The tables below describe the configuration options available in the vSphere node template:

Account Access

The account access parameters are different based on the Rancher version.

    Parameter Required Description
    Cloud Credentials * Your vSphere account access information, stored in a cloud credential.
    Parameter Required Description
    vCenter or ESXi Server * IP or FQDN of the vCenter or ESXi server used for managing VMs.
    Port * Port to use when connecting to the server. Defaults to 443.
    Username * vCenter/ESXi user to authenticate with the server.
    Password * User’s password.

    Instance Options

    The options for creating and configuring an instance are different depending on your Rancher version.

      Parameter Required Description
      CPUs * Number of vCPUS to assign to VMs.
      Memory * Amount of memory to assign to VMs.
      Disk * Size of the disk (in MB) to attach to the VMs.
      Creation method * The method for setting up an operating system on the node. The operating system can be installed from an ISO or from a VM template. Depending on the creation method, you will also have to specify a VM template, content library, existing VM, or ISO. For more information on creation methods, refer to the section on configuring instances.
      Cloud Init URL of a cloud-config.yml file or URL to provision VMs with. This file allows further customization of the operating system, such as network configuration, DNS servers, or system daemons. The operating system must support cloud-init.
      Networks Name(s) of the network to attach the VM to.
      Configuration Parameters used for guestinfo Additional configuration parameters for the VMs. These correspond to the Advanced Settings in the vSphere console. Example use cases include providing RancherOS guestinfo parameters or enabling disk UUIDs for the VMs (disk.EnableUUID=TRUE).
      Parameter Required Description
      CPUs * Number of vCPUS to assign to VMs.
      Memory * Amount of memory to assign to VMs.
      Disk * Size of the disk (in MB) to attach to the VMs.
      Cloud Init URL of a RancherOS cloud-config file to provision VMs with. This file allows further customization of the RancherOS operating system, such as network configuration, DNS servers, or system daemons.
      OS ISO URL * URL of a RancherOS vSphere ISO file to boot the VMs from. You can find URLs for specific versions in the Rancher OS GitHub Repo.
      Configuration Parameters Additional configuration parameters for the VMs. These correspond to the Advanced Settings in the vSphere console. Example use cases include providing RancherOS guestinfo parameters or enabling disk UUIDs for the VMs (disk.EnableUUID=TRUE).

      Scheduling Options

      The options for scheduling VMs to a hypervisor are different depending on your Rancher version.

        Parameter Required Description
        Data Center * Name/path of the datacenter to create VMs in.
        Resource Pool Name of the resource pool to schedule the VMs in. Leave blank for standalone ESXi. If not specified, the default resource pool is used.
        Data Store * If you have a data store cluster, you can toggle the Data Store field. This lets you select a data store cluster where your VM will be scheduled to. If the field is not toggled, you can select an individual disk.
        Folder Name of a folder in the datacenter to create the VMs in. Must already exist. The folder name should be prefaced with vm/ in your vSphere config file.
        Host The IP of the host system to schedule VMs in. If specified, the host system’s pool will be used and the Pool parameter will be ignored.
        Parameter Required Description
        Data Center * Name/path of the datacenter to create VMs in.
        Pool Name/path of the resource pool to schedule the VMs in. If not specified, the default resource pool is used.
        Host Name/path of the host system to schedule VMs in. If specified, the host system’s pool will be used and the Pool parameter will be ignored.
        Network * Name of the VM network to attach VMs to.
        Data Store * Datastore to store the VM disks.
        Folder Name of a folder in the datacenter to create the VMs in. Must already exist. The folder name should be prefaced with vm/ in your vSphere config file.