_username: user@domain.com
  vro_password: password
  vro_base_url: https://vra.corp.local:8281
  create_workflow_name: Create TK Server
  destroy_workflow_name: Destroy TK Server

platforms:
  - name: centos
    driver:
      create_workflow_parameters:
        os_name: centos
        os_version: 6.7
  - name: windows
    driver:
      create_workflow_parameters:
        os_name: windows
        os_version: server2012
        cpus: 4
        memory: 4096

Chef InSpec

The Chef InSpec VMware plugin is used to verify the vCenter and ESXi VMware stack.

inspec-vmware

[GitHub]

Supports vCenter > 5.0
11 resources available at the time of writing, with more planned

Usage Examples

An example demo control:

control 'vmware-1' do
  impact 0.7
  title 'Checks that soft power off is disabled'
  describe vmware_vm_advancedsetting({ datacenter: 'ha-datacenter', vm: 'testvm' }) do
    its('softPowerOff') { should cmp 'false' }
  end
end

Chef integrations inside of the VMware Suite

vRealize Automation Example Blueprints

vRealize Orchestrator plugin

The Chef plugin for vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) is a VMware-supplied plugin
If you use vRealize Orchestrator, this provides the majority of the necessary features

For more information, see the plugin demo on YouTube.