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passgen-settings

Set the ESXi software install acceptance level.

This string sets values that are used to control the format random generated strings by the passgen.py.tmpl template. This is usually used to generate a random password string with a given set of rules.

Some notes about the rules:

  • chars can not be less than the sum of upper + lower + special_chars + req_nums)
  • The padding value type will "fill out" (i.e. pad) the password with characters of the specified type, if not enough chars are generated to fill the full length
  • Allowed values for padding are:
    • lowers
    • uppers
    • nums
  • Default set of special characters is set to VMware "safe" values of:
    • [!%@$^]
  • You can override the special_char_list - however, you must be aware of the processing pipeline, as some special characters will cause Workflow errors when trying to marshal from JSON to YAML, etc.
  • You only need to override a given value to make a change to it, all remaning values not specified will use the below defaults

The default settings are as follows:

length=10, chars=7, req_nums=2, special_chars=1,
special_char_list=None, upper=2, lower=5, padding=None

It is necessary that the leading and trailing character is a lowercase letter, due to internal processing. By default the passgen-settings processing will select a random character as leading and a random trailing value. You can alter this behavior and specify the exact leading and/or trailing character by setting:

  • leading_char="z"
  • trailing_char="a"

Note that the double quotes are required.

Examples:

To set custom values for `passgen.py.tmpl; create a Param named "passgen-settings", add it to a Machine Object (via global profile, a custom profile applied to the given Machine, or a Param directly applied to the Machine), with the values set as below.

If a value is not specified, then the listed default (above) will be used.

Setting the length to 14 chars, all other values to default:

  length=14

Set length to 12, and the list of special characters that can be used:

  length=12, special_char_list='!%@$^;,_'

To change the special characters to always generate 3 special characters, instead of the default of only 1, do:

  special_chars=2

Note

You must put commas between multiple settings values.