Shell Script To Create VMs From Command Line

While I agree PowerCLI API's are the right way to deploy multiple VMs on an ESXi, I had to fallback to bash script for a project that I have been working on lately. The script is pretty simple. It is divided into 6 functions.

Function 1 is for a VMX file template which has variable input obtained from the remaining functions
Function 2 is for creating a VMDK of required size and provision type
Function 3 is for MAC address generation
Function 4 is VM Uid and VC Uid generation
Function 5 is VM Registration
Function 6 is for VM Power On

Let's have a look at this:

While ESXi does not run "bash" I had to go with the #!/bin/sh shebang to define the interpreter.
The VMX file function has a pre created template with certain options that has a variable input which can be modified by the user later while executing the script:

Create_VM ()
	{
	read -p "Enter the VM name: " VM_name
	read -p "Enter the path of the datastore. /vmfs/volumes/<storage-name>/: " datastore_name
	cd /vmfs/volumes/$datastore_name
	mkdir $VM_name&&cd$VM_name&& touch $VM_name.vmx
	read -p "Enter the Hardware version for the VM: " HW_version
	read -p "Enter the Memory required for the VM: " Memory
	read -p "Enter the network type, e1000 / VMXNET3: " Net_type
	read -p "Enter the VM Port group name: " Port_group
	# VMX File Entries
	cat << EOF >$VM_name.vmx
	.encoding = "UTF-8"
	config.version = "8"
	virtualHW.version = "$HW_version"
	nvram = "$VM_name.nvram"
	pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
	svga.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge4.functions = "8"
	pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge5.functions = "8"
	pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge6.functions = "8"
	pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge7.functions = "8"
	vmci0.present = "TRUE"
	hpet0.present = "TRUE"
	memSize = "$Memory"
	scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
	scsi0.present = "TRUE"
	ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"
	ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
	ide1:0.clientDevice = "TRUE"
	ide1:0.fileName = "emptyBackingString"
	ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
	floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
	floppy0.clientDevice = "TRUE"
	floppy0.fileName = "vmware-null-remote-floppy"
	ethernet0.virtualDev = "$Net_type"
	ethernet0.networkName = "$Port_group"
	ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "false"
	ethernet0.addressType = "static"
	ethernet0.Address = "$final_mac"
	ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
	scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
	scsi0:0.fileName = "$VM_name.vmdk"
	scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
	displayName = "$VM_name"
	guestOS = "windows8srv-64"
	disk.EnableUUID = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.afterPowerOn = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.afterResume = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.beforeSuspend = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.beforePowerOff = "TRUE"
	uuid.bios = "$uuid"
	vc.uuid = "$vcid"
	ctkEnabled = "TRUE"
	scsi0:0.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"
	EOF
	}

The create VMDK is simple which uses the vmkfstools -C to get the job done.

Create_VMDK ()
	{
	read -p "Enter disk format. thin / zeroedthick / eagerzeroedthick: " format
	read -p "Enter size: " size
	vmkfstools -c "$size"G -d $format$VM_name.vmdk
	}

The MAC address generation keeps a static MAC by modifying the VMX and the constant VMware defined prefix with a random generated number for the last octet.

MAC_address ()
	{
	mac=$(awk -v min=1000 -v max=9000 'BEGIN{srand(); print int(min+rand()*(max-min+1))}' | sed -e 's/.\{2\}/&:/g;s/.$//')
	final_mac=00:50:56:00:$mac
	}

The similar algorithm is applied for VC UUid generation where the post digits are constant only the first octet is changed.

UUID_generate ()
	{
	uuid_postfix="1a c2 4e fe 1a 8c d2-db 90 02 81 ce d8 31 15"
	vcid_postfix="1a c9 91 4b 4a b9 93-79 23 12 1f b2 c5 37 f8"
	uuid_prefix=$(awk -v min=10 -v max=99 'BEGIN{srand(); print int(min+rand()*(max-min+1))}')
	vcid_prefix=$(awk -v min=10 -v max=99 'BEGIN{srand(); print int(min+rand()*(max-min+1))}')
	uuid="$uuid_prefix $uuid_postfix"
	vcid="$vcid_prefix $vcid_postfix"
	}

The complete source code{} can be accessed here:
https://github.com/happycow92/Lab-Deploy/blob/master/additional-vm-deploy.sh

A while loop is defined if a user wants to deploy multiple VMs.

Well, that's pretty much it.