I think this request covers this but just want to note it to make sure it's considered.

If we are only supposed to add the actual VCenter server as a compute resource for provisioning, then the Virtual Machine options when setting up a new host really need to include a drop down for the specific host to install on. Not all VMware licenses have the VMotion and Storage VMotion or whatever it's called. So, not everyone can use the auto-migration of new hosts feature that I believe you must rely on in the current support.

If you can't provide a drop down to choose a host then it would also be acceptable to allow users to add a separate compute resource for each ESXi host individually. Then, the "Deploy on" option in the new host would be where you choose the specific host. Currently when you do this you can successfully add the computer resource but there is an error on the Virtual Machine tab in the new host screen.

I hope this makes sense. If not, let me know and I'll try to explain better. Thanks for your consideration.

Drew Blessing wrote:

I think this request covers this but just want to note it to make sure it's considered.

If we are only supposed to add the actual VCenter server as a compute resource for provisioning, then the Virtual Machine options when setting up a new host really need to include a drop down for the specific host to install on. Not all VMware licenses have the VMotion and Storage VMotion or whatever it's called. So, not everyone can use the auto-migration of new hosts feature that I believe you must rely on in the current support.

sure see #1945 - there is a simple workaround that would allow you to get that.

If you can't provide a drop down to choose a host then it would also be acceptable to allow users to add a separate compute resource for each ESXi host individually. Then, the "Deploy on" option in the new host would be where you choose the specific host. Currently when you do this you can successfully add the computer resource but there is an error on the Virtual Machine tab in the new host screen.

I hope this makes sense. If not, let me know and I'll try to explain better. Thanks for your consideration.

I made some pull requests for fog to support things like:

• querying for guest types (fog: servertypes)
• querying for nic types (fog: interfacetypes) per guest type

This could be used to query for available guest types and the available nic types.
I also added a way to specify default nic_types in ~/.fog.
This could be used to at least change the default nic type which is currently E1000.

For the changes see:

• https://github.com/fog/fog/pull/1582
• https://github.com/fog/fog/pull/1568

Example:

• compute.datacenters.first.servertypes
• compute.datacenters.first.servertypes.get("debian6Guest").interfacetypes

I don't know if this makes sense but it seams to be (at least for me) a logical dependency on how to get further with this requirements.

Hope this helps
Regards.

Now I also managed to make the appropriate changes for foreman vmware compute-resource to support user selecteable guesttypes and NIC interfacetypes.

See https://github.com/theforeman/foreman/pull/480.

I have not yet a clear idea on how to implement user defined storage adapters and how to map them to the volumes. This is still kind of open.

Hope this helps.

Let me know about feedback.

Regards Marc.

In fog 1.16, thir relevant PR was merged:

[vSphere] Implementation of Query for Guesttype and NICTypes.
https://github.com/fog/fog/pull/1582

and hopefully this PR may appear in fog 1.17:

[vSphere] Implementation of feature to specify scsi_controller type at create type
https://github.com/fog/fog/pull/2314

Hope that soon vsphere/vmware will became a first class citizen in Foreman.
I'm scheduling a Cobbler to Foreman migration for our provisioning tasks.

@Marc Mueller - would you mind submitting a new PR for the 'guest type' selection? Any other PR's that improve VMWare functionality would be much appreciated as well (allowing user to pick number of cores, SCSI controller type, etc).

For what it is worth, this would be really useful for someone to add...

I'd like to add my vote for adding a drop-down to choose a resource pool in a cluster in VMware.

+1 for memory/cpu hotplug and being able to choose the resource pool.

+1 for ability to choose resource pools