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esxi/datastore-mappings

Defines any additional command line options to pass to ansible for playbooks

This data structure defines a set of Datastores to create in a single set of mappings. Multiple datastore types can be created in one task run.

This Param data structure defines the configurations of each of the described datastores to be created. In addition, you must add the Param esxi/datastore-memberships to each vSphere ESXi node with the name of the datastores to add to that node.

The datastore mappings are performed via the Context system, which means the actions are implemented as an API call to the ESXi host directly or via the vCenter instance that manages the node.

Required datastore configuration values are as follows:

  • name = the name of the datastore to create
  • type = either get_first_available, nfs, nfs41, cifs, vmfs, or local

Note

The get_first_available simulates the orignal datastore create pattern in the mappings data structure. Provided only for legacy use.

The following additional values can be specified, and are type dependent (either nfs/nfs41, vmfs, or local type):

  • disk = Canonical name of disk (VMFS only)
  • force = Ignore DuplicateName error if datastore is already mounted on a host (false by default)
  • host = Host system
  • mode = Access mode for the mount point (readOnly|readWrite)
  • path = Local directory path for the datastore (local only)
  • remote-host = Remote hostname of the NAS datastore (NFS/CIFS)
  • remote-path = Remote path of the NFS mount point (NFS/CIFS)
  • username = Username to use when connecting (CIFS only)
  • password = Password to use when connecting (CIFS only)
  • version = VMFS major version
  • tool = empty, set to parted (*), or set to govc

Note

If set to parted, the data mapping will only be processed by the Task esxi-datastore-create and will not be processed by govc-datastore-manage.

Digital Rebar Golang templating constructs can be used in the datastructures and will be filled in when the template is evaluted. This is useful for Datastores that are created bound to specific Node information. A further example; creating a local datastore with the ESXi node name in the name construct. When these are rolled up under vCenter management, it allows datastore uniqueness.

The general data structure follows the below pattern:

datastore-reference:
  name: name-of-datastore
  type: supported-datastore-type
  other-options: ...

The Datastore Reference is different than the actual datastore name to create, as in many cases, the Datastore Name may be based on the specific ESXi node name or other unique reference for that node. This allows for golang templatization structures to dynamically reference the Datastore name value, but use a generic Reference for the configuration structure.

Example in YAML:

yaml esxi/datastore-mappings: nfs1-datastore: name: "nfs-1-{{.Machine.Name}}" type: "nfs" mode: "readWrite" remote-host: "nfs1.example.com" remote-path: "/hosts/{{ .Machine.Name }}" vmfs-datastore: name: "vmfsDatastore" type: "vmfs" disk: "mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" local1-datastore: name: "localDatastore" type: "local" path: "/var/datastore"

Example in JSON:

{
  "nfs1-datastore": {
    "name": "nfs-1-{{.Machine.Name}}",
    "type": "nfs",
    "mode": "readWrite",
    "remote-host": "nfs1.example.com",
    "remote-path": "/hosts/{{ .Machine.Name }}"
  },
  "vmfs-datastore": {
    "name": "vmfsDatastore"
    "type": "vmfs"
    "disk": "mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0"
  },
  "local1-datastore": {
    "name": "localDatastore"
    "type": "local"
    "path": "/var/datastore"
  }
}

In the above examples, three separate Datastores will be created on the systems based on their membership mappings. The membership mappings are managed by adding the Param esxi/datastore-memberships with a list of the datastore references to be added to that machine.

For example, on the machine named esxi-01, we add the param with the following values:

esxi/datastore-memberships:
  - nfs1-datastore
  - local1-datastore

In this scenario, the machine will be added with the NFS datastore named nfs-1-esxi-01 which maps to the share nfs1.example.com:/hosts/esxi-01. This happens because the Params are expanded to the Machine name, mapping a custom NFS share under the common reference name nfs1-datastore.

The second datastore (local1-datastore) is mapped on the machine as well. However, the VMFS datastore is not mapped on this machine.