Deploying a VM using terraform

First we need to ensure we have the terraform vSphere provider installed.

1. Install Terraform: Ensure that Terraform is installed on your machine. You can download it from the official Terraform website and follow the installation instructions for your operating system.
2. Initialize Your Terraform Configuration: Create a directory for your Terraform configuration files. Inside this directory, create a `main.tf` file (or any `.tf` file) where you will define your provider and other configurations.
3. Define the vSphere Provider in Your Configuration: Add the following block to your Terraform configuration file to specify the use of the vSphere provider:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    vsphere = {
      source = "hashicorp/vsphere"
      version = "> 2.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "vsphere" {
  user           = "your-username"
  password       = "your-password"
  vsphere_server = "your-vsphere-server"

  # If you have a self-signed cert
  allow_unverified_ssl = true
}

Replace `”your-username”`, `”your-password”`, and `”your-vsphere-server”` with your actual vSphere credentials and server address.

Initialize the Terraform Working Directory: Run the following command in your terminal from the directory where your Terraform configuration file is located:

terraform init

This command will download the vSphere provider and initialize your Terraform working directory. It sets up the necessary provider plugins for Terraform to interact with vSphere.

Verify the Installation: After running `terraform init`, you should see output indicating that the vSphere provider has been successfully installed. You can now proceed to create Terraform configurations to manage your vSphere resources.

Deploy a VM within vSphere

In this example, we are deploying a VM running fedora (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Community version).

Terraform Module Structure

1. variables.tf: Define the variables for the module.
2. main.tf: Contains the main configuration for the VM.
3. outputs.tf: Define the outputs for the module.

variables.tf

variable "vsphere_user" {
  description = "vSphere username"
}

variable "vsphere_password" {
  description = "vSphere password"
}

variable "vsphere_server" {
  description = "vSphere server"
}

variable "datacenter" {
  description = "vSphere datacenter"
}

variable "cluster" {
  description = "vSphere cluster"
}

variable "network" {
  description = "vSphere network"
}

variable "datastore" {
  description = "vSphere datastore"
}

variable "template" {
  description = "VM template to clone"
}

main.tf

provider "vsphere" {
  user           = var.vsphere_user
  password       = var.vsphere_password
  vsphere_server = var.vsphere_server

  # If you have a self-signed cert
  allow_unverified_ssl = true
}

data "vsphere_datacenter" "dc" {
  name = var.datacenter
}

data "vsphere_compute_cluster" "cluster" {
  name          = var.cluster
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

data "vsphere_network" "network" {
  name          = var.network
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

data "vsphere_datastore" "datastore" {
  name          = var.datastore
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

data "vsphere_virtual_machine" "template" {
  name          = var.template
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

resource "vsphere_virtual_machine" "fedora_vm" {
  name             = "FedoraVM"
  resource_pool_id = data.vsphere_compute_cluster.cluster.resource_pool_id
  datastore_id     = data.vsphere_datastore.datastore.id

  num_cpus = 4
  memory   = 16384
  guest_id = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.template.guest_id

  network_interface {
    network_id   = data.vsphere_network.network.id
    adapter_type = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.template.network_interface_types0
  }

  disk {
    label            = "disk0"
    size             = 200
    eagerly_scrub    = false
    thin_provisioned = true
  }

  clone {
    template_uuid = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.template.id

    customize {
      linux_options {
        host_name = "fedora-vm"
        domain    = "local"
      }

      network_interface {
        ipv4_address = "192.168.1.100" # Replace with your desired IP
        ipv4_netmask = 24
      }

      ipv4_gateway = "192.168.1.1" # Replace with your gateway
    }
  }
}

outputs.tf

output "vm_id" {
  description = "The ID of the VM"
  value       = vsphere_virtual_machine.fedora_vm.id
}

output "vm_ip" {
  description = "The IP address of the VM"
  value       = vsphere_virtual_machine.fedora_vm.default_ip_address
}

• Replace the variables with your vSphere environment details, such as `datacenter`, `cluster`, `network`, `datastore`, and `template`.
• Customize the IP address and gateway to match your network settings.