---
layout: "vsphere"
page_title: "Provider: VMware vSphere"
sidebar_current: "docs-vsphere-index"
description: |-
  The VMware vSphere provider is used to interact with the resources supported by
  VMware vSphere. The provider needs to be configured with the proper credentials
  before it can be used.
---

# VMware vSphere Provider

The VMware vSphere provider is used to interact with the resources supported by
VMware vSphere.
The provider needs to be configured with the proper credentials before it can be used.

Use the navigation to the left to read about the available resources.

~> **NOTE:** The VMware vSphere Provider currently represents _initial support_
and therefore may undergo significant changes as the community improves it. This
provider at this time only supports IPv4 addresses on virtual machines.

## Example Usage

```
# Configure the VMware vSphere Provider
provider "vsphere" {
  user           = "${var.vsphere_user}"
  password       = "${var.vsphere_password}"
  vsphere_server = "${var.vsphere_server}"
}

# Create a folder
resource "vsphere_folder" "frontend" {
  path = "frontend"
}

# Create a virtual machine within the folder
resource "vsphere_virtual_machine" "web" {
  name   = "terraform-web"
  folder = "${vsphere_folder.frontend.path}"
  vcpu   = 2
  memory = 4096

  network_interface {
    label = "VM Network"
  }

  disk {
    template = "centos-7"
  }
}
```

## Argument Reference

The following arguments are used to configure the VMware vSphere Provider:

* `user` - (Required) This is the username for vSphere API operations. Can also
  be specified with the `VSPHERE_USER` environment variable.
* `password` - (Required) This is the password for vSphere API operations. Can
  also be specified with the `VSPHERE_PASSWORD` environment variable.
* `vsphere_server` - (Required) This is the vCenter server name for vSphere API
  operations. Can also be specified with the `VSPHERE_SERVER` environment
  variable.
* `allow_unverified_ssl` - (Optional) Boolean that can be set to true to
  disable SSL certificate verification. This should be used with care as it
  could allow an attacker to intercept your auth token. If omitted, default
  value is `false`. Can also be specified with the `VSPHERE_ALLOW_UNVERIFIED_SSL`
  environment variable.

## Required Privileges

In order to use Terraform provider as non priviledged user, a Role within
vCenter must be assigned the following privileges:

* Datastore
   - Allocate space
   - Browse datastore
   - Low level file operations
   - Remove file
   - Update virtual machine files
   - Update virtual machine metadata

* Folder (all)
   - Create folder
   - Delete folder
   - Move folder
   - Rename folder

* Network
   - Assign network

* Resource
   - Apply recommendation
   - Assign virtual machine to resource pool

* Virtual Machine
   - Configuration (all) - for now
   - Guest Operations (all) - for now
   - Interaction (all)
   - Inventory (all)
   - Provisioning (all)

These settings were tested with [vSphere
6.0](https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc%2FGUID-18071E9A-EED1-4968-8D51-E0B4F526FDA3.html)
and [vSphere
5.5](https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc%2FGUID-18071E9A-EED1-4968-8D51-E0B4F526FDA3.html).
For additional information on roles and permissions, please refer to official
VMware documentation.

## Customizations

This provider use
[customizations](https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50/GUID-80F3F5B5-F795-45F1-B0FA-3709978113D5.html),
this resource is used to configure guest operation system (Domain, hostname,
etc..). The problem to work with this customizations are that only a certain OS
are accepted. The list of accepted OS are
[here](http://partnerweb.vmware.com/programs/guestOS/guest-os-customization-matrix.pdf)


If the system are not in the list of the Supported OS, terraform will create a
server but will fail with the following error

```
Customization of the guest operating system 'debian6_64Guest' is not supported in this configuration. Microsoft Vista (TM) and Linux guests with Logical Volume Manager are supported only for recent ESX host and VMware Tools versions. Refer to vCenter documentation for supported configurations.
```

## Acceptance Tests

The VMware vSphere provider's acceptance tests require the above provider
configuration fields to be set using the documented environment variables.

In addition, the following environment variables are used in tests, and must be
set to valid values for your VMware vSphere environment:

 * VSPHERE\_NETWORK\_GATEWAY
 * VSPHERE\_NETWORK\_IP\_ADDRESS
 * VSPHERE\_NETWORK\_LABEL
 * VSPHERE\_NETWORK\_LABEL\_DHCP
 * VSPHERE\_TEMPLATE

The following environment variables depend on your vSphere environment:

 * VSPHERE\_DATACENTER
 * VSPHERE\_CLUSTER
 * VSPHERE\_RESOURCE\_POOL
 * VSPHERE\_DATASTORE

The following additional environment variables are needed for running the
"Mount ISO as CDROM media" acceptance tests.

 * VSPHERE\_CDROM\_DATASTORE
 * VSPHERE\_CDROM\_PATH


These are used to set and verify attributes on the `vsphere_virtual_machine`
resource in tests.

Once all these variables are in place, the tests can be run like this:

```
make testacc TEST=./builtin/providers/vsphere
```