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 VM with the following:
- sudo apt install python3 python3-pip xorriso
- pip3 install ansible pyvim pyvmomi
- An Internet connection
- Access to your vSphere environment
- vSphere 6.7 or higher
Playbook
Below 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: util_DeployUbuntu.yml
gather_facts: false
vars:
LOCAL_TempDir: "/tmp"
LOCAL_WorkingDir: "/tmp/ubuntu20"
LOCAL_UbuntuISO: "ubuntu-20.04-live-server-amd64.iso"
LOCAL_UbuntuISO_URL: "https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04/ubuntu-20.04-live-server-amd64.iso"
LOCAL_New_UbuntuISO: "ubuntu2004.iso"
LOCAL_ESXiHost: "esxi03.demo.local"
LOCAL_ESXiUser: "root"
LOCAL_ESXiPassword: "VMware1!"
LOCAL_DataCenter: "ha-datacenter"
LOCAL_vSphereCluster: ""
LOCAL_VMFolder: "ha-datacenter/vm"
LOCAL_DataStore: "nested_nfs01"
LOCAL_DataStoreDir: "/Lab-ISO-Folder"
LOCAL_UbuntuVMName: "ubuntu-server"
LOCAL_UbuntuVMDiskSize: "50" # gigabytes
LOCAL_UbuntuVMMemorySize: "2048" # megabytes
LOCAL_UbuntuVMCPUs: "1"
LOCAL_UbuntuVMCPUCores: "1"
LOCAL_UbuntuVMPortGroup: "Lab-Routers"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSLocale: "en_US"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSKeyboardLayout: "en"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSKeyboardVariant: "us"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSIPv4Address: "10.203.0.50/24"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSIPv4Gateway: "10.203.0.1"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSIPv4DNS: "10.203.0.5"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSSearchDomain: "sddc.lab"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSHostname: "ubuntu-server"
LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser: "ubuntu"
tasks:
- name: Create working directory on Ansible Controller
file:
path: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}"
state: directory
- name: Check if Ubuntu ISO exists locally on Ansible Controller
stat:
path: "{{ LOCAL_TempDir }}/{{ LOCAL_UbuntuISO }}"
register: InstallerFileCheck
- name: Download Ubuntu ISO (if ISO file doesn't exist locally)
get_url:
url: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuISO_URL }}"
dest: "{{ LOCAL_TempDir }}/{{ LOCAL_UbuntuISO }}"
when:
- InstallerFileCheck.stat.exists != true
- name: Mount Ubuntu ISO
action: mount name="{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/iso" src="{{ LOCAL_TempDir }}/{{ LOCAL_UbuntuISO }}" opts=loop fstype=iso9660 state=mounted
- name: Copy Ubuntu ISO contents to working directory
copy:
src: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/iso/"
dest: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/"
- name: Unmount Ubuntu ISO
action: mount name="{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/iso" src="{{ LOCAL_TempDir }}/{{ LOCAL_UbuntuISO }}" fstype=iso9660 state=absent
- name: Edit txt.cfg to modify append line
replace:
dest: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/isolinux/txt.cfg"
regexp: 'append initrd=/casper/initrd quiet ---'
replace: 'append initrd=/casper/initrd quiet --- autoinstall ds=nocloud;s=/cdrom/SDDC.Lab/'
- name: Create directory to store user-data and meta-data
file:
path: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/SDDC.Lab"
state: directory
- name: Copy user-data file to directory
template:
src: "./user-data.j2"
dest: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/SDDC.Lab/user-data"
- name: Create empty meta-data file in directory
file:
path: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/SDDC.Lab/meta-data"
state: touch
- name: Create custom Ubuntu ISO
command: "xorrisofs -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o {{ LOCAL_TempDir }}/{{ LOCAL_New_UbuntuISO }} -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table {{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/"
args:
chdir: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/isocopy/"
- name: Upload the custom Ubuntu ISO to the datastore
vsphere_copy:
hostname: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiHost }}"
username: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiUser }}"
password: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiPassword }}"
validate_certs: no
datacenter: "{{ LOCAL_DataCenter }}"
src: "{{ LOCAL_TempDir }}/{{ LOCAL_New_UbuntuISO }}"
datastore: "{{ LOCAL_DataStore }}"
path: "{{ LOCAL_DataStoreDir }}/{{ LOCAL_New_UbuntuISO }}"
- name: Deploy Ubuntu VM
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiHost }}"
username: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiUser }}"
password: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiPassword }}"
validate_certs: no
name: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMName }}"
state: poweredon
guest_id: ubuntu64Guest
cluster: "{{ LOCAL_vSphereCluster }}"
datacenter: "{{ LOCAL_DataCenter }}"
folder: "{{ LOCAL_VMFolder }}"
disk:
- size_gb: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMDiskSize }}"
type: "thin"
datastore: "{{ LOCAL_DataStore }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMMemorySize }}"
num_cpus: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMCPUs }}"
num_cpu_cores_per_socket: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMCPUCores }}"
scsi: paravirtual
networks:
- name: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMPortGroup }}"
device_type: vmxnet3
cdrom:
type: "iso"
iso_path: "[{{ LOCAL_DataStore }}] {{ LOCAL_DataStoreDir }}/{{ LOCAL_New_UbuntuISO }}"
annotation: "Username: {{ LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser }} Password: VMware1!"
- name: Wait 10 minutes for the Ubuntu installation to complete
pause:
seconds: 600
- name: Copy network configuration file to working directory
template:
src: "./00-installer-config.j2"
dest: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/00-installer-config.yaml"
- name: Copy network configuration file to Ubuntu VM
vmware_guest_file_operation:
hostname: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiHost }}"
username: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiUser }}"
password: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiPassword }}"
validate_certs: no
vm_id: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMName }}"
vm_username: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser }}"
vm_password: "VMware1!"
copy:
src: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}/00-installer-config.yaml"
dest: "/home/{{ LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser }}/00-installer-config.yaml"
- name: Move network configuration file to right location on Ubuntu VM
vmware_vm_shell:
hostname: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiHost }}"
username: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiUser }}"
password: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiPassword }}"
validate_certs: no
vm_id: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMName }}"
vm_username: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser }}"
vm_password: "VMware1!"
vm_shell: /usr/bin/sudo
vm_shell_args: "mv /home/{{ LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser }}/00-installer-config.yaml /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml"
- name: Apply the network configuration on Ubuntu VM
vmware_vm_shell:
hostname: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiHost }}"
username: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiUser }}"
password: "{{ LOCAL_ESXiPassword }}"
validate_certs: no
vm_id: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuVMName }}"
vm_username: "{{ LOCAL_UbuntuOSUser }}"
vm_password: "VMware1!"
vm_shell: /usr/bin/sudo
vm_shell_args: "netplan apply"
- name: Delete working directory on Ansible controller
file:
path: "{{ LOCAL_WorkingDir }}"
state: absentMost 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
So, to deploy an Ubuntu Server 20.04 VM using this Playbook you’ll first clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/rutgerblom/ubuntu-autoinstall.git
Then modify util_DeployUbuntu.yml so that the values of the variables match your environment:
Now run the Playbook with:
sudo ansible-playbook util_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:
