# OnPrem Automation - Ip Addressing & Hostnames

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/onprem-automation-ip-addressing-hostnames/24647>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** vmware\
**Created:** [June 5, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/onprem-automation-ip-addressing-hostnames/24647 "2017-06-05T15:18:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paul\_Farrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Paul\_Farrington](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Paul_Farrington)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/onprem-automation-ip-addressing-hostnames/24647/1 "2017-06-05T15:18:09Z")

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Hi Everyone,

I am new to Ansible and i am hoping to get some advice on deploying on-prem servers in VMware.

I am trying to automate the deployment of web servers from a VMware template, installation of IIS, load balancer configurations etc. Our current processes are very manual, including the two topics i required advice on assigning hostnames and ip addresses.

Typically we would statically assign an ip address and manually determine a hostname and enter this information whilst deploying from a template using a customization specificaiton in VMware.

How is everyone doing this in an automated world? would this still need to be manual with Ansible or is there something i am missing (i expect there is) that will allow Ansible to fully automate what feels like a simple problem?

I did consider using a DHCP server to deal with the IP address problem and is ofcourse always an option.

I would be very grateful and interested to understand some of the infrastructure architecture that is helping to automate deployments end to end.

FYI, i have got Ansible running and deploying a VMware template which works great…but i have manually set the hostname and ip address.

Thanks  
Paul