Terraform vCloud Director Provider v2.2.0 Released

Two months haven’t passed and we have a new version of HashiCorp Terraform vCloud Director Provider v2.2.0! You can now automatically download it via the terraform init command and find the corresponding documentation on the HashiCorp Terraform website:

https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/vcd/index.html

In this particular release we had a primary goal of merging all of the open community contributions (a friendly reminder that Terraform vCD Provider is open-source). As such, this release packs the following main features.

Note that if you’d like to read about Terraform vCloud Director Provider in general, please see the previous article as well:

vCloud Director Embraces Terraform

v2.2.0 Features

First of all, there are two completely new resources for the provider level operations (i.e. system administrator):

New resource vcd_external_network – for automating creation of External Networks
New resource vcd_org_vdc – for automating creation of Organization VDCs

Then, the existing vcd_vapp_vm resource received a major improvement in the way it handles networks. As an outcome of that, it’s now possible to add multiple NICs to Virtual Machines. Also, you have access to the MAC addresses:

New argumentvcd_vapp_vm.network for multiple NIC support and more flexible configuration
New argumentvcd_vapp_vm.network.X.mac for storing the MAC address in Terraform state file

Another feature in vcd_vapp_vm and the related vcd_vapp resource is the ability to set metadata for vApp and its Virtual Machines separately:

New argumentvcd_vapp_vm.metadata for ability to add metadata to a VM
Improvedvcd_vapp.metadata argument to add metadata to the vApp directly

Moreover, a small topping to the cake of the same vcd_vapp_vm resource is a new flag for running hypervisors in a VM (hypervisor nesting):

New argument vcd_vapp_vm.expose_hardware_virtualizationfor ability to enable hardware assisted CPU virtualization

Last but not least, there’s also a handful of additions to the test suite to help avoid unwanted bugs. Of course, it’s committers who will feel this first. For instance, we’ve added test grouping by tags to support selective and parallel runs for the growing suite. In this context, if you like Go programming language and developing cloud automation tools, please consider joining our open-source community with a code contribution!

Please also see our changelog for details with links to related GitHub pull requests.

Now let’s look at examples on how you can use some of these new features.

Example of configuring an Org VDC

To begin with, let’s say we’re a provider and want to automate creation of Organization VDCs. It’s fairly easy to define an Organization VDC, but there are three points to be aware of.

First, use system administrator (as opposed to org administrator) credentials in the provider section of the Terraform template
Then, there are three allocation models supported in the allocation_model field, but one of their names differ from the one in the vCD GUI
- AllocationPool – “Allocation pool”
- ReservationPool – “Reservation pool”
- AllocationVApp – “Pay as you go” (!) This name comes from vCD API and reflects that “AllocationVApp” model resources are committed to a vDC only when vApps are created
Last, there are two choices which argument to use in compute_capacityblock
- limitis used with AllocationVAppmodel
- allocatedis used with AllocationPool and ReservationPoolmodels

So, let’s take a look at an example for the VDC with the AllocationVApp (“Pay as you go”) model. Please note the in-line comments which reflect the above notes.

provider "vcd" {
  url      = "https://${var.vcd_host}/api"
  user     = "administrator" # Need system administrator privileges
  org      = "System" # Connecting to System because we're administrator
  password = "${var.admin_pass}"

  allow_unverified_ssl = "true"
}

# v2.2.0+
resource "vcd_org_vdc" "vdc-pay" {
  org = "myorg" # Tell in which Org to create the VDC

  name        = "TfPayVDC"
  description = "Terraform created VDC"

  allocation_model  = "AllocationVApp" # The "Pay as you go" in vCD GUI
  network_pool_name = "vc1-TestbedCluster-VXLAN-NP"
  provider_vdc_name = "vc1-TestbedCluster"

  network_quota = 10

  memory_guaranteed = 0.55 # Translates to percentage 55%
  cpu_guaranteed    = 0.50 # Translates to percentage 50% 

  compute_capacity {
    cpu {
      limit     = 3123 # For "ReservationPool" and "AllocationPool" models, use "allocated" instead of "limit"
    }

    memory {
      limit     = 4123 # For "ReservationPool" and "AllocationPool" models, use "allocated" instead of "limit"
    }
  }

  # Note how "storage_profile" can be defined multiple times
  storage_profile {
    name    = "*"
    limit   = 0
    enabled = true
    default = true
  }

  storage_profile {
    name    = "Development"
    limit   = 0
    enabled = true
    default = false
  }

  enable_thin_provisioning = true
  enable_fast_provisioning = true

  delete_force     = true
  delete_recursive = true
}

provider "vcd" {

url = "https://${var.vcd_host}/api"

user = "administrator" # Need system administrator privileges

org = "System" # Connecting to System because we're administrator

password = "${var.admin_pass}"

allow_unverified_ssl = "true"

}

# v2.2.0+

resource "vcd_org_vdc" "vdc-pay" {

org = "myorg" # Tell in which Org to create the VDC

name = "TfPayVDC"

description = "Terraform created VDC"

allocation_model = "AllocationVApp" # The "Pay as you go" in vCD GUI

network_pool_name = "vc1-TestbedCluster-VXLAN-NP"

provider_vdc_name = "vc1-TestbedCluster"

network_quota = 10

memory_guaranteed = 0.55 # Translates to percentage 55%

cpu_guaranteed = 0.50 # Translates to percentage 50%

compute_capacity {

cpu {

limit = 3123 # For "ReservationPool" and "AllocationPool" models, use "allocated" instead of "limit"

}

memory {

limit = 4123 # For "ReservationPool" and "AllocationPool" models, use "allocated" instead of "limit"

}

# Note how "storage_profile" can be defined multiple times

storage_profile {

name = "*"

limit = 0

enabled = true

default = true

}

storage_profile {

name = "Development"

limit = 0

enabled = true

default = false

}

enable_thin_provisioning = true

enable_fast_provisioning = true

delete_force = true

delete_recursive = true

}

Please see Org VDC documentation page for more details:

https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/vcd/r/org_vdc.html

Example of a VM with multiple networks

To continue, let’s take a look at an example snippet which defines a VM with three NICs and some advanced parameters.

Three NICs
1. Connected to vApp network
2. Connected to Org VDC network
3. Not connected at all
Hardware assisted CPU virtualization enabled
Custom metadata set

It’s important to note that:

You define more than one NIC by creating more than one network block
Order of the network blocks gets reflected in the operating system

As in the previous example, please see the in-line comments for explanations as well.

provider "vcd" {
  url      = "https://${var.vcd_host}/api"
  org      = "myorg"
  vdc      = "myorgvdc"
  user     = "orgadmin" # In this case we *don't* need system administrator privileges
  password = "${var.org_pass}"
 
  allow_unverified_ssl = "true"
}

resource "vcd_vapp_vm" "vm11" {
  vapp_name     = "TfVApp"
  name          = "TerraformVM11"
  catalog_name  = "OperatingSystems"
  template_name = "Linux"
  memory        = 384
  cpus          = 1

  # v2.2.0+
  network { # We can define as many "network" blocks as needed
    type               = "vapp"
    name               = "TfVAppNet"
    ip_allocation_mode = "POOL"
    is_primary         = false
  }

  # v2.2.0+
  network {
    type               = "org"
    name               = "TfNet"
    ip                 = "192.168.0.11"
    ip_allocation_mode = "MANUAL"
    is_primary         = true
  }

  # v2.2.0+
  network {
    type               = "none" # This NIC won't be connected to a network
    ip_allocation_mode = "NONE"
  }

  # v2.2.0+
  expose_hardware_virtualization = true

  # v2.2.0+
  metadata {
    # The attribute names below are user-defined (they land to vCD together with values)
    role    = "test"
    env     = "staging"
    version = "v2.2.0"
  }

  accept_all_eulas = "true"
}

provider "vcd" {

url = "https://${var.vcd_host}/api"

org = "myorg"

vdc = "myorgvdc"

user = "orgadmin" # In this case we *don't* need system administrator privileges

password = "${var.org_pass}"

allow_unverified_ssl = "true"

}

resource "vcd_vapp_vm" "vm11" {

vapp_name = "TfVApp"

name = "TerraformVM11"

catalog_name = "OperatingSystems"

template_name = "Linux"

memory = 384

cpus = 1

# v2.2.0+

network { # We can define as many "network" blocks as needed

type = "vapp"

name = "TfVAppNet"

ip_allocation_mode = "POOL"

is_primary = false

}

# v2.2.0+

network {

type = "org"

name = "TfNet"

ip = "192.168.0.11"

ip_allocation_mode = "MANUAL"

is_primary = true

}

# v2.2.0+

network {

type = "none" # This NIC won't be connected to a network

ip_allocation_mode = "NONE"

}

# v2.2.0+

expose_hardware_virtualization = true

# v2.2.0+

metadata {

# The attribute names below are user-defined (they land to vCD together with values)

role = "test"

env = "staging"

version = "v2.2.0"

}

accept_all_eulas = "true"

}

Please see VM resource documentation page for more details:

https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/vcd/r/vapp_vm.html

Next Steps

Most importantly, please give it a try! And if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. You can do it by joining our Slack channel #vcd-terraform-dev through VMware {code} or filing an issue in the Terraform vCloud Director Provider repository.

Hope to hear from you!

v2.2.0 Features

Example of configuring an Org VDC

Example of a VM with multiple networks

Next Steps

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