Deploy Windows VM through Ansible

Hi Yezdi,

From the ansible documentation by running ansible-doc nutanix.ncp.ntnx_vms. 

- guest_customization
        cloud_init or sysprep guest customization
        "default": !!null "null"
        "type": "dict"

        SUBOPTIONS:

        - is_overridable
            Flag to allow override of customization during deployment.
            "default": !!bool "false"
            "type": "bool"

        = script_path
            Absolute file path to the script.
            "type": "path"

        = type
            cloud_init or sysprep type
            choices: ["cloud_init", "sysprep"]
            "type": "str"

Make sure to have your sysprep file prepared to provide it in the script_path. Any customization you want to make to the sysprep file will have to go through a template with jinja2

Thanks for taking time and responding to my question. I built an sysprepped image in Nutanix. Then also built an unattended.xml file with Windows SIM and ADK. I was able to deploy a VM with IP address successfully. Initially I was looking for some inline code in the playbook itself. But it seems it’s not possible.

For joining the node to AD domain, I used WMIC through FirstLogonCommands, but it attaches the VM to a workgroup, not domain. Also I need to specify username and passwd in the XML file which is not ideal. I was wondering what the best way to do this ?

 ---
- name: Windows 2022 VM playbook
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    vm_name: "MyWin2022Server"
  collections:
    - nutanix.ncp
  module_defaults:
    group/nutanix.ncp.ntnx:
      nutanix_host: "{{ pc_ip }}"
      nutanix_username: "{{ vault_pc_username }}"
      nutanix_password: "{{ vault_pc_password }}"
      validate_certs: false
  tasks:
  - name: List vms using name filter criteria
    ntnx_vms_info:
        filter: 
          vm_name: "MyWin2022Server"
        kind: vm
    register: existing_vms
    ignore_errors: True
  - debug:
      msg: "{{ existing_vms | json_query('response.entities[*].spec.name') }}"

  - name: Check if VM already exists
    set_fact:
      vm_already_exists:  "{{ existing_vms | json_query('response.entities[*].spec.name') }}"

  - debug:
      msg: "{{ vm_already_exists }}"

  - name: Setting Variables
    set_fact:
        cluster_name: "MyNutanixCluster"
        subnet_name: "MyVLAN-100"
        image_name: "WindowsServerImage2022"
        script_path: "/root/win2022/new.xml"
  - name: create Vm
    ntnx_vms:
      state: present
      name: "MyWin2022Server"
      desc: "Windows Server 2022 Standard"
      cluster:
        name: "{{cluster_name}}"
      networks:
        - is_connected: True
          subnet:
            name: "{{ subnet_name }}"
      disks:
        - type: "DISK"
          size_gb: 100
          bus: "SATA"
          clone_image:
            name: "{{ image_name }}"
      vcpus: 1
      cores_per_vcpu: 1
      memory_gb: 1
      guest_customization:
        type: "sysprep"
        script_path: "{{ script_path }}"
        is_overridable: True
    register: output
    when: not vm_already_exists

  - name: output of vm created
    debug:
      msg: '{{ output }}'

Thanks again Jose. I tried to build a new unattended.xml file with “Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin”. But it doesn’t seem to encrypt the passwd. It leaves it in clear text.

That’s expected, please read more about how it works in the Microsoft documentation.

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/unattend/microsoft-windows-unattendedjoin-identification
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/unattend/microsoft-windows-shell-setup-useraccounts-administratorpassword

Awesome, I will read through the documentation.