parallels-clone

This role can be used to clone Parallels Desktop VMs.

Templates

To clone a new VM in Parallels you need at least one template VM, which is the origin VM for your new cloned VM. Ansible will clone this VM via Parallels prlctl command-line utility and sets a fixed IP address in Parallels internal DHCP server (IP reservation).

Ansible will also make sure that the VM name can be looked up on your Mac OS X host (via /etc/hosts) and that the hostname of the cloned VM is updated accordingly.

Requirements

• Parallels Desktop 10+
• prlctl - the Parallels CLI tool
• sudo access on Mac OS X for the update of the /etc/hosts file

Role Variables

IP Address (mandatory)

You've to define the IP address of your VM by setting the ip parameter, for example:

ip: 10.99.0.123

Please note that it makes sense to set the ip parameter directly in the hosts file or any other inventory source.

Template (mandatory)

You've to define the template (source) VM by setting the template parameter, for example:

template: debian

Please note that it makes sense to set the template parameter directly in the hosts file or any other inventory source.

Parallels CLI tool (optional)

To clone a VM, Ansible will use Parallels prlctl tool. By default the tool is simply called by executing prlctl. However, if you've a specific path (e.g. /Applications/Parallels\ Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/prlctl) you can overwrite that by settings the prlctl variable:

prlctl: <new path to prlctl>

IP CIDR mask (optional)

The CIDR mask for the IP address is by default set to 24, but you can overwrite that by set. You can overwrite that by setting the cidr_mask variable:

cidr_mask: <new CIDR mask>

Dependencies

None.

Example playbook

- hosts: server
  roles:
    - { role: parallels_clone, ip: 10.99.123, template: debian }