Guest OS Validation on vSphere using Ansible

Getting Started

Prerequisites

1. Install Ansible on your control machine, please refer to Installing Ansible
2. Install required Python libraries in requirements.txt

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Install required Ansible collections in requirements.yml

$ ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

4. Log in to local control machine as root or a user in sudoers

Steps to Launch Testing

1. Git clone project from github to your workspace on control machine,
2. Set the parameters required for testing in this file: vars/test.yml,
3. Modify the test cases in test case list file in below default path,
   • For Linux testing: linux/gosv_testcase_list.yml
   • For Windows testing: windows/gosv_testcase_list.yml
4. Launch testing using below commands from the same path of "main.yml",

  # For Linux testing:
  # you can use below command to use the default variables file "vars/test.yml",
  # default test case list file "linux/gosv_testcase_list.yml"
  $ ansible-playbook main.yml

  # For Linux or Windows testing:
  # you can use below command to set the path of a customized variables file and
  # test case list file
  $ ansible-playbook main.yml -e "testing_vars_file=/path_to/test.yml testing_testcase_file=/path_to/gosv_testcase_list.yml"

5. New folder for log files and files collected in test cases are created for current test run, e.g., "logs/test-vm/2021-07-06-09-27-51/", find test case results in "results.log", failed tasks in "failed_tasks.log", testing debug log in "full_debug.log".

Catalog

• main.yml: Main playbook for Guest OS validation test
• ansible.cfg: User customized Ansible configuration file
• autoinstall: Folder for guest OS unattend install configuration files
• common: Folder for common tasks called in test cases
• docs: Folder for guide file and known issues
• env_setup: Folder for playbooks or tasks which to prepare or cleanup testing environment
• linux: Folder for playbooks to test Linux guest OS
• windows: Folder for playbooks to test Windows guest OS
• plugin: Folder for plugin scripts
• tools: Folder for 3rd-party tools used in test cases
• vars: Folder for variable files used in testing
• changelogs: Folder for changelog of each release

Supported Testing Scenarios

This project supports below scenarios for end-to-end guest OS validation testing

• Deploy VM and install guest OS from ISO image
• Deploy VM from an OVA template
• Existing VM with installed guest OS, which should satisfy below requirments.
  • SSH and Python are installed and enabled
  • The vm_python variable in vars/test.yml must be set with correct python path. Or user can set PATH in /etc/environment in guest OS to include the binary directory path to python.
  • The root user should be enabled and permitted to log in through SSH in Linux guest OS
  • Execute ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1 script in Windows guest OS in advance

Supported Guest OS

Guest OS types/versions	Automatic install from ISO image	Deploy from ova template	Existing VM and installed guest OS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x, 8.x, 9.x	✔️		✔️
CentOS 7.x, 8.x	✔️		✔️
Oracle Linux 7.x, 8.x	✔️		✔️
Rocky Linux 8.4	✔️		✔️
AlmaLinux 8.4	✔️		✔️
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP3, SP4	✔️		✔️
SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5, 15 SP0/SP1/SP2			✔️
Photon OS 3.x	✔️	✔️	✔️
Photon OS 4.x	✔️	✔️	✔️
Ubuntu 18.04, 18.10, 20.04, 20.10, 21.04, 21.10 live-server	✔️		✔️
Ubuntu 20.04, 20.10, 21.04, 21.10 cloud image		✔️	✔️
Ubuntu 18.04, 18.10, 20.04, 20.10, 21.04, 21.10 desktop			✔️
Flatcar 2592.0.0 and later		✔️	✔️
Debian 9.x, 10.x			✔️
Astra Linux (Orel) 2.12.43		✔️	✔️
Windows 10, 11	✔️		✔️
Windows Server 2019, 2022	✔️		✔️
Windows Server SAC releases	✔️		✔️

Note: This supported guest OS list is used for this project only. For guest OS support status on ESXi, please refer to VMware Compatibility Guide.

Docker images

• Latest (Release v1.2):
  • projects.registry.vmware.com/gos_cert/ansible-vsphere-gos-validation:latest
• Release v1.2:
  • projects.registry.vmware.com/gos_cert/ansible-vsphere-gos-validation:v1.2
• Release v1.1:
  • projects.registry.vmware.com/gos_cert/ansible-vsphere-gos-validation:v1.1
• Release v1.0:
  • projects.registry.vmware.com/gos_cert/ansible-vsphere-gos-validation:v1.0

Launch testing using Docker image

1. Execute below commands in your machine

$ docker pull projects.registry.vmware.com/gos_cert/ansible-vsphere-gos-validation:latest
$ docker run -it --privileged projects.registry.vmware.com/gos_cert/ansible-vsphere-gos-validation:latest

2. Launch testing in the started container following the steps in this section Steps to Launch Testing