Deploying Nutanix AHV VMs with Ansible

Introduction

Once your Ansible control node is configured, deploying a virtual machine on Nutanix AHV is just a few lines of YAML away. This article walks through an enterprise-ready playbook to launch AHV VMs using the Nutanix Ansible collection. We’ll cover options for CPU, memory, networks, and storage, and how to make the playbook reusable.

My Personal Repository on GitHub

Nutanix Repository on GitHub

Diagram: VM Deployment Workflow

Step 1: Define Inventory

Use inventory.yml as in Part 1:

all:
  hosts:
    localhost:
      ansible_connection: local

Step 2: Define Credentials File

Already encrypted from Part 1:

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

Step 3: Create Your VM Deployment Playbook

- name: Deploy AHV VM on Nutanix
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - nutanix.ncp
  vars_files:
    - nutanix_credentials.yml
  tasks:
    - name: Deploy application VM
      nutanix.ncp.vms:
        state: present
        name: app-server-01
        cluster_name: prod-cluster
        memory_size_mib: 8192
        num_vcpus_per_socket: 2
        num_sockets: 1
        boot_type: UEFI
        vm_disks:
          - disk_size_mib: 20480
            storage_container: default-container
        vm_nics:
          - subnet_name: vlan10
        guest_tools:
          agent_enabled: true

Step 4: Add Extra Configs (Optional)

        description: "App VM from Ansible"
        categories:
          - name: AppRole
            value: Web
        metadata:
          created_by: ansible

Step 5: Run the Playbook

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

Tips for Production Readiness

• Use tags for metadata control
• Store template inputs in group_vars/ or host_vars/
• Validate inputs with Ansible conditions or when:
• Store VM specs in separate YAML vars for repeatability

Summary

This playbook demonstrates how to launch a production-grade Nutanix VM using Ansible. By defining resources declaratively, you’re able to standardize provisioning and reduce admin overhead. Future posts will focus on snapshotting, networking, and scaling VMs dynamically.

External Documentation:

• Nutanix Ansible Collection (nutanix.ncp)