terraform-network

Terraform boilerplate code to deploy a configured network topology to ESXi

Requirements

Terraform 0.12 (beta)

Terraform 0.12 is required to support for-loops, dynamic-blocks, and complex-objects. The binary can be downloaded from here.

Terraform vSphere provider (compatible with 0.12)

It also requires a compatible vSphere provider version that needs to be build from source.

• git clone -b core-v0.12-alpha4 https://github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-vsphere
• cd terraform-provider-vsphere
• make build
• copy the output binary terraform-provider-vsphere into the same directory as the terraform binary

Configuration

The terraform.tfvars file is the only configuration file that needs to be adjusted. It contains the needed parameters for the ESXi connection and the network topology.

The network topology is a complex-object with the following structure:

variable "network" {
  type = list(object({
    name = string
    type = string
    vlan_ids = list(number)
  }))
}

It is a list of network objects consisting of a name (arbitrary chosen identifier for the device), a type (device type that maps to the related terraform configuration), and vlan_ids (a list of ids that specifies to which networks the device is connected to). It is extensible with new device types by creating additional <device type name>.tf files.

Without a vCenter installation it is not possible to deploy prebuilt virtual-machine images via cloning, it is only possible to create empty hard-drives and boot from cd-drive to perform an OS installation. Due to this issue there is at the moment only one device type available which is alpine, a small linux live image without any persistence.

Deployment

The deployment is done via the default terraform commands.

terraform validate - check for correct syntax

terraform plan - display the steps that will be executed according to the current state

terraform graph | dot -Tsvg > graph.svg - export the plan as visual graph

terraform apply - apply the plan and do the actual deployment. It will also show the plan and ask for confirmation.

terraform destroy - delete everything that was applied before