`r/virtual_machine`: add support to convert to template

[travis-bear]

Description

Desired workflow:

• Start with an existing VM
• Make it into a template

The vsphere_content_library_item resource seems like it should be able to do this, but it requires .vmdk or .ovf files. This is confusing. How do I get them? Do I have to set them up on my own web server? I don't know how to proceed.

I'd like to just be able to specify the id of an existing VM, instead of the list of files currently required.

Ref: https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/vsphere/latest/docs/resources/content_library_item

[uprightvinyl]

Wondering if there has been any progress on this? Now that the provider supports creating VMs from OVA, I'd like to follow a workflow using Terraform of creating a VM from an OVA via an internet accessible URL, then covert that VM into a template.

[arizvisa]

If I recall correctly, some of the things mentioned in this issue were noted in issue #1126. That issue discusses some weaknesses with how content libraries actually work in vSphere which results in the terraform-provider-vsphere plugin having to do a lot of work in order to use them effectively. As a result of this, a workaround was introduced by exposing the "Type" field as a "Data Source" for a content library item. Because of how vSphere exposes these library items to the API, it's really up to the implementor to program their own "Client" depending on whatever the exposed value is for "Type".

At the time, the govmomi library only implemented the individual clients directly within their govc tool (and not the library itself) for the "library.deploy" command (which can be found at https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/blob/f0985ac731207916140e93044a4dc368b13c443f/govc/library/deploy.go#L192). Thus, terraform-provider-vsphere was stuck either having to _also_ implement each client (per type)...or would need to fall back to the shorter/easier solution of exposing "Type" which lets the user manually handle it. This resulted in the latter being chosen.

In order for the vSphere provider to be able to access the attributes for an .OVF or .OVA directly, it would literally need to examine the "Type" field for the library item, and then use that to determine whether it's an "iso", "ovf", or "ova", etc. Depending on this type, the provider would then need to parse the contents of the "ovf" and "ova" item in order to extract the necessary attributes from the manifest (.MF) file (like the .vmdk or any of the others). These can then be exposed to us as a "Data Source" that we can use for each "Resource".

For @uprightvinyl's question, if we don't care to use a library item...but we still desire using the attributes from an .OVA, .OVF, (or anything else) for our "resource", then we'll _still_ need to get these attributes exposed to us in some way which again will require parsing those .MF manifests depending on the type (only this time, we'd be explicitly specifying whether it's an ova or ovf type). Again, once they're finally exposed to us in a "Data Source", we can then plug their parsed attributes directly into the "Resource" that we want to use them on.

There _is_ a very hacky way to work around this, however, like I mentioned in my feature request for #1126. This allowed me to use Terraform's conditionals to check the "Type", and combine it with an "External" provider. So, if my type was one that I supported, then I could use an "External" provider that execs govc to download my library item. After it was downloaded, I could then use another "External" provider to exec a program that processes the XML manifest and eventually output some JSON for the provider to expose in a "Data Source". Thus, this "simulated" a client. Anyways, once I had the relevant attributes exposed, only then was I able to use their fields in their relevant "Resource". This was _very_ clumsy, but until terraform-provider-vsphere implements these "clients", I don't know of another way.,,

[kastl-ars]

Any news on this? This seems like a very "basic" use case (i.e. something that comes in handy lots of times), even if it seems to be complicated due to vSphere's ... opinions...

[Alon-Hen-LS]

Hello, I want to ensure I've correctly understood the current limitation: as it stands, we cannot create a template from an OVA file and therefore we cannot clone it (since we can only create a VM from an OVA), correct? Addressing this would be extremely beneficial. For instance, in our scenario, we generate approximately 10 VMs from a single OVA using the 'vsphere_virtual_machine' resource with 'count = 10'. This process requires the OVA to be uploaded separately to the vCenter 10 times, rather than uploading it once and cloning it thereafter.

Have I grasped the issue accurately?
Any advice or solutions on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

[tenthirtyam]

Why not use the content library as the source?

[kastl-ars]

Why not use the content library as the source?

As a source for what, the virtual machine? How would one specify the OVA file or reference then?

In other words: Have you got example code at hand that shows what you mean?

[kastl-ars]

Why not use the content library as the source?

As a source for what, the virtual machine? How would one specify the OVA file or reference then?

In other words: Have you got example code at hand that shows what you mean?

Sorry, I just reread my comment and noticed, that it might sound rude, which was not my intention.

I think converting an existing VM to a template is a valuable feature. Even if @alonkaliber 's usecase or mine could maybe be solved by uploading OVA/OVF files into the library and then using from there. I'll dig into this, but do not want to divert this issue any further.

Sorry for the noise!

[Alon-Hen-LS]

I think converting an existing VM to a template is a valuable feature. Even if @alonkaliber 's usecase or mine could maybe be solved by uploading OVA/OVF files into the library and then using from there. I'll dig into this, but do not want to divert this issue any further.

If i understand what you meant by "library" then If i upload manually an OVA file i can later on use it to clone VM's from it, i would like to have that feature to be thorugh terraform though...

that would be the code example

data "vsphere_virtual_machine" "windows_template" {
  name          = "windows-image"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.dc.id
}

resource "vsphere_virtual_machine" "cp_win_vm" {
  count = 3
  name  = "cp_win_${count.index + 1}"
  resource_pool_id = data.vsphere_resource_pool.pool.id
  datastore_id     = data.vsphere_datastore.EMC_ThirdVolume.id
  host_system_id   = data.vsphere_host.host.id
  firmware = "efi"
  num_cpus = 4
  memory   = 16384 # 16GB
  guest_id = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.windows_template.guest_id
  nested_hv_enabled = true
  folder = "Customers-Images"
  
  scsi_type = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.windows_template.scsi_type

  network_interface {
    network_id 	 = data.vsphere_network.network.id
	# adapter_type = "data.vsphere_virtual_machine.template.network_interface_types[0]"
  }

  disk {
    label            = "disk0"
    size             = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.windows_template.disks.0.size
    #eagerly_scrub    = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.template.disks.0.eagerly_scrub
    thin_provisioned = false
  }
  
 
  clone {
    template_uuid = data.vsphere_virtual_machine.windows_template.id
	  timeout = 30
    // customize {
	  //   timeout = 20
    //   windows_options {
    //     computer_name  = "cp-win-${count.index}"
    //   }
	  // network_interface {}
    // }
   }
}