Ansible / vmware_guest_network does not connect nic after addition

Question

We have a requirement to add a new NIC to several VMs on Vmware. To do this we are using ansible 2.9.3 and Python Version = 2.7.5

Here is the main playbook for the addition:

---
-
  become: false
  gather_facts: false
  hosts: srvlist
  tasks:
    -
      vmware_guest_network:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        validate_certs: false
        cluster: "{{ vm_cluster }}"
        datacenter: "{{ vm_datacenter }}"
        gather_network_info: false
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        networks:
          -
            device_type: vmxnet3
            dvswitch_name: SWITCH1
            name: "TESTPORTGROUP|TEST_APP"
            start_connected: true
            state: new
            connected: true
      delegate_to: localhost
  vars:
    vcenter_hostname: "any.sample.ip"
    vcenter_password: mypassword
    vcenter_username: administrator
    vm_name: myNewDuplicatedVM
    vm_cluster: ANY_CLUSTER_NAME
    vm_datacenter: ANY_DATACENTER_NAME

Playbook is partially working, the issue from here is that the new NIC is not connected after the creation and we can see the properties correctly set up:

start_connected: true
state: new
connected: true

Also we can see on that the name variable inside networks uses the label/name for the appropriated portgroup: name: "TESTPORTGROUP|TEST_APP"

Remember this will be a new NIC; that means we have one already working. Now, when I fetch for details using vmware_guest_network only to gather details from the VM it shows me a different name than expected:

ok: [vcenter_ip] => {
    "vminfo": {
        "changed": false,
        "failed": false,
        "network_data": {
            "0": {
                "allow_guest_ctl": true,
                "connected": true,
                "device_type": "VMXNET3",
                "label": "Network adapter 1",
                "mac_addr": "00:50:56:89:78:42",
                "name": "DVSwitch: d9 27 09 50 0e ty b7 e2-91 b0 52 1d 6b 79 26 45",
                "start_connected": true,
                "unit_number": 7,
                "wake_onlan": true
            },
            "1": {
                "allow_guest_ctl": true,
                "connected": false,
                "device_type": "VMXNET3",
                "label": "Network adapter 2",
                "mac_addr": "00:50:56:89:a1:65",
                "name": "TESTPORTGROUP|TEST_APP",
                "start_connected": true,
                "unit_number": 8,
                "wake_onlan": true
            }
        }
    }

The first one is the already present NIC and the second one is new one and is not connected as you can see. I don't know why is not connected and either why the name its different. I uderstand that nic stays in a disconnected state when there is an error in the customization stage but there is no errors show in vmlogs or on ansible.

I also tried using the entire, lets say, low level switch name but, as I expected, ansible fails and says that portgroup doesn't exist.

It may be a bug or I'm actually missing some configuration there.

Answer 1

Are you using vmware-workstation or vsphere for hosts your VMs? If you are using vsphere/vcenter, an easy way is use powerCLI to manage all vms with vsphere API. Just for add a new network card you use New-NetworkAdapter cmdlet, you can configure vs/vds, vlan, network card type, etc. Make you to take an snapshot before apply any change.

new-networkadapter -vm <vmname> -NetworkName "<Port group name>" -Type "VMXNET3" -startconnected

Answer 2

I had this same issue and found that the issue for me was that perl was not installed on the template/VM. Recommend installing perl on the template being used and trying again. You may find some clues in the open-vm-tools logs.