community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session – Create or remove a Port Mirroring session.

Note

This plugin is part of the community.vmware collection (version 1.15.0).

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 community.vmware.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session.

Synopsis

  • This module can be used to create, delete or edit different kind of port mirroring sessions.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • python > = 2.6
  • PyVmomi

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
description
string
The description for the session.
destination_port
string
Destination port that received the mirrored packets.
Also any port designated in the value of this property can not match the source port in any of the Distributed Port Mirroring session.
destination_vm
dictionary
With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session.
name
string
Name of the VM.
nic_label
string
Label of the network interface card to use.
enabled
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
Whether the session is enabled.
encapsulation_vlan_id
integer
VLAN ID used to encapsulate the mirrored traffic.
hostname
string
The hostname or IP address of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.
If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_HOST will be used instead.
Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
mirrored_packet_length
integer
An integer that describes how much of each frame to mirror.
If unset, all of the frame would be mirrored.
Setting this property to a smaller value is useful when the consumer will look only at the headers.
The value cannot be less than 60.
name
string / required
Name of the session.
normal_traffic_allowed
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
Whether or not destination ports can send and receive "normal" traffic.
Setting this to false will make mirror ports be used solely for mirroring and not double as normal access ports.
password
string
The password of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.
If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PASSWORD will be used instead.
Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

aliases: pass, pwd
port
integer
Default:
443
The port number of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.
If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PORT will be used instead.
Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
proxy_host
string
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.
This feature depends on a version of pyvmomi greater than v6.7.1.2018.12
proxy_port
integer
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.
sampling_rate
integer
Sampling rate of the session.
If its value is n, one of every n packets is mirrored.
Valid values are between 1 to 65535.
session_type
string
    Choices:
  • encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource
  • remoteMirrorDest
  • remoteMirrorSource
  • dvPortMirror
Select the mirroring type.
In encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource session, Distributed Ports can be used as source entities, and IP address can be used as destination entities.
In remoteMirrorDest session, VLAN IDs can be used as source entities, and Distributed Ports can be used as destination entities.
In remoteMirrorSource session, Distributed Ports can be used as source entities, and uplink ports name can be used as destination entities.
In dvPortMirror session, Distributed Ports can be used as both source and destination entities.
source_port_received
string
Source port for which received packets are mirrored.
source_port_transmitted
string
Source port for which transmitted packets are mirrored.
source_vm_received
dictionary
With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session.
name
string
Name of the VM.
nic_label
string
Label of the network interface card to use.
source_vm_transmitted
dictionary
With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session.
name
string
Name of the VM.
nic_label
string
Label of the network interface card to use.
state
string / required
    Choices:
  • present
  • absent
Create or remove the session.
strip_original_vlan
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
Whether to strip the original VLAN tag.
If false, the original VLAN tag will be preserved on the mirrored traffic.
If encapsulationVlanId has been set and this property is false, the frames will be double tagged with the original VLAN ID as the inner tag.
switch
string / required
The name of the distributed vSwitch on which to add or remove the mirroring session.

aliases: switch_name
username
string
The username of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server.
If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_USER will be used instead.
Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.

aliases: admin, user
validate_certs
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
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.
Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
If set to true, please make sure Python >= 2.7.9 is installed on the given machine.

Notes

Note

  • Tested on vSphere 6.7
  • All modules requires API write access and hence is not supported on a free ESXi license.

Examples

- name: Create distributed mirroring session.
  community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    switch_name: dvSwitch
    state: present
    name: Basic Session
    enabled: True
    description: "Example description"
    source_port_transmitted: 817
    source_port_received: 817
    destination_port: 815
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create remote destination mirroring session.
  community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    switch_name: dvSwitch
    state: present
    name: Remote Session
    enabled: True
    description: "Example description"
    source_port_received: 105
    destination_port: 815
    session_type: "remoteMirrorDest"
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create remote destination mirroring session.
  community.vmware.vmware_vspan_session:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    switch_name: dvSwitch
    state: absent
    name: Remote Session
  delegate_to: localhost

Authors

  • Peter Gyorgy (@gyorgypeter)

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2021 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/vmware/vmware_vspan_session_module.html