.. _community.vmware.vmware_guest_sendkey_module:


*************************************
community.vmware.vmware_guest_sendkey
*************************************

**Send USB HID codes to the Virtual Machine's keyboard.**



.. contents::
   :local:
   :depth: 1


Synopsis
--------
- This module is used to send keystrokes to given virtual machine.
- All parameters and VMware object names are case sensitive.



Requirements
------------
The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

- python >= 2.6
- PyVmomi


Parameters
----------

.. raw:: html

    <table  border=0 cellpadding=0 class="documentation-table">
        <tr>
            <th colspan="1">Parameter</th>
            <th>Choices/<font color="blue">Defaults</font></th>
            <th width="100%">Comments</th>
        </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>cluster</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The name of cluster where the virtual machine is running.</div>
                        <div>This is a required parameter, if <code>esxi_hostname</code> is not set.</div>
                        <div><code>esxi_hostname</code> and <code>cluster</code> are mutually exclusive parameters.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>datacenter</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The datacenter name to which virtual machine belongs to.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>esxi_hostname</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The ESXi hostname where the virtual machine is running.</div>
                        <div>This is a required parameter, if <code>cluster</code> is not set.</div>
                        <div><code>esxi_hostname</code> and <code>cluster</code> are mutually exclusive parameters.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>folder</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Destination folder, absolute or relative path to find an existing guest.</div>
                        <div>This is a required parameter, only if multiple VMs are found with same name.</div>
                        <div>The folder should include the datacenter. ESXi server&#x27;s datacenter is ha-datacenter.</div>
                        <div>Examples:</div>
                        <div>folder: /ha-datacenter/vm</div>
                        <div>folder: ha-datacenter/vm</div>
                        <div>folder: /datacenter1/vm</div>
                        <div>folder: datacenter1/vm</div>
                        <div>folder: /datacenter1/vm/folder1</div>
                        <div>folder: datacenter1/vm/folder1</div>
                        <div>folder: /folder1/datacenter1/vm</div>
                        <div>folder: folder1/datacenter1/vm</div>
                        <div>folder: /folder1/datacenter1/vm/folder2</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>hostname</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The hostname or IP address of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_HOST</code> will be used instead.</div>
                        <div>Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>keys_send</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">list</span>
                         / <span style="color: purple">elements=string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The list of the keys will be sent to the virtual machine.</div>
                        <div>Valid values are <code>ENTER</code>, <code>ESC</code>, <code>BACKSPACE</code>, <code>TAB</code>, <code>SPACE</code>, <code>CAPSLOCK</code>, <code>DELETE</code>, <code>CTRL_ALT_DEL</code>, <code>CTRL_C</code> and <code>F1</code> to <code>F12</code>, <code>RIGHTARROW</code>, <code>LEFTARROW</code>, <code>DOWNARROW</code>, <code>UPARROW</code>.</div>
                        <div>If both <code>keys_send</code> and <code>string_send</code> are specified, keys in <code>keys_send</code> list will be sent in front of the <code>string_send</code>.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>moid</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Managed Object ID of the instance to manage if known, this is a unique identifier only within a single vCenter instance.</div>
                        <div>This is required if <code>name</code> or <code>uuid</code> is not supplied.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>name</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Name of the virtual machine.</div>
                        <div>This is a required parameter, if parameter <code>uuid</code> or <code>moid</code> is not supplied.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>password</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The password of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_PASSWORD</code> will be used instead.</div>
                        <div>Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.</div>
                        <div style="font-size: small; color: darkgreen"><br/>aliases: pass, pwd</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>port</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">integer</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <b>Default:</b><br/><div style="color: blue">443</div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The port number of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_PORT</code> will be used instead.</div>
                        <div>Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>proxy_host</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Address of a proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.</div>
                        <div>The format is a hostname or a IP.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_PROXY_HOST</code> will be used instead.</div>
                        <div>This feature depends on a version of pyvmomi greater than v6.7.1.2018.12</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>proxy_port</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">integer</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Port of the HTTP proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_PROXY_PORT</code> will be used instead.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>sleep_time</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">integer</span>
                    </div>
                    <div style="font-style: italic; font-size: small; color: darkgreen">added in 1.4.0</div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <b>Default:</b><br/><div style="color: blue">0</div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Sleep time in seconds between two keys or string sent to the virtual machine.</div>
                        <div>API is faster than actual key or string send to virtual machine, this parameter allow to control delay between keys and/or strings.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>string_send</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The string will be sent to the virtual machine.</div>
                        <div>This string can contain valid special character, alphabet and digit on the keyboard.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>username</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The username of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_USER</code> will be used instead.</div>
                        <div>Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.</div>
                        <div style="font-size: small; color: darkgreen"><br/>aliases: admin, user</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>uuid</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">string</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>UUID of the instance to gather facts if known, this is VMware&#x27;s unique identifier.</div>
                        <div>This is a required parameter, if parameter <code>name</code> or <code>moid</code> is not supplied.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>validate_certs</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">boolean</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <ul style="margin: 0; padding: 0"><b>Choices:</b>
                                    <li>no</li>
                                    <li><div style="color: blue"><b>yes</b>&nbsp;&larr;</div></li>
                        </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid. Set to <code>false</code> when certificates are not trusted.</div>
                        <div>If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable <code>VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS</code> will be used instead.</div>
                        <div>Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.</div>
                        <div>If set to <code>true</code>, please make sure Python &gt;= 2.7.9 is installed on the given machine.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
    </table>
    <br/>


Notes
-----

.. note::
   - Tested on vSphere 6.5 and 6.7



Examples
--------

.. code-block:: yaml

    - name: Send list of keys to virtual machine
      community.vmware.vmware_guest_sendkey:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
        folder: "{{ folder_name }}"
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        keys_send:
          - TAB
          - TAB
          - ENTER
      delegate_to: localhost
      register: keys_num_sent

    - name: Send list of keys to virtual machine using MoID
      community.vmware.vmware_guest_sendkey:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
        folder: "{{ folder_name }}"
        moid: vm-42
        keys_send:
          - CTRL_ALT_DEL
      delegate_to: localhost
      register: ctrl_alt_del_sent

    - name: Send a string to virtual machine
      community.vmware.vmware_guest_sendkey:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
        folder: "{{ folder_name }}"
        name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        string_send: "user_logon"
      delegate_to: localhost
      register: keys_num_sent



Return Values
-------------
Common return values are documented `here <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/common_return_values.html#common-return-values>`_, the following are the fields unique to this module:

.. raw:: html

    <table border=0 cellpadding=0 class="documentation-table">
        <tr>
            <th colspan="1">Key</th>
            <th>Returned</th>
            <th width="100%">Description</th>
        </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="return-"></div>
                    <b>sendkey_info</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#return-" title="Permalink to this return value"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                      <span style="color: purple">dictionary</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>always</td>
                <td>
                            <div>display the keys and the number of keys sent to the virtual machine</div>
                    <br/>
                        <div style="font-size: smaller"><b>Sample:</b></div>
                        <div style="font-size: smaller; color: blue; word-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-all;">{&#x27;virtual_machine&#x27;: &#x27;test_vm&#x27;, &#x27;keys_send&#x27;: [&#x27;SPACE&#x27;, &#x27;DOWNARROW&#x27;, &#x27;DOWNARROW&#x27;, &#x27;ENTER&#x27;], &#x27;string_send&#x27;: None, &#x27;keys_send_number&#x27;: 4, &#x27;returned_keys_send_number&#x27;: 4}</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
    </table>
    <br/><br/>


Status
------


Authors
~~~~~~~

- Diane Wang (@Tomorrow9) <dianew@vmware.com>
