Terraform vSphere Provider – Error while creating vApp properties

#terraform #vmware #ovf

The Issue

When using Terraform to deploy a virtual machine OVA using Terraform, I kept hitting the below error:

Error: error while creating vapp properties config unsupported vApp properties in vapp.properties: [vm.vmname vami.gateway.DMS_agent_VA vami.netmask0.DMS_Agent_VA vami.DNS.DMS_Agent_VA vami.searchpath.DMS_Agent_VA vami.ip0.DMS_Agent_VA vami.domain.DMS_Agent_VA]

  on Agent_appliance/main.tf line 20, in resource "vsphere_virtual_machine" "vm":
  20: resource "vsphere_virtual_machine" "vm"

Pretty simple right? In my Terraform file I was trying to use OVF Properties that were not valid. Getting the debug/trace logs from terraform also just showed the same error output.

However running ovftool, confirmed my properties were correct. (shortened output example).

ClassId: vami
  Key: searchpath
  InstanceId DMS_Agent_VA
  Category: Networking Properties
  Label: Domain Search Path
  Type: string
  Description: The domain search path (comma or space separated domain names) 
               for this VM. Leave blank if DHCP is desired.

But also in the vCenter UI, looking at the vApp Properties of a the OVA once deployed, again I could validate the the properties I was using were correct.

Finally an example of the vSphere_virtual_machine resource I was trying to deploy that was causing me issues:

resource "vsphere\_virtual\_machine" "vm" {
  name = "${var.agent\_vm\_name}"
  resource_pool_id = "${var.resource\_pool\_id}"
  datastore_id = "${data.vsphere\_datastore.datastore.id}"
  folder = "${var.folder}"
  wait_for_guest_net_timeout = 0
  wait_for_guest_ip_timeout = 0
  datacenter_id = "${data.vsphere\_datacenter.dc.id}"
  host_system_id = "${data.vsphere\_host.host.id}"

  dynamic "ovf\_deploy" {
  for_each = "${var.agent\_local\_ovf\_path}" != "" || "${var.agent\_remote\_ovf\_path}" != "" ? [0] : []
  content {
  // Path to local or remote ovf/ova file
  local_ovf_path = "${var.agent\_local\_ovf\_path}" != "" ? "${var.agent\_local\_ovf\_path}" : null
  remote_ovf_url = "${var.agent\_remote\_ovf\_path}" != "" ? "${var.agent\_remote\_ovf\_path}" : null
   disk_provisioning = "thin"
   ovf_network_map = {
        "Control Plane Network" = data.vsphere\_network.network.id
    }
   }
  }

  vapp {
    properties = {
      "vm.vmname" = "${var.agent\_vm\_name}",
      "varoot_password" = "${var.varoot\_password}",
      "vaadmin_password" = "${var.va\_admin\_password}",
      "guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.ntp" = "${var.ntp}",
      "vami.gateway.DMS_agent_VA" = "${var.controlplanenetworkgateway}",
      "vami.DNS.DMS_Agent_VA" = "${var.dns}",
      "vami.domain.DMS_Agent_VA" = "${var.domain}",
      "vami.searchpath.DMS_Agent_VA" = "${var.searchpath}",
      "vami.ip0.DMS_Agent_VA" = "${var.agentip0}",
      "vami.netmask0.DMS_Agent_VA" = "${var.agentip0netmask}"
    }
  }
}

The Cause

Yep, you guessed it, there was something wrong with the properties I was trying to configure.

The Fix

After testing a number of ways to validate the OVF Properties expected, I came across a blog from William Lam, where he produced a PowerShell script that calls the vSphere API for the OVF Properties of a given VM.