vmware.vmware.esxi_service_info module – Gather information about the services on an ESXi host

Note

This module is part of the vmware.vmware collection (version 2.12.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install vmware.vmware.

To use it in a playbook, specify: vmware.vmware.esxi_service_info.

New in vmware.vmware 2.10.0

Synopsis

  • Gather information about the services available on an ESXi host, including each service’s running state, startup policy, and source package.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

esxi_host_name

aliases: name

string / required

Name of the ESXi host as defined in vCenter.

hostname

string

The hostname or IP address of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_HOST will be used instead.

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string

The password of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PASSWORD will be used instead.

port

integer

The port number of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PORT will be used instead.

Default: 443

proxy_host

string

The address of a proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.

The format is a hostname or a IP.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PROXY_HOST will be used instead.

proxy_port

integer

The port of the HTTP proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PROXY_PORT will be used instead.

service_names

list / elements=string

A list of service keys to gather information about, for example ntpd or TSM-SSH.

Only information about services in this list is returned.

If this option is not set or is empty, information about all services on the host is returned.

username

aliases: admin, user

string

The username of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_USER will be used instead.

validate_certs

boolean

Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid. Set to false when certificates are not trusted.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS will be used instead.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

Notes

Note

  • All modules require API write access and hence are not supported on a free ESXi license.

  • All variables and VMware object names are case sensitive.

  • Modules may rely on the ‘requests’ python library, which does not use the system certificate store by default. You can specify the certificate store by setting the REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE environment variable. Note having this variable set may cause a ‘false’ value for the ‘validate_certs’ option to be ignored in some cases. Example: ‘export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/your/ca_bundle.pem’

Examples

- name: Gather Info About All Services On A Host
  vmware.vmware.esxi_service_info:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    name: my_esxi_host
  register: host_services

- name: Gather Info About Specific Services On A Host
  vmware.vmware.esxi_service_info:
    name: my_esxi_host
    service_names:
      - ntpd
      - TSM-SSH
  register: host_services

- name: Print The Running State Of The NTP Service
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "ntpd running: {{ (host_services.services | selectattr('key', 'equalto', 'ntpd') | first).running }}"

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

exists

boolean

Whether any services were returned.

This is false when the host has no matching services, for example when service_names only contains service keys that do not exist on the host.

Returned: always

Sample: true

host

dictionary

Identifying information about the host.

Returned: always

Sample: {"moid": "host-111111", "name": "10.10.10.10"}

services

list / elements=dictionary

A list of the services on the host.

If service_names is set, only the requested services are included.

Returned: always

Sample: [{"key": "DCUI", "label": "Direct Console UI", "policy": "on", "required": false, "running": true, "source_package_desc": "This VIB contains all of the base functionality of vSphere ESXi.", "source_package_name": "esx-base", "uninstallable": false}, {"key": "ntpd", "label": "NTP Daemon", "policy": "off", "required": false, "running": false, "source_package_desc": "This VIB contains all of the base functionality of vSphere ESXi.", "source_package_name": "esx-base", "uninstallable": false}]

Authors

  • Ansible Eco Content Team (@eco-ansible-content)

  • Mike Morency (@mikemorency)