{"id":715,"date":"2024-07-13T17:11:29","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T15:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codeschoepfer.de\/?p=715"},"modified":"2024-07-15T19:45:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T17:45:20","slug":"automate-your-proxmox-vms-with-ansible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codeschoepfer.de\/en\/automate-your-proxmox-vms-with-ansible\/","title":{"rendered":"Automate Your Proxmox VM Deployment with Ansible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

\"Proxmox\" This article is a introduction to deploying virtual machines on the Proxmox VE<\/a> environment.<\/p>\n

First, there are multiple ways to deploy virtual machines on Proxmox. Let’s consider using Terraform<\/a> as an alternative to Ansible. With Terraform, we gain state management, meaning Terraform records each activity, which is useful for clean-up later. However, Ansible offers a robust implementation of the Proxmox API. Using Ansible allows us to handle many of these tasks seamlessly without interrupting our workflow.<\/p>\n

We are going to demonstrate the deployment of a Debian GNU\/Linux<\/a> VM. To keep it simple, we will use a stripped-down Ansible role. When using Ansible, you have several options for deploying a VM, such as using a Debian Cloud Image<\/a>. However, we decided to create and use a VM template because several necessary configurations are already deployed in this template. Furthermore, we are going to use cloud-init<\/a> to configure the VM for its target use.<\/p>\n

\nBasic knowledge in dealing with Ansible, Proxmox and cloud-init are required.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have the following file tree for this demo:<\/p>\n

\u279c tree\n.\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 hosts.ini\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 proxmox_create_demo_vm.yaml\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 proxmox_prepare.yaml\n\u2514\u2500\u2500 roles\n    \u251c\u2500\u2500 proxmox_create_demo_vm\n    \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 defaults\n    \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 main.yaml\n    \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 tasks\n    \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 main.yaml\n    \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 templates\n    \u2502\u00a0\u00a0     \u2514\u2500\u2500 user-data.yml.j2\n    \u2514\u2500\u2500 proxmox_prepare\n        \u2514\u2500\u2500 tasks\n            \u2514\u2500\u2500 main.yaml<\/code><\/pre>\n
Creating the VM template<\/h2>\n
Ensure you have a Proxmox VE template on your VM. If you don’t have one, create it by right-clicking on the VM and selecting Convert to template<\/code> We will be working with a template named Debian12<\/code> furtherdown.<\/p>\n
\nPlease ensure that your VM supports cloud-init, which should be the case, if you have a recent installation.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Prepare Proxmox<\/h2>\n
We need a wrapper to control the Proxmox API called Proxmoxer<\/a>. You have the option to install it on the Ansible server or on the Proxmox VE hosts.<\/p>\n
Pay attention to the target server you specify in your Ansible playbooks. If you choose to install it on the Ansible server, you need to use localhost<\/code> as the host in your playbook. We chose the latter option and installed it on the Proxmox VE hosts to keep our playbooks more consistent.<\/p>\n
When installing Proxmoxer, you need to decide on the version. The version that comes with Proxmox VE is likely too old to work with the most recent Ansible version. For this reason, we installed it using Python pip<\/a>. If you decide to use the official Debian package, just remove the comments (#) in the role file commands.<\/p>\n
---\n# roles\/proxmox_prepare\/tasks\/main.yaml\n# Prepare the Proxmox hosts\n\n#- name: Ensure pip is installed\n#  ansible.builtin.apt:\n#    name: python3-proxmoxer\n#    state: present\n#  become: yes\n\n- name: Ensure python3-pip is installed\n  ansible.builtin.apt:\n    name: python3-pip\n    state: present\n  become: yes\n\n- name: Install Proxmoxer Python module\n  ansible.builtin.pip:\n    name: proxmoxer\n    state: present\n    executable: pip3\n  become: yes<\/code><\/pre>\n
Our playbook for this role is as follows:<\/p>\n
---\n# Prepare Proxmox nodes\n- name: Prepare Proxmox nodes\n  hosts: compute_cluster\n  roles:\n    - role: proxmox_prepare<\/code><\/pre>\n
This can be applied by using the following command:<\/p>\n
\u279c ansible-playbook proxmox_prepare.yaml -i hosts.ini\n\nPLAY [Prepare Proxmox nodes] *********************************************************\n\nTASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************\nok: [compute0]\nok: [compute2]\nok: [compute1]\n\nTASK [proxmox_prepare : Ensure python3-pip is installed] *****************************\nok: [compute1]\nok: [compute2]\nok: [compute0]\n\nTASK [proxmox_prepare : Install Proxmoxer Python module] *****************************\nchanged: [compute2]\nchanged: [compute1]\nchanged: [compute0]\n\nPLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************\ncompute0                   : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0 \ncompute1                   : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0 \ncompute2                   : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
API Tokens<\/h2>\n
Again multiple ways exist to access to Proxmox API. We decided to use API keys, because it is convienant. As we want it be able to access the full API give the token root access. If you want to can create a dedicated user for it.<\/p>\n
Go to Datacenter > Permissions > Add<\/code>:<\/p>\n
\"Add<\/p>\n
Ensure to deactivate Privilege Separation<\/em>, we need to give the API key full privileges of the associated user.<\/p>\n
\"Copy<\/p>\n
Copy the token, it will only be displayed once. And put it to roles\/proxmox_create_demo_vm\/defaults\/main.yaml<\/code>. And yes you should work with a Ansible vault to be save. For the sake of simplicity, we have omitted it here.<\/p>\n
You can find more information of the Proxmox User Management<\/a> in the Proxmox Wiki.<\/p>\n
Preparing the Snippet Storage<\/h2>\n
We need to prepare the Proxmox VE Snippet Storage to upload the cloud-init config. Many users utilize the local<\/code> storage and activate the snippet property. The downside to this approach is that you have to copy the cloud-init file to each node. Our cluster uses Ceph<\/a> for storage, and the ISO<\/code> storage uses CephFS<\/strong>, making it available to each node. This means we only need to copy the file once.<\/p>\n
In the Proxmox GUI, navigate to Datacenter > Storage > <your storage> > Edit<\/code>.<\/p>\n
\"ISO<\/p>\n
Used Ansible Modules<\/h2>\n
First, we need to determine the proper Ansible modules to set up the VM. While there are many modules available, for this example, we only need the following two:<\/p>\n