Passing VM Name to VSphere

[maltman111]

Versions:

• Version of Chef-Provisioning: 2.7.0
• Version of Chef-Provisioning-vSphere: 2.3.0

Platform Details

• Version of vSphere/vCenter: 6.5.0
• Version of ESXi: 6.5.0

Scenario:

Looking at the VSphere driver, I see options for host, user, password, path, etc. but no VM name. When I spin up a new VM, the actual machine name is correct but the VM name is some variation of "default-Windows2012R2-78fsugsd0gs". Can name be passed to VSphere?

Steps to Reproduce:

Spun up new Windows 2012 R2 machine with host, user, and password configured in driver_options.

[hrmmmwhynot]

What do you mean? The machine resource will take the name property and that's what appears in vmware.

machine "my-vm-name" do machine_options bootstrap_options: { } end

[maltman111]

Correct. Under customization_spec, I have set hostname equal to my desired name. The box takes that name just fine. However, VSphere just takes default_Windows2012_hffjewivdshvsidjo. Something like that. Not sure where that default name is coming from.

[hrmmmwhynot]

Maybe i'm not understanding you correctly, but:

  machine "this-is-your-vsphere-vmname" do
      machine_options bootstrap_options: {
           customization_spec: {
                  :hostname => "this-is-your-os-hostname"
            },
      }
  end

[maltman111]

Ah ok. I see. Is there a parameter that can be passed to the kitchen.yml under machine options? I have posted it below.

driver:
  name: vsphere
  driver_options:
    host: 'host'
    user: ‘user’
    password: ‘password’
    insecure: true
  machine_options:
    start_timeout: 600
    create_timeout: 600
    ready_timeout: 600
    bootstrap_options:
      use_linked_clone: true
      datacenter: ‘DC’
      template_name: 'Win 2012 R2 Standard'
      template_folder: 'Templates’ 
      resource_pool: ‘pool’
      num_cpus: 2
      memory_mb: 4096
      network_name:
        - "VLAN"
      vm_folder: "Folder"
      customization_spec: {
        ipsettings: {
          ip: 'IP,
          subnetMask: '255.255.255.0',
          gateway: ["Gateway"],
          dnsServerList: [‘DNS1’,’DNS2’]
          },
          domain: ‘domain’,
          domainAdmin: ‘user’,
          domainAdminPassword: ‘password’,
          win_time_zone: 4,
          product_id: ‘product ID’,
          org_name: ‘org’,
          hostname: 'servername'
        }

[hrmmmwhynot]

can you post the whole bottom portion?

From the documentation example - there are two portions, you posted the machine_options portion which are just additional attributes for the machine, the part where the name is assigned is at the machine creation portion (bottom part of the code block below - which you have not pasted):

with_machine_options :bootstrap_options => {
  use_linked_clone: true,
  num_cpus: 2,
  memory_mb: 4096,
  network_name: ["vlan_20_172.21.20"],
  datacenter: 'datacenter_name',
  resource_pool: 'cluster',
  template_name: 'path to template',
  customization_spec: {
    ipsettings: {
      dnsServerList: ['1.2.3.31','1.2.3.41']
    },
    :domain => 'local'
  }
  :ssh => {
    :user => 'root',
    :password => 'password',
    :paranoid => false,
  }
}

machine "my_machine_name" do
  run_list ['my_cookbook::default']
end

[maltman111]

Yeah here it is. So the name comes from the suite name? Didn't realize that.

provisioner:
  name: chef_zero
  always_update_cookbooks: true

verifier:
  name: inspec

transport:
  username: "administrator"
  password: password

platforms:
  - name: Windows2012R2

suites:
  - name: default
    run_list:
      - recipe[recipe::default]
    attributes:

[hrmmmwhynot]

I defer you to this answer since you are talking about kitchen: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38682471/how-to-change-box-name-in-chef-kitchen-yml

"The name of the VM (e.g. kitchen-default-prodabcom_..default_1234..) is derived here in kitchen-vagrant and cannot easily be changed." https://github.com/test-kitchen/kitchen-vagrant/blob/236970afa3d64558ca7c7dfbff2d55269b10f4d8/lib/kitchen/driver/vagrant.rb#L396-L398

[jjasghar]

@hrmmmwhynot awesome, thanks for this. I'll close this now if any other discussion please reopen it.

[maltman111]

Thanks guys. Don't like that last bit but I will figure out a way around it.