vmware_guest module does not assign custom MAC address if building a VM from a template

[acozine]

SUMMARY

Possibly related to #1391 and/or #1158.

When building a new VM with the vmware_guest module using a template, the MAC address is automatically assigned even if you pass a custom MAC address.

I reported this in this forum post, and other users confirmed the bug.

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

vmware_guest module

ANSIBLE VERSION

 % ansible --version
ansible [core 2.16.3]
python version = 3.11.1 (main, Jun 23 2023, 15:42:22)

COLLECTION VERSION

community.vmware              4.0.1 

OS / ENVIRONMENT

vCenter 7.0.3
ESXi 7.0.3

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

Run a playbook with a single task that builds a new VM and passes a custom MAC address.

Replace the values in this example task with ones that match your environment.

    - name: Create a VM with specific MAC address
      community.vmware.vmware_guest:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        validate_certs: false
        datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
        cluster: "{{ vcenter_cluster }}"
        folder: /{{ vm_folder | default('dev-vms') }}
        name: test-custom-mac-address
        state: present
        template: "{{ vm_template | default('template_2024')}}"
        disk:
          - size_gb: 30
            type: thin
            datastore: "{{ vm_info.datastore_url }}"
        hardware:
          memory_mb: "{{ vm_memory | default('8192') }}"
          num_cpus: "{{ vm_cpus | default('2') }}"
          num_cpu_cores_per_socket: "{{ vm_cpu_cores | default('1') }}"
          scsi: paravirtual
          version: latest
          boot_firmware: "efi"
        cdrom:
          - controller_number: 0
            unit_number: 0
            state: present
        networks:
          - name: "{{ vm_network | default('VM Network')}}"
            mac: "00:11:22:aa:bb:cc" # put a valid mac address here

EXPECTED RESULTS

Task creates a new VM with the custom MAC address.

ACTUAL RESULTS

Task created a new VM with an automatically-supplied MAC address.

WORKAROUNDS

• If you create the VM from scratch, you can pass a custom MAC address and it works.
• If you create the VM from the template, you can add a second NIC with the custom MAC address, power the VM down, remove the NIC with the automatically-supplied MAC address, and power the VM back up again. Once that's done, your eth0 will have the correct MAC address.