# Using VMware dynamic inventory plugin

Topics

- Using VMware dynamic inventory plugin
  - VMware Dynamic Inventory Plugin

## VMware Dynamic Inventory Plugin

The best way to interact with your hosts is to use the VMware dynamic inventory plugin, which dynamically queries VMware APIs and tells Ansible what nodes can be managed.

To be able to use this VMware dynamic inventory plugin, you need to enable it first by specifying the following in the `ansible.cfg` file:

    [inventory]
    enable_plugins = vmware_vm_inventory

Then, create a file that ends in `.vmware.yml` or `.vmware.yaml` in your working directory.

The `vmware_vm_inventory` script takes in the same authentication information as any VMware module.

Here’s an example of a valid inventory file:

    plugin: vmware_vm_inventory
    strict: False
    hostname: 10.65.223.31
    username: administrator@vsphere.local
    password: Esxi@123$%
    validate_certs: False
    with_tags: True

Executing `ansible-inventory --list -i <filename>.vmware.yml` will create a list of VMware instances that are ready to be configured using Ansible.

See also

pyVmomi
  The GitHub Page of pyVmomi
pyVmomi Issue Tracker
  The issue tracker for the pyVmomi project
Working With Playbooks
  An introduction to playbooks