vsphere

name: vsphere description: VMware vSphere infrastructure management with govc CLI and Ansible. This skill should be used when running govc commands (VM lifecycle, snapshots, datastore operations, OVA/ISO deployment, inventory navigation), writing Ansible playbooks with community.vmware or vmware.vmware collections, managing ESXi hosts via esxcli/SSH, working with vSphere REST API via curl, configuring vCenter authentication, understanding vSphere inventory hierarchy (Datacenter/Cluster/Host/VM), or automating VM provisioning and infrastructure operations.

vSphere Infrastructure Management

Manage VMware vSphere and ESXi infrastructure using govc CLI for ad-hoc operations and Ansible for declarative automation.

Tool Selection

vSphere Hierarchy

vCenter Server
└── Datacenter
    ├── vm/           ← VMs and templates
    ├── host/         ← Clusters and ESXi hosts
    │   └── Cluster/
    │       ├── Host1
    │       └── Resources/  ← Resource pools
    ├── datastore/    ← Storage
    └── network/      ← Networks and DVS

govc paths: /<DC>/vm/<name>, /<DC>/host/<cluster>, /<DC>/datastore/<name>, /<DC>/network/<name>

API Landscape

Standalone ESXi has no REST API -- use SOAP via govc/pyVmomi, or esxcli via SSH.

govc Quick Reference

Install: nix shell nixpkgs#govc or brew install govc

export GOVC_URL="https://vcenter.example.com/sdk"
export GOVC_USERNAME="administrator@vsphere.local"
export GOVC_PASSWORD="password"
export GOVC_INSECURE=true
export GOVC_DATACENTER="DC1"

Common operations:

govc about                                    # Connection test
govc ls /DC1/vm/                              # List VMs
govc vm.info my-vm                            # VM details
govc vm.power -on my-vm                       # Power on
govc vm.power -s my-vm                        # Graceful shutdown
govc vm.create -m 4096 -c 2 -disk 40GB my-vm # Create VM
govc vm.clone -vm template -on=false new-vm   # Clone
govc vm.destroy my-vm                         # Delete
govc snapshot.create -vm my-vm "snap-name"    # Snapshot
govc datastore.upload local.iso isos/file.iso # Upload file
govc import.ova -options=spec.json app.ova    # Deploy OVA
govc find / -type m -runtime.powerState poweredOn  # Find running VMs

JSON output: append -json to any command, pipe to jq.

Full reference: references/govc.md

Ansible Quick Reference

Collections: community.vmware (SOAP, mature) and vmware.vmware (REST, certified, newer)

- name: Deploy VM from template
  community.vmware.vmware_guest:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    validate_certs: false
    name: my-vm
    template: ubuntu-template
    state: poweredon
    cluster: Production
    datastore: DS1
    hardware:
      memory_mb: 4096
      num_cpus: 2

Full reference: references/ansible-vmware.md

Authentication

All tools authenticate via username/password to vCenter SSO or ESXi local accounts.

• govc: GOVC_URL, GOVC_USERNAME, GOVC_PASSWORD env vars
• Ansible: hostname, username, password module params (use vault for secrets)
• REST API: POST /api/session with basic auth, returns vmware-api-session-id token
• esxcli: SSH to ESXi host as root

Useful Web Interfaces

• vSphere Client: https://<vcenter>/ui
• ESXi Host Client: https://<esxi>/ui
• API Explorer: https://<vcenter>/apiexplorer (Swagger UI)
• Managed Object Browser: https://<vcenter-or-esxi>/mob