vagrant-vmware-esxi plugin

This is a Vagrant plugin that adds a VMware ESXi provider support. This allows Vagrant to control and provision VMs directly on an ESXi hypervisor without a need for vCenter or VShpere. ESXi hypervisor is a free download from VMware!

https://www.vmware.com/go/get-free-esxi

Documentation:

Refer to the WIKI for documentation, examples and other information...

https://github.com/josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi/wiki

Vagrant vs Terraform.

If you are using vagrant as a deployment tool (infra as code), you may want to consider a better tool: Terraform. Vagrant is better for development environments, while Terraform is better at managing infrastructure. Please give my Terraform plugin a try and give me some feedback. What you're trying to do, what's missing, what works, what doesn't work, etc...

https://www.vagrantup.com/intro/vs/terraform.html

https://github.com/josenk/terraform-provider-esxi https://github.com/josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi

Features and Compatibility

Clone from VMs. (see wiki) Clone a VM on the ESXi host instead of transferring a box stored on your local pc.
Any of the vmware Box formats should be compatible.
- vmware_desktop, vmware_fusion, vmware_workstation...
- To be fully functional, you must have open-vm-tools or vmware tools installed.
Will automatically download boxes from the web.
Will automatically upload the box to your ESXi host.
Automatic or manual VM names.
- Automatic VM names are 'PREFIX-HOSTNAME-USERNAME-DIR'.
Multi machine capable.
Supports adding your VM to Resource Pools to partition CPU and memory usage from other VMs on your ESXi host.
suspend, resume, snapshots.
rsync & NFS using built-in Vagrant synced folders.
Provision using built-in Vagrant provisioner.
package your VMs into boxes.
Create additional network interfaces, set nic type, MAC addresses, static IPs.
Use Vagrants private_network, public_network options to set a static IP addresses on additional network interfaces. (not the primary interface)
Disks can be provisioned using thin, thick or eagerzeroedthick.
Create additional guest storage (up to 14 virtual disks).
Specify GuestOS types, virtual HW version.
Any custom vmx settings can be added or modified.

Requirements

This is a vagrant plugin, so you need vagrant installed... :-)
This plugin requires ovftool from VMware. Download from VMware website. NOTE: ovftool installer for windows doesn't put ovftool.exe in your path. You can manually set your path, or install ovftool in the \HashiCorp\Vagrant\bin directory.

https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/

You MUST enable ssh access on your ESXi hypervisor.

Google 'How to enable ssh access on ESXi'

The boxes must have open-vm-tools or vmware-tools installed to properly transition to the 'running' state.
In general, you should know how to use vagrant, esxi and some networking...
You will most likely need a DHCP server on your primary network if you are deploying public boxes.

Why this plugin?

Not everyone has vCenter / vSphere... vCenter cost $$$. ESXi is free! Using this plugin will allow you to use a central VMware ESXi host for your development needs. Using a centralized host will release the extra load on your local system (vs using KVM or Virtual Box).

How to install

Download and install Vagrant on your local system using instructions from https://vagrantup.com/downloads.html.

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vmware-esxi
vagrant plugin list
vagrant version

How to use and configure a Vagrantfile

cd SOMEDIR
vagrant init
vi Vagrantfile # Replace the contents of Vagrantfile with the following example. Specify parameters to access your ESXi host, guest and local preferences.

#
#  Fully documented Vagrantfile available
#  in the wiki:  https://github.com/josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi/wiki
Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|

  #  Box, Select any box created for VMware that is compatible with
  #    the ovftool.  To get maximum compatibility You should download
  #    and install the latest version of ovftool for your OS.
  #    https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/
  #
  #    If your box is stuck at 'Powered On', then most likely
  #    the box/vm doesn't have the vmware tools installed.
  #
  # Here are some of the MANY examples....
  config.vm.box = 'hashicorp/precise64'
  #config.vm.box = 'generic/centos7'
  #config.vm.box = 'generic/centos6'
  #config.vm.box = 'generic/fedora27'
  #config.vm.box = 'generic/freebsd11'
  #config.vm.box = 'generic/ubuntu1710'
  #config.vm.box = 'generic/debian9'
  #config.vm.box = 'steveant/CentOS-7.0-1406-Minimal-x64'
  #config.vm.box = 'geerlingguy/centos7'
  #config.vm.box = 'geerlingguy/ubuntu1604'
  #config.vm.box = 'laravel/homestead'
  #config.vm.box = 'puphpet/debian75-x64'


  #  Use rsync and NFS synced folders. (or use the option to disable them)
  #    https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/synced-folders/
  #config.vm.synced_folder('.', '/vagrant', type: 'rsync')
  config.vm.synced_folder('.', '/vagrant', type: 'nfs', disabled: true)

  #  Vagrant can configure additional network interfaces using a static IP or
  #  DHCP. Use public_network or private_network to manually set a static IP and
  #  optionally netmask.  ESXi doesn't use the concept of public or private
  #  networks so both are valid here.  The primary network interface is considered the
  #  "vagrant management" interface and cannot be changed and this plugin
  #  supports 10 NICS, so you can specify 9 entries here!
  #
  #  https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/networking/public_network.html
  #  https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/networking/private_network.html
  #
  #    *** Invalid settings could cause 'vagrant up' to fail ***
  #config.vm.network 'private_network', ip: '192.168.10.170', netmask: '255.255.255.0'
  #config.vm.network 'private_network', ip: '192.168.11.170'
  #config.vm.network 'public_network', ip: '192.168.12.170'

  #
  #  Provider (esxi) settings
  #
  config.vm.provider :vmware_esxi do |esxi|

    #  REQUIRED!  ESXi hostname/IP
    esxi.esxi_hostname = 'esxi'

    #  ESXi username
    esxi.esxi_username = 'root'

    #  IMPORTANT!  Set ESXi password.
    #    1) 'prompt:'
    #    2) 'file:'  or  'file:my_secret_file'
    #    3) 'env:'  or 'env:my_secret_env_var'
    #    4) 'key:'  or  key:~/.ssh/some_ssh_private_key'
    #    5) or esxi.esxi_password = 'my_esxi_password'
    #
    esxi.esxi_password = 'prompt:'

    #  SSH port.
    #esxi.esxi_hostport = 22

    #  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!  ESXi Virtual Network
    #    You should specify an ESXi Virtual Network!  If it's not specified, the
    #    default is to use the first found.  You can specify up to 10 virtual
    #    networks using an array format.
    #esxi.esxi_virtual_network = ['VM Network','VM Network2','VM Network3','VM Network4']

    #  OPTIONAL.  Specify a Disk Store
    #esxi.esxi_disk_store = 'DS_001'

    #  OPTIONAL.  Resource Pool
    #     Vagrant will NOT create a Resource pool it for you.
    #esxi.esxi_resource_pool = '/Vagrant'

    #  Optional. Specify a VM to clone instead of uploading a box.
    #    Vagrant can use any stopped VM as the source 'box'.   The VM must be
    #    registered, stopped and must have the vagrant insecure ssh key installed.
    #    If the VM is stored in a resource pool, it must be specified.
    #    See wiki: https://github.com/josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi/wiki/How-to-clone_from_vm
    #esxi.clone_from_vm = 'resource_pool/source_vm'

    #  OPTIONAL.  Guest VM name to use.
    #    The Default will be automatically generated.
    #esxi.guest_name = 'Custom-Guest-VM_Name'

    #  OPTIONAL.  When automatically naming VMs, use this prefix.
    #esxi.guest_name_prefix = 'V-'

    #  OPTIONAL.  Set the guest username login.  The default is 'vagrant'.
    #esxi.guest_username = 'vagrant'

    #  OPTIONAL.  Memory size override
    #esxi.guest_memsize = '2048'

    #  OPTIONAL.  Virtual CPUs override
    #esxi.guest_numvcpus = '2'

    #  OPTIONAL & RISKY.  Specify up to 10 MAC addresses
    #    The default is ovftool to automatically generate a MAC address.
    #    You can specify an array of MAC addresses using upper or lower case,
    #    separated by colons ':'.
    #esxi.guest_mac_address = ['00:50:56:aa:bb:cc', '00:50:56:01:01:01','00:50:56:02:02:02','00:50:56:BE:AF:01' ]

    #   OPTIONAL & RISKY.  Specify a guest_nic_type
    #     The validated list of guest_nic_types are 'e1000', 'e1000e', 'vmxnet',
    #     'vmxnet2', 'vmxnet3', 'Vlance', and 'Flexible'.
    #esxi.guest_nic_type = 'e1000'

    #  OPTIONAL. Specify a disk type.
    #    If unspecified, it will be set to 'thin'.  Otherwise, you can set to
    #    'thin', 'thick', or 'eagerzeroedthick'
    #esxi.guest_disk_type = 'thick'

    #  OPTIONAL. Boot disk size.
    #    If unspecified, the boot disk size will be the same as the original
    #    box.  You can specify a larger boot disk size in GB.  The extra disk space
    #    will NOT automatically be available to your OS.  You will need to
    #    create or modify partitions, LVM and/or filesystems.
    #esxi.guest_boot_disk_size = 50

    #  OPTIONAL.  Create additional storage for guests.
    #    You can specify an array of up to 13 virtual disk sizes (in GB) that you
    #    would like the provider to create once the guest has been created.  You
    #    can optionally specify the size and datastore using a hash.
    #esxi.guest_storage = [ 10, 20, { size: 30, datastore: 'datastore1' } ]

    #  OPTIONAL. specify snapshot options.
    #esxi.guest_snapshot_includememory = 'true'
    #esxi.guest_snapshot_quiesced = 'true'

    #  RISKY. guest_guestos
    #    https://github.com/josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi/wiki/VMware-ESXi-6.5-guestOS-types
    #esxi.guest_guestos = 'centos-64'

    #  OPTIONAL. guest_virtualhw_version
    #    ESXi 6.7 supports these versions. 4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 & 14.
    #esxi.guest_virtualhw_version = '9'

    #  OPTIONAL. Guest Autostart
    #    Guest VM will autostart when esxi host is booted. 'true' or 'false'(default)
    #esxi.guest_autostart = 'false'

    #  RISKY. guest_custom_vmx_settings
    #esxi.guest_custom_vmx_settings = [['vhv.enable','TRUE'], ['floppy0.present','TRUE']]

    #  OPTIONAL. local_lax
    #esxi.local_lax = 'true'

    #  OPTIONAL. Guest IP Caching
    #esxi.local_use_ip_cache = 'True'

    #  DANGEROUS!  Allow Overwrite
    #    If unspecified, the default is to produce an error if overwriting
    #    VMs and packages.
    #esxi.local_allow_overwrite = 'True'

    #  Advanced Users.
    #    If set to 'True', all WARNINGS will produce a FAILURE and Vagrant will stop.
    #esxi.local_failonwarning = 'True'

    #  Plugin debug output.
    #    Please send any bug reports with this debug output...
    #esxi.debug = 'true'

  end
end

Basic usage

vagrant up --provider=vmware_esxi
To access the VM, use vagrant ssh
To destroy the VM, use vagrant destroy
Some other fun stuff you can do.

vagrant status
vagrant suspend
vagrant resume
vagrant ssh-config
vagrant snapshot push
vagrant snapshot list
vagrant snapshot-info # esxi provided plugin. Output snapshot information/tree.
vagrant snapshot pop
vagrant halt
vagrant provision
vagrant address # ESXi provided plugin. Output IP address of guest.

Known issues with vmware_esxi

The boxes must have open-vm-tools or vmware-tools installed to properly transition to the 'running' state.
Invalid settings (bad IP address, netmask, MAC address, guest_custom_vmx_settings) could cause 'vagrant up' to fail. Review vSphere console and/or ESXi logs to help debug why it failed.
If you break an install ([CTRL]-C), the cleanup task doesn't always destroy the VM that has been partially built. To resolve this, use the local_allow_overwrite = 'True' Vagrantfile option if you want to force a rebuild, or you can delete the vm using the vSphere client.
ovftool installer for Windows doesn't put ovftool.exe in your path. You can manually set your path, or install ovftool in the \HashiCorp\Vagrant\bin directory.
Vagrant NFS synced folders cannot not be 100% reliable on multi-homed clients (your Vagrant pc/laptop/host). There is no 100% reliable way to know which IP is the correct, most reliable, most desirable, way to reach the VM guest.
Plugin V2.0.1 - 2.0.5 is not compatible with Windows (to support ed25519 ssh keys, net-ssh requires libsodium but it's not compatible with Windows). ed25519 support has been removed for now. It will be added back when net-ssh 5.x goes out of beta.
Vagrant 2.1.0 is not compatible with this plugin. Avoid Vagrant 2.1.0.
Cygwin & gitbash have console issues. Ruby module io/console does not have support. ruby/io-console#2
Setting the hostname on some boxes can cause 'vagrant up' to fail if the network configuration wasn't previously cleaned up. Avoid buggy boxes, fix the box networking and repackage, or do not set the hostname via Vagrant.

Donations

I work very hard to produce a stable, well documented product. I appreciate any payments or donations for my efforts.

Bitcoin: 12WCUyop3XGiaux8REvmDJ6kWFGoLnM4j9
paypal: josenk at jintegrate.co

Version History

2.5.5 Fix vagrant package for Windows (mingw)
2.5.4 Add support for esxi 7.0.2 new os types.
2.5.3 Fix, Add hw_versions and GuestOS vmkernel7
2.5.2 Fix, snapshot restore will execute regardless of current state.
2.5.1 Fix, filter localhost from local IP detection for nfs sync.
2.5.0 Add support to set guest vm to Autostart.
2.4.5 Do not wait for running when resuming a VM that is not able to be resumed.
2.4.4 Show stderr if unable to connect to ESXi host. Update GuestOS types.
2.4.3 Update GuestOS types.
2.4.3 Fix, Allow disk stores with "(" or ")" in their name. Add support for up to 10 virtual NICs
2.4.2 Fix i18n dependency.
2.4.1 Change/Fix output of 'vagrant address' when a single machine is configured or specified.
2.4.0 Add support for 'vagrant address', output IP address of guest. Fix, exit 1 on vagrant up if unable to reach "running" state. Some code cleanup.
2.3.2 Fix, vagrant ssh -c now works.
2.3.1 Fix, Disk stores can now contain spaces.
2.3.0 Add support to specify DiskStore for guest_storage virtual disks. Add local_failonwarning Vagrantfile option. Fix, make plugin more compatible with OVFTool 4.3.0
2.2.2 Fix, Avoid crash if esxi_password is nil.
2.2.1 Fix, clone_from_vm not working on MAC. Fix, enabled SetHostname. Fix, Multimachine not working with multiple ESXi hosts and different passwords.
2.2.0 Add support to extend boot disk size. Fix, add many more special characters to encode in ESXi passwords.
2.1.0 Add support for clone_from_vm. Fix, use esxcli to get storage information.
2.0.7 Fix, Doesn't wait for running when executing "vagrant reload" Fix, "vagrant halt" will now attempt a graceful shutdown before doing a hard power off.
2.0.6 Fix Windows compatibility by not supporting ed25519 ssh keys. When net-ssh 5.x is released AND Vagrant allows its use, I will support ed25519 again. Fix, encode '/' in esxi passwords. Fix, Get local IP address for NFS syncd folders. Filter out localhost 127.0.0.0/8. Work-around 'prompt:' issues with unsupported consoles. Cygwin & gitbash, for example.
2.0.5 Performance enhancement. Guest IP caching Performance enhancement. Optimize ESXi connectivity checks. Performance enhancement & bugfix. Get local IP address for NFS syncd folders. Fix, unable to get VMID if getallvms command produces any errors (for other VMs).
2.0.2 Add support to add additional storage to guest VMs. Fix, encode (space) in ESXi passwords.
2.0.1 Updated version: Most Vagrantfile options have been renamed to be consistent and for clarity. vagrant up, more organized summary by ESXi/guest options. Lots of Code cleanup. Add support for snapshot options (includeMemory & quiesced) Snapshot save/push adds a description.
1.5.1 Fix: Improve debug output. Fix password encoding for @ character. Automatically add a virtual network when configuring a public_network or private_network.
1.5.0 Add support for: Specify guest_custom_vmx_settings (to add or modify vmx settings). Specify Virtual HW version. Allow $ in Password. Disk types (thick, thin, eagerzeroedthick). Specify a guestOS type (see list above). Relocal_laxed ovftool setting (--local_lax), to allow importing strange ovf boxes.
1.4.0 Add support to set MAC and IP addresses for network interfaces.
1.3.2 Fix, Don't timeout ssh connection when ovftool takes a long time to upload image.
1.3.0 Add support to get esxi password from env, from a file or prompt.
1.2.1 Encode special characters in password.
1.2.0 Add support for up to 4 virtual networks.
1.7.1 Show all port groups for each virtual switch instead of just the first.
1.1.6 Update documenation.
1.1.5 Add more detailed information when waiting for state (running).
1.1.4 Update documentation.
1.1.3 Add support to create package.
1.1.2 Fix, reload.
1.1.1 Add support for NFS.
1.1.0 Add support for snapshots.
1.0.1 Init commit.

Feedback please!

To help improve this plugin, I'm requesting that you provide some feedback.
https://goo.gl/forms/tY14mE77HJvhNvjj1