Ansible Role: Install VM Tools for RHEL/CentOS on VirtualBox/VMWare

This role installs VM tools on a RHEL/CentOS guest (minimal or full install) in VirtualBox or VMWare.

This role is based on the geerlingguy.packer-rhel version 1.2.2 (e392ebc).

Requirements

!!! warning "This information may be outdated!"

Before using this role with Packer, you need to ensure that Ansible is installed using a shell provisioner. You should also complete initial VM setup (like adding a vagrant user to the right group and the sudoers file), typically by using a Kickstart installation file (e.g., ks.cfg) with Packer. An example of provisioners in your Packer .json template could be:

"provisioners": [
  {
    "type": "ansible",
    "playbook_file": "ansible/main.yml",
    "role_paths": [
      "/home/cognifloyd/.galaxy/roles/cognifloyd.vm-tools",
    ]
  }
],

The files must include at least:

ansible/main.yml:

---
- hosts: all
  become: true
  gather_facts: true
  roles:
    - cognifloyd.vm-tools

You may also want to add another shell provisioner for cleanup, like wiping free space with dd, but this is optional (it only saves a bit of space in the Packer-produced .box file).

If you want to include more roles, remember to add them to the role_paths array in the .json template, and then list them in main.yml as usual. The Ansible setup will run locally within the Linux environment, so all necessary files should be transferred to the VM; this setup is specified in the .json template. Learn more: Ansible Local Provisioner.

Role Variables

None.

Dependencies

None.

Example Playbook

- hosts: all
  roles:
    - { role: cognifloyd.vm-tools }

License

MIT / BSD

Author Information

This role is based on the geerlingguy.packer-rhel role created in 2014 by Jeff Geerling, author of Ansible for DevOps.