LabBuilder

A collection of playbooks and tooling for building labs

main.yml - provisions labs from inventory files

vars/main.yml - variable related to the lab hosting environment

defaults/ - task level default variables

test_ - playbooks that demonstrate how to use the tasks

2 ways to use this library:

1. build a playbook that calls the roles and tasks to assemble a lab,

2. build an inventory file that describes a lab and pass it to main.yml

   ansible-playbook -i inventories/lab_mylabblueprint.yml main.yml

requirements

ansible 2.17+ ansible-galaxy collections:

• community.vmware
• community.general
• netapp.ontap
• community.proxmox

python libraries

• pyvmomi
• pycdlib
• pywinrm
• netapp-lib
• proxmoxer

ESXi host(s) vCenter Server

Setup

1. Install ansible, then execute the install-requirements.yml playbook:

   ansible-playbook install-requirements.yml 
   

2. Configure your virtualization hosting environment variables in the main vars file:

   vars/main.yml
   

3. Add the ISOs and OVAs for components you intend to deploy to the files folder on the ansible controller

4. Select or customize a lab blueprint from the inventories folder

5. Run the prep.yml playbook to provision any required networking and storage defined in the blueprint

   ansible-playbook prep.yml -i inventories/lab_template.yml
   

6. Run the main.yml playbook to build the lab environment as defined in the blueprint

   ansible-playbook main.yml -i inventories/lab_template.yml
   

using alternate main vars

The default vars related to the lab hosting infrastructure are read from vars/main.yml To load an alternate configuration, store an alternate set of vars in vars/<altconfig>.yml and load it at runtime with:

 - -e mainvars=\<altconfig\>.yml

To make this persistent, update this entry in defaults/main.yml:

mainvars: vars/main.yml

Adding ISO and OVA files

The various VM build roles require installation media or OVA files. In some cases these can be downloaded on demand, in other cases they need to be added to the files folder.

ISO files can be prepopulated by copying them into the ISO datastore.
Vendor OVA files need to be staged in the LabBuilder "files" folder.

Installation Sources that will be downloaded as needed:

• pfsense install ISOs
• Windows Install ISOs
• Most linux install ISOs

Installation Sources that need to be added manually:

• RedHat linux ISOs
• VMware ESXi ISO files
• Nested ESXi OVA files
• vCenter OVA files
• NetApp Simulator OVA files
• NetApp ONTAP Select eval OVA files
• NetApp StorageGrid OVA files
• NetApp AIQUM installer files

PVE Notes

Most components can now build on PVE hosts, with the following general exceptions:

• Interconnected Serial ports are not configured on PVE hosts
• Shared virtual disks are not built on PVE hosts

Proxmox Compatibility Status

Component	VMware	Proxmox	Notes
centos	YES	YES
windows	YES	YES
pfsense	YES	YES
ESX	YES	YES
Proxmox	YES	YES
Ubuntu	YES	YES
XCP-NG	YES*	NO	experimental: only 8.2.1 on vmware
Nested ESXi	YES	NO*	PVE: use ESX (iso) instead
AIQUM	YES	YES	Use install_file: (aiqum installer .zip)
OTS Eval	YES	YES
SGWS	YES	NO*	PVE: Install StorageGrid on Linux
VCENTER	YES	YES*	PVE: requires manual ip/stage2 configuration
VSIM	YES	YES*	PVE: HA pairs are rendered as non-ha nodes
OVF	YES	No	Generic OVF deployment is not working on PVE