Posted by Some weeks ago I introduced you to my GitHub repository containing a set of Ansible playbooks helping people deploy a highly customizable vSphere 6.7/7.0 with NSX-T 2.5/3.0 nested lab environment.
As I mentioned in the “launch” post, this project is a work in progress and during the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending many hours on trying to improve bits and pieces of the deployment process. I’m also learning more and more about working with Git and Ansible which is a great added bonus.
After reaching somewhat of a milestone the other day, I thought I’d write a short blog post on what’s new and improved. So let’s have a look.
What’s New
Python 3
No more Python 2 code or dependencies! As a matter of fact, I carry out all testing from an Ubuntu 18.04 VM with only Python 3 installed.
VyOS router
A VyOS router (VM) is now part of the default deployment.
VIFs on the router’s internal interface are default gateways for the VLANs within the nested environment. The public interface should be connected to your physical network so that traffic can be routed in and out of the nested environment. Furthermore, BGP is configured for peering with the Tier-0 Gateway and NAT is enabled for the nested environments management VLAN.
NSX-T logical networking
Leveraging VMware’s new NSX-T 3.0 Ansible modules, the default deployment now provisions NSX-T logical networking.
A Tier-0 Gateway with two external interfaces and BGP configuration for peering with the VyOS router. Of course, everything from AS numbers to IP subnets is customizable.
vCenter not required/used
The entire deployment is now carried out against a standalone physical ESXi host. vCenter is not required and not used.
Miscellaneous improvements
- Only Ansible and VMware supported modules are used by the deployment. Custom modules have been removed.
- Improved answerfile.yml (I’m still trying to find the perfect balance between customizability and ease of use).
- Added undeploy.yml for easy removal of the deployed components.
- An updated README.md now contains clearer instructions and more information including some diagrams.
Summary
While I’m afraid that this project will never be finished, I am happy enough with the latest improvements to call it a “milestone”.
There are more areas that need attention, but there’s a foundation at least. The playbooks certainly help me when I need to spin up different vSphere/NSX-T environments for testing.
Thanks for reading.
rutgerblom.com 
When i am running deploy.yml. Its stucking here for a long time.
TASK [Perform vCenter CLI-based installation] **********************************
task path: /root/vsphere-nsxt-lab-deploy/playbooks/deployVC.yml:32
Wednesday 29 April 2020 11:20:42 +0000 (0:00:00.165) 0:03:06.096 *******
ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: root
EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘echo ~root && sleep 0’
EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘( umask 77 && mkdir -p “` echo /root/.ansible/tmp `”&& mkdir /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341 && echo ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341=”` echo /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341 `” ) && sleep 0’
Using module file /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/ansible/modules/commands/command.py
PUT /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-356458vwl3fy/tmpnop2q_ty TO /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341/AnsiballZ_command.py
EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘chmod u+x /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341/ /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341/AnsiballZ_command.py && sleep 0’
EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘/usr/bin/python3 /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588159243.1004767-4152-106655190239341/AnsiballZ_command.py && sleep 0’
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Hello Rutger,
Great idea. I was looking for that. Thank you 🙂
I’m struggling to run all updated scripts – without success -still. I don’t know the Ansible: (… Are you able to identify my configuration issue ? Is it related to Ansible / Python or mistake in configuration of VyOS?
TASK [Deploy VyOS router
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588074996.8718963-9270-263842927263233/AnsiballZ_vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 102, in
_ansiballz_main()
File “/root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588074996.8718963-9270-263842927263233/AnsiballZ_vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 94, in _ansiballz_main
invoke_module(zipped_mod, temp_path, ANSIBALLZ_PARAMS)
File “/root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588074996.8718963-9270-263842927263233/AnsiballZ_vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 40, in invoke_module
runpy.run_module(mod_name=’ansible.modules.cloud.vmware.vmware_deploy_ovf’, init_globals=None, run_name=’__main__’, alter_sys=True)
File “/usr/lib/python3.6/runpy.py”, line 205, in run_module
return _run_module_code(code, init_globals, run_name, mod_spec)
File “/usr/lib/python3.6/runpy.py”, line 96, in _run_module_code
mod_name, mod_spec, pkg_name, script_name)
File “/usr/lib/python3.6/runpy.py”, line 85, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File “/tmp/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload_vj6v0cn6/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload.zip/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 704, in
File “/tmp/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload_vj6v0cn6/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload.zip/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 696, in main
File “/tmp/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload_vj6v0cn6/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload.zip/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 484, in upload
File “/tmp/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload_vj6v0cn6/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload.zip/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 389, in get_lease
File “/tmp/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload_vj6v0cn6/ansible_vmware_deploy_ovf_payload.zip/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_deploy_ovf.py”, line 361, in get_objects
KeyError: ‘network’
fatal: [127.0.0.1 -> localhost]: FAILED! => {
“changed”: false,
“module_stderr”: “Traceback (most recent call last):\n File \”/root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1588074996.8718963-9270-…………..
Thank you in advance.
Best Regards
Darek
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Thanks Darek.
Is your ESXi host managed by a vCenter perhaps?
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Rutger,
Thank you.
It was. Currently vcenter (installed on this host) is down. Only DC (nested)an Linux (VMNetwork) with Ansible are working.
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Hello Rutger,
I need a little bit help 🙂
I stopped adding license
TASK [Add NSX-T license]
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {“changed”: false, “msg”: “Failed to add license. Request body [{\”license_key\”: \”********\”}]. Error[].”}
Is this a regular txt file -nsxlicense.txt ?
The key included should look like XXXX-XXXX-………. without any additional characters ?
Thank you in advance
Kate
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Hi Kate,
That’s correct. Just a text file with the key, no spaces. FYI We’re working on an improved process for handling licenses. 😊
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Hello Rutger,
Thank you for confirmation.
Problem with uploading the license (in my case) was related to temporary lack of resources (NSX VM was lstarting services too long)
Next question…
vsan: true # vSAN requires at least three ESXi hosts in the cluster – OK
but each host shoud have 1 cache and 2 capacity (minimum) disks to build vSAN storage.
Here we have only 1+1 declared
boot_disk_size: “8”
vsan_cache_size: “20”
vsan_capacity_size: “180”
If it’s initial preparation – that’s OK
Thank you in advance
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Hi Kate,
vSAN requires 1 cache and 1 capacity disk minimum. The default deployment takes care of this.
Cheers
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Hi Rutger,
Yes, of course ! Sorry :).
I don’t know where this idea came from 😛
BR
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