Automating Nutanix with Ansible: Foundations, Playbooks, and Best Practices

Introduction

Nutanix and Ansible are a natural fit for enterprise automation. While Nutanix provides powerful APIs and CLI tools, Ansible brings repeatable, version-controlled orchestration to the datacenter. This guide helps you install, authenticate, and run your first playbook using the official Nutanix Ansible collection.

My Personal Repository on GitHub

Nutanix Repository on GitHub

Step 1: Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure:

• Python 3.8+ is installed
• pip is available
• Ansible 2.11+ is installed
• You have access to Prism Central or Prism Element

Install Ansible:

pip install ansible

Step 2: Install the Nutanix Ansible Collection

Install from Ansible Galaxy:

ansible-galaxy collection install nutanix.ncp

Verify:

ansible-galaxy collection list | grep nutanix

Step 3: Define Your Inventory

Create inventory.yml:

all:
  hosts:
    localhost:
      ansible_connection: local

This setup runs tasks from the Ansible control machine, ideal for calling remote Nutanix APIs.

Step 4: Store Your Credentials

Create nutanix_credentials.yml and encrypt with ansible-vault:

nutanix_pc_hostname: "prism.example.com"
nutanix_pc_port: 9440
nutanix_username: "admin"
nutanix_password: "S3cure!"
validate_certs: false

Encrypt:

ansible-vault encrypt nutanix_credentials.yml

Step 5: Write Your First Playbook

Create create_vm.yml:

- name: Create a VM in Nutanix
  hosts: localhost
  collections:
    - nutanix.ncp
  vars_files:
    - nutanix_credentials.yml
  tasks:
    - name: Launch a test VM
      nutanix.ncp.vms:
        state: present
        name: "demo-vm"
        cluster_name: "prod-cluster"
        memory_size_mib: 2048
        num_vcpus_per_socket: 1
        num_sockets: 2
        boot_type: UEFI
        vm_disks:
          - disk_size_mib: 10240
            storage_container: "default-container"
        vm_nics:
          - subnet_name: "vlan10"

Step 6: Run the Playbook

ansible-playbook create_vm.yml --ask-vault-pass -i inventory.yml

You’ll be prompted for your Ansible Vault password.

Summary

You’re now equipped with a working Ansible setup for Nutanix! You installed the Nutanix collection, secured credentials, and launched a VM via a declarative YAML playbook. In upcoming posts, we’ll explore how to expand, delete, snapshot, and audit Nutanix resources using the same model.

External Documentation:

• Nutanix Ansible Collection (GitHub)
• Nutanix ncli Reference