Ansible VMware image build process

vmware_image_built.txt

#1: Ensure to have the images
The first things you need are the images:
VMWare-VCSA-all-*
VMWare-VMvisor-installer-*
Images should be reuploaded before the license expire:
VCSA 60 days
ESXi 90 days

#2: Build the ESXi images
First of all just create a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv ~/tmp/test-env

source ~/tmp/test-env/bin/activate

Install Virt-Lightning and configure KVM as explained here: https://github.com/virt-lightning/esxi-cloud-images#kvm-configuration

git clone [email protected]:virt-lightning/esxi-cloud-images.git

cd esxi-cloud-images

vim build.sh

Ensure you set:

mkpasswd --method=SHA-512 --stdin

rootpw –iscrypted <generated password>
If the SHA512 output has any special characters, escape them in the build.sh file. For example:
The string S$bKaf/H230Bh
Should be: S\$bKaf\/H230Bh


You add your key here:
https://github.com/virt-lightning/esxi-cloud-images/blob/master/build.sh#L66

If libvirt on your computer does not have a default network, or uses some other network for basic DHCP based VMs, change the network name in the virt-install command here (or any other custom options needed for your local libvirt hypervisor)  https://github.com/virt-lightning/esxi-cloud-images/blob/master/build.sh#L99 

./build.sh ~/Downloads/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-<your version>.iso

Once the image has been built, you can finally upload it to OpenStack images. <Ansible authentication instructions redacted>

Images are stored in two regions (https://github.com/ansible/zuul-config/blob/master/playbooks/set-up-mirrors/main.yaml#L3-L33) so you will need to update both ams1 and ca-ymq-1.

#3: Build the VCSA image
The VCSA image requires a working virt-lightning (vl) environment.  If you do not already have the hard-coded libvirt storage pool that vl requires you must created it.

You need root privilege to create the storage pool, please do:
  sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/virt-lightning/pool/upstream
  sudo chown -R libvirt-qemu:kvm /var/lib/virt-lightning/pool
  sudo chown -R jill /var/lib/virt-lightning/pool/upstream
  sudo chmod 775 /var/lib/virt-lightning
  sudo chmod 775 /var/lib/virt-lightning/pool /var/lib/virt-lightning/pool/upstream


git clone [email protected]:virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2.git

cd vcsa_to_qcow2

You will need the goneri.vcenter-instance role available in your ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH
vcsa_to_qcow2$ ansible-galaxy role install -r requirements.yaml

If you are on a Debian or Ubuntu based OS you will need to edit the package name here: 
goneri.vcenter-instance/tasks/main.yaml
---
- package:
-    name: libnsl
+    name: libnsl2
    state: present
  become: true


Ensure you have also installed the Python deps for this repo:
(.virt-lightning) jill@lab:~/src/vmware/vcsa_to_qcow2$ pip install -r requirements.txt

And ensure that the ESXi image is available in the vl storage pool if that is not your default libvirt storage pool:
sudo cp -v esxi-7.0U3F-20036589-STANDARD.qcow2 esxi-7.0U3F-20036589-STANDARD.yaml /var/lib/virt-lightning/pool/upstream/


Modify the distro version of this file https://github.com/virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2/blob/master/virt-lightning.yaml with your esxi one.

Add become: true here https://github.com/virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2/blob/master/install_vcsa.yml#L8

Comment these lines https://github.com/virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2/blob/master/install_vcsa.yml#L30 and https://github.com/virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2/blob/master/install_vcsa.yml#L38

Add here https://github.com/virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2/blob/master/install_vcsa.yml#L57

vars:
  ansible_python_interpreter: <your venv path>

Modify this line https://github.com/virt-lightning/vcsa_to_qcow2/blob/master/run.sh#L15 with:

ansible-playbook install_vcsa.yml -i inventory -e "${extra_args}" -vvv –ask-become-pass

./run.sh ~/Downloads/VMware-VCSA-all-<your version>.iso

Note: you will need to remove the vcenter.test entry from your /etc/hosts after the VCSA image creation. Ideally, this should be done automatically.

Note: There is a chance you will have permissions problems with the virt-* commands towards the end of the run.sh script.  (after the curl command for the raw image).  If that happens you may need to run the script with sudo (comment out everything else that has succeeded in the script already so you don't need to repeat the hour+ long process to that point if this happens, as long as you successfully get the ~48.5GB vCenterServerAppliance.raw file first).

Once the image has been built, you can upload to OpenStack:

openstack image create --disk-format qcow2 --container-format bare --file VMware-VCSA-all-<your version>.qcow2 --property hw_qemu_guest_agent=no --min-disk 20 --min-ram 9000 --property hw_vif_model=e1000e VMware-VCSA-all-<your version> --os-cloud vexxhost --os-region ams1