.. _community.vmware.vmware_export_ovf_module:


**********************************
community.vmware.vmware_export_ovf
**********************************

**Exports a VMware virtual machine to an OVF file, device files and a manifest file**



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


Synopsis
--------
- This module can be used to export a VMware virtual machine to OVF template from vCenter server or ESXi host.




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>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>
                        <b>Default:</b><br/><div style="color: blue">"ha-datacenter"</div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Datacenter name of the virtual machine to export.</div>
                        <div>This parameter is case sensitive.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>download_timeout</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">30</div>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>The user defined timeout in second of exporting file.</div>
                        <div>If the vmdk file is too large, you can increase the value.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>export_dir</b>
                    <a class="ansibleOptionLink" href="#parameter-" title="Permalink to this option"></a>
                    <div style="font-size: small">
                        <span style="color: purple">path</span>
                         / <span style="color: red">required</span>
                    </div>
                </td>
                <td>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Absolute path to place the exported files on the server running this task, must have write permission.</div>
                        <div>If folder not exist will create it, also create a folder under this path named with VM name.</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="1">
                    <div class="ansibleOptionAnchor" id="parameter-"></div>
                    <b>export_with_images</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><div style="color: blue"><b>no</b>&nbsp;&larr;</div></li>
                                    <li>yes</li>
                        </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                        <div>Export an ISO image of the media mounted on the CD/DVD Drive within the virtual machine.</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 path to find the specified guest.</div>
                        <div>The folder should include the datacenter. ESX datacenter is ha-datacenter.</div>
                        <div>This parameter is case sensitive.</div>
                        <div>If multiple machines are found with same name, this parameter is used to identify</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>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 to export.</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>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 virtual machine to export.</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/>




Examples
--------

.. code-block:: yaml

    - community.vmware.vmware_export_ovf:
        hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
        username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
        password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
        name: '{{ vm_name }}'
        export_with_images: true
        export_dir: /path/to/ovf_template/
      delegate_to: localhost



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>instance</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>list of the exported files, if exported from vCenter server, device file is not named with vm name</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;">None</div>
                </td>
            </tr>
    </table>
    <br/><br/>


Status
------


Authors
~~~~~~~

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