Ansible Modules for HPE SimpliVity

Modules to manage HPE SimpliVity using Ansible playbooks.

Requirements

• Ansible >= 2.5
• Python >= 3.3
• HPE SimpliVity Python SDK

Modules

Each SimpliVity resource operation is exposed through an Ansible module. We also provide a specific module to gather facts about the resource.

The detailed documentation for each module is available at: HPE SimpliVity Ansible Modules Documentation

Example playbook

- hosts: all
  vars:
    config: "{{ playbook_dir }}/simplivity_config.json"
    vm_1_name: <vm_name>
    vm_2_name: <vm_name>
    datastore_name: <datastore_name>
    policy_name: <policy_name>
  tasks:
    - name: 'Set policy for multiple VMs'
      simplivity_virtual_machine:
        config: "{{ config }}"
        state: set_policy_for_multiple_vms
        data:
          vm_names:
            - '{{ vm_1_name }}'
            - '{{ vm_2_name }}'
          policy_name: '{{ policy_name }}'
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: 'Simplivity clone'
      simplivity_virtual_machine:
        config: "{{ config }}"
        state: clone
        data:
          name: '{{ vm_1_name }}'
          new_name: '{{ vm_1_name}}_clone_test'
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: 'Simplivity clone and move to another datastore'
      simplivity_virtual_machine:
        config: "{{ config }}"
        state: clone
        data:
          name: '{{ vm_1_name }}_clone_test'
          new_name: '{{ vm_1_name }}_clone_and_move_test'
          datastore: '{{ datastore_name }}'
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: 'Simplivity create VM backup'
      simplivity_virtual_machine:
        config: "{{ config }}"
        state: backup
        data:
          name: '{{ vm_1_name }}'
          backup_name: '{{ vm_1_name }}_backup'
          cluster_name: null
          app_consistent: false
          consistency_type: null
          retention: 0
      delegate_to: localhost

Setup

To perform a full installation, you should execute the following steps:

1. Clone the repository

Run:

$ git clone https://github.com/HewlettPackard/simplivity-ansible.git

2. Install dependency packages

Run pip command from the cloned directory:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure the ANSIBLE_LIBRARY environmental variable

Set the environment variables ANSIBLE_LIBRARY and ANSIBLE_MODULE_UTILS, specifying the library full path from the cloned project:

$ export ANSIBLE_LIBRARY=/path/to/simplivity-ansible/library
$ export ANSIBLE_MODULE_UTILS=/path/to/simplivity-ansible/library/module_utils/

4. SimpliVity client Configuration

Using a JSON Configuration File

To use the Ansible SimpliVity modules, you can store the configuration on a JSON file.

{
  "ip": "10.30.4.56",
  "credentials": {
    "username": "username",
    "password": "password"
  }
}

🔒 Tip: Check the file permissions since the password is stored in clear-text.

The configuration file path must be provided for all of the playbooks config arguments. For example:

- name: Gather facts about SimpliVity virtual machine'
  simplivity_virtual_machine_facts:
    config: "/path/to/config.json"
    name: "VM name"

Environment Variables

If you prefer, the configuration can also be stored in environment variables.

# Required
export SIMPLIVITYSDK_OVC_IP='10.30.4.56'
export SIMPLIVITYSDK_USERNAME='username'
export SIMPLIVITYSDK_PASSWORD='password'

# Optional
export SIMPLIVITYSDK_SSL_CERTIFICATE='<path_to_cert.crt_file>'
export SIMPLIVITYSDK_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT='<connection time-out in seconds>'

🔒 Tip: Make sure no unauthorised person has access to the environment variables, since the password is stored in clear-text.

In this case, you shouldn't provide the config argument. For example:

- name: Gather facts about SimpliVity virtual machine'
  simplivity_virtual_machine_facts:
    name: "VM name"

Once you have defined the environment variables, you can run the plays.

Parameters in the playbook

The third way to pass in your OVC credentials to your tasks is through explicit specification on the task.

This option allows the parameters ovc_ip, username, password to be passed directly inside your task.

- name: Gather facts about SimpliVity virtual machine'
  simplivity_virtual_machine_facts:
    ovc_ip: 10.30.4.56
    username: username
    password: password
    name: "VM name"
  no_log: true
  delegate_to: localhost

Setting no_log: true is highly recommended in this case, as the credentials are otherwise returned in the log after task completion.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. Please see the LICENSE for more information.

Contributing and feature requests

Contributing: We welcome your contributions to the Ansible Modules for HPE SimpliVity. See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Feature Requests: If you have a need that is not met by the current implementation, please let us know (via a new issue). This feedback is crucial for us to deliver a useful product. Do not assume that we have already thought of everything, because we assure you that is not the case.

Testing

The basic test execution can be achieved by executing the build.sh file.

Please refer to TESTING.md for further testing information.