In this post, we will go through the process of deploying an AVI Controller cluster. The reason for deploying this as a cluster is to emulate a production deployment. AVI is supported on a single controller, but you lose control plane high availability. If your resource-constrained in your lab (AVI controllers are rather big), If you are deploying a single node, you can amend the .yml file by commenting out the bit you don’t require (Node 2-3 and cluster creation).
For a copy of my example playbook for an avi cluster avi deployment, please refer to llewellyngm/ansible-avi-cluster (github.com)
AVI has some great documentation. If you’re interested in further information about AVI controller nodes and availability, please refer to this link High Availability for Avi Controllers (avinetworks.com).
For this deployment, we need to work out our environmental variables, logins, and IPs. Below is an example, but please refer to the variables.yml for the full list.
| vSphere Information | Example | |
| vCenter Hostname IP/Hostname | 192.168.1.20 | lab-vc-vcsa01.vcumulus.lab |
| vCenter User | user to deploy ovf files | |
| vCenter Password | password to deploy ovf files | |
| vCenter Datacentre Name | lab-vc | |
| ESXi Cluster Name | lab-vc-workloads | |
| vSphere Folder | vmware/avi | |
| AVI Information | Example | |
| AVI Cluster IP/Hostname | 172.16.1.150 | lab-vc-avict |
| AVI Node-01 IP/Hostname | 172.16.1.151 | lab-vc-avict01 |
| AVI Node-02 IP/Hostname | 172.16.1.152 | lab-vc-avict02 |
| AVI Node-03 IP/Hostname | 172.16.1.153 | lab-vc-avict03 |
| AVI old password | From AVI Site | |
| AVI new password | NewPassword | |
| Admin User Name | admin | |
| NTP Server 1/2 | 192.168.1.13 | 192.168.1.14 |
| DNS Server 1/2 | 172.16.1.2 | 172.16.1.3 |
Once we have collected all the information, we deploy the controllers with the below .yml file. The playbook calls on the two variable files, one with general variables & config items and the other a vault containing the user name & passwords for the deployment.
The Controllers are deployed and configured in order:
- Deploy Controller OVF > Configure the OVF with Controller one (1) configuration
- Deploy Controller OVF > Configure the OVF with Controller two (2) configuration
- Deploy Controller OVF > Configure the OVF with Controller three (3) configuration
- Set up the Cluster and configure the VIP & Setup the backup passphrase
---
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars_files:
- vars/deploy_cluster_variables.yml
roles:
- { role: avinetworks.avicontroller-vmware }
- { role: avinetworks.avisdk }
vars:
controller_configuration:
- mgmt_ip: "{{ controller_ip_1 }}"
vm_name: "{{ controller_name_1 }}"
- mgmt_ip: "{{ controller_ip_2 }}"
vm_name: "{{ controller_name_2 }}"
- mgmt_ip: "{{ controller_ip_3 }}"
vm_name: "{{ controller_name_3 }}"
tasks:
- name: Deploy Avi Controller
with_items: "{{ controller_configuration }}"
deploy_controller:
ovftool_path: '{{ ovftool_path }}'
vcenter_host: "{{ vcenter_host }}"
vcenter_user: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
vcenter_password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
con_datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
con_cluster: "{{ vmware_cluster_name }}"
con_ova_path: "{{ ova_path }}"
con_vm_name: "{{ item.vm_name }}"
con_disk_size: "{{ con_disk_size | default(omit) }}"
con_vcenter_folder: "{{ con_folder }}"
con_datastore: "{{ vmware_datastore }}"
con_mgmt_network: "{{ con_mgmt_portgroup }}"
con_power_on: true
con_mgmt_ip: "{{ item.mgmt_ip }}"
con_mgmt_mask: "{{ con_mgmt_mask }}"
con_default_gw: "{{ con_default_gw }}"
- name: Check Cluster Status
uri:
validate_certs: false
url: "https://{{ item.mgmt_ip }}/api/initial-data"
method: GET
status_code: 200
register: result
until: result.status == 200
retries: 600
delay: 10
with_items: "{{ controller_configuration }}"
- name: Change admin default password
avi_useraccount:
controller: "{{ controller_ip_1 }}"
username: "{{ avi_credentials.username }}"
password: "{{ avi_credentials.password }}"
api_version: "{{ avi_credentials.api_version }}"
old_password: "{{ old_password }}"
email: "{{ admin_email }}"
- set_fact:
dns_list: "{{ dns_list | default([]) + [{'type': 'V4', 'addr': dserver }] }}"
loop: "{{ dns_servers }}"
loop_control:
loop_var: dserver
name: "Prepare DNS Server List"
- set_fact:
ntp_list: "{{ ntp_list | default([]) + [{'server': {'type': ntp_type, 'addr': nserver }}] }}"
loop: "{{ ntp_servers }}"
loop_control:
loop_var: nserver
name: "Prepare NTP Server List"
- name: Initial Controller System Configuration
avi_systemconfiguration:
controller: "{{ controller_ip_1 }}"
username: "{{ avi_credentials.username }}"
password: "{{ avi_credentials.password }}"
api_version: "{{ avi_credentials.api_version }}"
welcome_workflow_complete: true
dns_configuration:
server_list: "{{ dns_list }}"
ntp_configuration:
ntp_servers: "{{ ntp_list }}"
- name: Set Backup Passphrase
avi_backupconfiguration:
controller: "{{ controller_ip_1 }}"
username: "{{ avi_credentials.username }}"
password: "{{ avi_credentials.password }}"
api_version: "{{ avi_credentials.api_version }}"
name: Backup-Configuration
backup_passphrase: "{{ backup_passphrase }}"
upload_to_remote_host: false
- name: Cloud Cluster Configuration
avi_cluster:
controller: "{{ controller_ip_1 }}"
username: "{{ avi_credentials.username }}"
password: "{{ avi_credentials.password }}"
api_version: "{{ avi_credentials.api_version }}"
virtual_ip:
type: V4
addr: "{{ controller_cluster_vip }}"
nodes:
- name: "{{ controller_name_1 }}"
ip:
type: V4
addr: "{{ controller_ip_1 }}"
- name: "{{ controller_name_2 }}"
ip:
type: V4
addr: "{{ controller_ip_2 }}"
- name: "{{ controller_name_3 }}"
ip:
type: V4
addr: "{{ controller_ip_3 }}"
name: "{{ avicluster_name }}"
tenant_uuid: "admin"
example varible
---
# TEMPLATE FOR CONTROLLER DEPLOYMENT AND CLUSTERING in VMWARE
# ovftool is part of the SDK
ovftool_path: /usr/lib/vmware-ovftool
# Controller Name and IP
#
controller_ip_1: "172.16.1.151"
controller_name_1: "lab-vc-alb01"
controller_ip_2: "172.16.1.152"
controller_name_2: "lab-vc-alb02"
controller_ip_3: "172.16.1.153"
controller_name_3: "lab-vc-alb03"
# Info for Controller Placement
con_mgmt_portgroup: "pg-mgt-vlan-401" # VMware MGMT PortGroup for Controller
con_mgmt_mask: 255.255.255.0
con_default_gw: 172.16.1.1
# Cluster Info for Avi Controller
#
controller_cluster_vip: 172.16.1.150
avicluster_name: 'lab-vc-avi01'
# Avi Controller Credentials
#
avi_credentials:
controller: "{{ controller_cluster_vip }}"
username: "admin"
password: "F1ghtZclub!"
api_version: "18.2.8" # Version of Controller
# Controller default password (https://portal.avinetworks.com/)
#
old_password: "aviwebsite"
# Vcenter credentials
#
vcenter_host: lab-vc-vcsa01.vcumulus.lab
vcenter_user: administrator@vsphere.local
vcenter_password: "VMware1!VMware1!"
datacenter: MK19
vmware_cluster_name: "lab-vc-workload"
vmware_datastore: '{{ datastore | default(omit) }}'
con_folder: vmware/avi
#Controller Image Location
#
ova_path: "/home/garethl/.ansible/playbooks/files/controller-20.1.6-9132.ova"
# Avi System Configuration
#
# DNS variables
dns_servers: [ 172.16.1.2, 172.16.1.3 ]
# NTP variables
ntp_servers: [ '192.168.1.13', '192.168.1.14' ]
ntp_type: "V4" #If servers are hostname use type "DNS", if IP use type "V4"
#Email for admin user (password resets)
admin_email: test_user@internal.lab
# Backup Passphrase (encrypt sensitive fields)
backup_passphrase: "testpassphrase"
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