And now something completely different. Recently, while working on a project, I had to come up with a way to automate Ubuntu Server 20.04 VM installations on vSphere. Utilizing Ubuntu’s new autoinstall method together with some Ansible code I managed to get something up and running. Decent enough to share it with you.
Overview
The Playbook I’m showcasing in this article will carry out the following operations:
- Download the Ubuntu Server 20.04 ISO
- Modify ISO contents to enable unattended installation
- Upload the modified ISO to a vSphere datastore
- Create a VM and install Ubuntu Server 20.04 using the modified ISO
- Configure static IP on the Ubuntu Server
Step 5 is required because for some reason Ubuntu’s autoinstall reverts the network configuration to DHCP after rebooting the server. I hope this will be fixed in a future release.
Requirements
To run this Playbook you will need the following:
- An Ubuntu 20.04 machine with the following:
- sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3 python3-pip git xorriso
- git clone https://github.com/rutgerblom/ubuntu-autoinstall.git ~/git/ubuntu-autoinstall
- pip3 install –upgrade -r ~/git/ubuntu-autoinstall/pip_requirements.txt
- ansible-galaxy collection install –upgrade -r ~/git/ubuntu-autoinstall/requirements.yml
- Access to your VMware vSphere environment
- vSphere 6.7 or higher
Playbook
Below are the contents of the Ansible Playbook for reference. This together with the supporting files is actually better viewed and cloned on Github.
---
- hosts: localhost
name: DeployUbuntu.yml
gather_facts: false
vars:
workingdir: "{{ lookup('env','HOME') }}/ubuntu-autoinstall" # Temp directory on the Ansible Controller
ubuntuiso: ubuntu-20.04.2-live-server-amd64.iso # Ubuntu ISO filename
ubuntuiso_url: http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/20.04/ # Ubuntu ISO URL
ubuntunewiso: ubuntu.iso # Ubuntu custom ISO name
vcenterserver: vcenter.demo.local # vCenter FQDN
vcenteruser: administrator@vsphere.local # vCenter username
vcenterpassword: VMware1! # vCenter password
datacenter: SDDC # vCenter datacenter
vspherecluster: Lab-Cluster # vCenter cluster
vmfolder: / # vCenter VM folder
datastore: Shared_VMs # vSphere datastore
datastoredir: /ISO # vSphere datastore ISO directory
ubuntuvmname: ubuntu-server # Ubuntu VM name of the virtual machine
ubuntuvmdisksize: 50 # Ubuntu VM disksize in gigabytes
ubuntuvmmemorysize: 2048 # Ubuntu VM memory size in megabytes
ubuntuvvmcpus: 1 # Ubuntu VM number of CPUs
ubuntuvmcpucores: 1 # Ubuntu VM number of cores
ubuntuvmportgroup: VLAN-301 # Ubuntu VM vSphere portgroup
ubuntuoslocale: en_US # Ubuntu OS locale
ubuntuoskeyboardlayout: en # Ubuntu OS keyboard layout
ubuntuoskeyboardvariant: us # Ubuntu OS keyboard variant
ubuntuosipv4address: 10.203.0.50/24 # Ubuntu OS IPv4 address
ubuntuosipv4gateway: 10.203.0.1 # Ubuntu OS IPv4 gateway
ubuntuosipv4dns: 10.203.0.5 # Ubuntu OS DNS server
ubuntuossearchdomain: sddc.lab # Ubuntu OS DNS search domain
ubuntuoshostname: ubbuntu-server # Ubuntu OS hostname
ubuntuosuser: ubuntu # Ubuntu OS username
ubuntuospassword: VMware1! # Ubuntu OS password
tasks:
- name: Create working directory on Ansible Controller
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ workingdir }}"
state: directory
mode: "755"
- name: Check if ubuntu ISO exists locally on Ansible Controller
ansible.builtin.stat:
path: "{{ workingdir }}/{{ ubuntuiso }}"
register: installerfilecheck
- name: Download ubuntu ISO (if ISO file doesn't exist locally)
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: "{{ ubuntuiso_url }}{{ ubuntuiso }}"
dest: "{{ workingdir }}/{{ ubuntuiso }}"
mode: "755"
when:
- not installerfilecheck.stat.exists
- name: Extract Ubuntu ISO
ansible.builtin.command: "xorriso -osirrox on -indev {{ workingdir }}/{{ ubuntuiso }} \
-extract / {{ workingdir }}/iso"
changed_when: false
- name: Add write permission to extracted files
ansible.builtin.command: "chmod -R +w {{ workingdir }}/iso" # Using chmod as Ansible (Python) can't handle the recursion depth on the Ubuntu ISO
changed_when: false
## Start workaround issue with Ubuntu autoinstall
## Details of the issue and the workaround: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1394441/ubuntu-20-04-3-autoinstall-with-embedded-user-data-crashing-i-got-workaround
- name: Extract the Packages.gz file on Ubuntu ISO
ansible.builtin.command: "gunzip -f {{ workingdir }}/iso/dists/focal/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz --keep"
changed_when: false
## End workaround issue with Ubuntu autoinstall
- name: Copy txt.cfg from ubuntu ISO
ansible.builtin.copy:
src: "{{ workingdir }}/iso/isolinux/txt.cfg"
dest: "{{ workingdir }}/isocopy/isolinux/"
mode: "775"
- name: Edit txt.cfg to modify append line
ansible.builtin.replace:
dest: "{{ workingdir }}/isocopy/isolinux/txt.cfg"
regexp: 'append initrd=/casper/initrd quiet ---'
replace: 'append initrd=/casper/initrd quiet --- autoinstall ds=nocloud;s=/cdrom/autoinstall/'
- name: Create directory to store user-data and meta-data
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ workingdir }}/isocopy/autoinstall"
state: directory
mode: "755"
- name: Copy user-data file to directory
ansible.builtin.template:
src: ./Ubuntu_user-data.j2
dest: "{{ workingdir }}/isocopy/autoinstall/user-data"
mode: "755"
- name: Create empty meta-data file in directory
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ workingdir }}/isocopy/autoinstall/meta-data"
state: touch
mode: "755"
- name: Create custom ubuntu ISO
ansible.builtin.command: "xorrisofs -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o {{ workingdir }}/{{ ubuntunewiso }} \
-b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
{{ workingdir }}/iso/ {{ workingdir }}/isocopy/"
args:
chdir: "{{ workingdir }}/isocopy/"
changed_when: false
- name: Upload the custom ubuntu ISO to the vSphere datastore
community.vmware.vsphere_copy:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
validate_certs: false
datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
src: "{{ workingdir }}/{{ ubuntunewiso }}"
datastore: "{{ datastore }}"
path: "{{ datastoredir }}/{{ ubuntunewiso }}"
- name: Deploy ubuntu VM
community.vmware.vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
validate_certs: false
name: "{{ ubuntuvmname }}"
state: poweredon
guest_id: ubuntu64Guest
cluster: "{{ vspherecluster }}"
datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
folder: "{{ vmfolder }}"
disk:
- size_gb: "{{ ubuntuvmdisksize }}"
type: thin
datastore: "{{ datastore }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ ubuntuvmmemorysize }}"
num_cpus: "{{ ubuntuvvmcpus }}"
num_cpu_cores_per_socket: "{{ ubuntuvmcpucores }}"
scsi: paravirtual
networks:
- name: "{{ ubuntuvmportgroup }}"
device_type: vmxnet3
cdrom:
- controller_number: 0
unit_number: 0
type: iso
iso_path: "[{{ datastore }}] {{ datastoredir }}/{{ ubuntunewiso }}"
state: present
annotation: |
*** Auto-Deployed by Ansible ***
Username: {{ ubuntuosuser }}
Password: {{ ubuntuospassword }}
- name: Start checking if the ubuntu VM is ready
community.vmware.vmware_guest_info:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
validate_certs: false
name: "{{ ubuntuvmname }}"
schema: vsphere
register: vm_facts
until: vm_facts.instance.guest.hostName is search(ubuntuoshostname)
retries: 30
delay: 60
- name: Set password for the ubuntu user
community.vmware.vmware_vm_shell:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
validate_certs: false
vm_id: "{{ ubuntuvmname }}"
vm_username: "{{ ubuntuosuser }}"
vm_password: VMware1!
vm_shell: /usr/bin/echo
vm_shell_args: "'{{ ubuntuosuser }}:{{ ubuntuospassword }}' | sudo chpasswd"
- name: Copy network configuration file to working directory
ansible.builtin.template:
src: ./ubuntu_Netplan.j2
dest: "{{ workingdir }}/00-installer-config.yaml"
mode: "755"
- name: Copy network configuration file to ubuntu VM
community.vmware.vmware_guest_file_operation:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
validate_certs: false
vm_id: "{{ ubuntuvmname }}"
vm_username: "{{ ubuntuosuser }}"
vm_password: VMware1!
copy:
src: "{{ workingdir }}/00-installer-config.yaml"
dest: "/home/{{ ubuntuosuser }}/00-installer-config.yaml"
- name: Move network configuration file to right location on ubuntu VM
community.vmware.vmware_vm_shell:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
validate_certs: false
vm_id: "{{ ubuntuvmname }}"
vm_username: "{{ ubuntuosuser }}"
vm_password: VMware1!
vm_shell: /usr/bin/sudo
vm_shell_args: "mv /home/{{ ubuntuosuser }}/00-installer-config.yaml /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml"
- name: Appply the network configuration on ubuntu VM
community.vmware.vmware_vm_shell:
hostname: "{{ vcenterserver }}"
username: "{{ vcenteruser }}"
password: "{{ vcenterpassword }}"
validate_certs: false
vm_id: "{{ ubuntuvmname }}"
vm_username: "{{ ubuntuosuser }}"
vm_password: VMware1!
vm_shell: /usr/bin/sudo
vm_shell_args: netplan apply
- name: Delete working directory on Ansible Controller
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ workingdir }}"
state: absent
Most of the tasks here are pretty self-explanatory. I’ve also tried to use descriptive names for each task to help you understand what is happening.
You will change some of the values of the variables defined under vars: so that they match your environment. Besides that it’s pretty much good to go.
Usage
Modify DeployUbuntu.yml so that the values of the variables match your environment and requirements:
Now run the Playbook with:
ansible-playbook DeployUbuntu.yml
The deployment kicks off and will take about 15 minutes depending on your environment:
And the result is a shiny new Ubuntu Server 20.04 VM:
Not too hard. If Ubuntu’s autoinstall would leave the networking configuration in place after reboot, I would be able to shave off 5 tasks and more than 10 minutes from this deployment. Perhaps somebody out there already knows of a way to handle this? Let me know in the comments.
Summary
In this article I showcased a very basic single-purpose Ansible Playbook for unattended deployment of an Ubuntu Server 20.04 VM on VMware vSphere. This can of course be expanded upon and become part of a larger (automation) process. Hopefully you’ll find this useful and can serve as some inspiration for your projects.
Thanks for reading.
References and resources:
rutgerblom.com 
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