vmware_guest: How to create a VM with a NIC, without specifying a MAC address on creation

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1

Hi All!

I’m running Ansible v2.3, and want to know if it’s possible to create virtual machines with NIC’s, without specifying a MAC address.

While it’s listed as optional in the docs (http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/vmware_guest_module.html), the playbook fails unless a mac entry is created.

Version Info:

`

ansible 2.3.0.0

config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

configured module search path = Default w/o overrides

python version = 2.7.5 (default, Nov 6 2016, 00:28:07) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-11)]
`

Example playbook:

`

2

Bit of a wild guess this, but just wondering if the issue is indentation?

disk:
- size_gb: "{{ disk_size }}"
type: thin
datastore: "{{ datastore }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ memory }}"
num_cpus: "{{ cpucount }}"
networks:
- name: VM Network

might need to be

disk:
- size_gb: "{{ disk_size }}"
type: thin
datastore: "{{ datastore }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ memory }}"
num_cpus: "{{ cpucount }}"
networks:
- name: VM Network

3

No luck there - changing the indentation yields the same error.

4

Found the issue!

The create_nic function within the vmware_guest module sets the nic’s address type as ‘assigned’, which requires you to supply a MAC address.
The problem is, it will do this whether you supply a MAC address or not.

I’ve submitted a patch to fix this: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/24138