# vmware_vspan_session – Create or remove a Port Mirroring session

New in version 2.8.

- Synopsis

- Requirements

- Parameters

- Notes

- Examples

- Status

## Synopsis

- This module can be used to create, delete or edit different kind of port mirroring sessions.

## Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

- python > = 2.6

- PyVmomi

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
description string |  | The description for the session.
destination_port string |  | Destination port that received the mirrored packets. Also any port designated in the value of this property can not match the source port in any of the Distributed Port Mirroring session.
destination_vm dictionary |  | With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session. Valid attributes are: - `name` (str): Name of the VM - `nic_label` (bool): Label of the Network Interface Card to use.

enabled
boolean

Choices:
- no
- yes ←

Whether the session is enabled.

encapsulation_vlan_id integer |  | VLAN ID used to encapsulate the mirrored traffic.
hostname string |  | The hostname or IP address of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_HOST` will be used instead. Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
mirrored_packet_length integer |  | An integer that describes how much of each frame to mirror. If unset, all of the frame would be mirrored. Setting this property to a smaller value is useful when the consumer will look only at the headers. The value cannot be less than 60.
name string / required |  | Name of the session.

normal_traffic_allowed
boolean

Choices:
- no
- yes

Whether or not destination ports can send and receive "normal" traffic. Setting this to false will make mirror ports be used solely for mirroring and not double as normal access ports.

password string |  | The password of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_PASSWORD` will be used instead. Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6. aliases: pass, pwd
port integer added in 2.5 | Default: 443 | The port number of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_PORT` will be used instead. Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
proxy_host string added in 2.9 |  | Address of a proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them. The format is a hostname or a IP. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_PROXY_HOST` will be used instead. This feature depends on a version of pyvmomi greater than v6.7.1.2018.12
proxy_port integer added in 2.9 |  | Port of the HTTP proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_PROXY_PORT` will be used instead.
sampling_rate integer |  | Sampling rate of the session. If its value is n, one of every n packets is mirrored. Valid values are between 1 to 65535, and default value is 1.

session_type
string

Choices:
- encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource
- remoteMirrorDest
- remoteMirrorSource
- dvPortMirror ←

Select the mirroring type.
- `encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource` (str): In encapsulatedRemoteMirrorSource session, Distributed Ports can be used as source entities, and Ip address can be used as destination entities.
- `remoteMirrorDest` (str): In remoteMirrorDest session, vlan Ids can be used as source entities, and Distributed Ports can be used as destination entities.
- `remoteMirrorSource` (str): In remoteMirrorSource session, Distributed Ports can be used as source entities, and uplink ports name can be used as destination entities.
- `dvPortMirror` (str): In dvPortMirror session, Distributed Ports can be used as both source and destination entities.

source_port_received string |  | Source port for which received packets are mirrored.
source_port_transmitted string |  | Source port for which transmitted packets are mirrored.
source_vm_received dictionary |  | With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session. Valid attributes are: - `name` (str): Name of the VM - `nic_label` (bool): Label of the Network Interface Card to use.
source_vm_transmitted dictionary |  | With this parameter it is possible, to add a NIC of a VM to a port mirroring session. Valid attributes are: - `name` (str): Name of the VM - `nic_label` (bool): Label of the Network Interface Card to use.

state
string / required

Choices:
- present
- absent

Create or remove the session.

strip_original_vlan
boolean

Choices:
- no
- yes

Whether to strip the original VLAN tag. if false, the original VLAN tag will be preserved on the mirrored traffic. If encapsulationVlanId has been set and this property is false, the frames will be double tagged with the original VLAN ID as the inner tag.

switch string / required |  | The name of the distributed vSwitch on which to add or remove the mirroring session. aliases: switch_name
username string |  | The username of the vSphere vCenter or ESXi server. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_USER` will be used instead. Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6. aliases: admin, user

validate_certs
boolean

Choices:
- no
- yes ←

Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid. Set to `false` when certificates are not trusted.
If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS` will be used instead.
Environment variable support added in Ansible 2.6.
If set to `yes`, please make sure Python >= 2.7.9 is installed on the given machine.

## Notes

Note

- Tested on vSphere 6.7

## Examples

    - name: Create distributed mirroring session.
      vmware_vspan_session:
        hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
        username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
        password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
        switch_name: dvSwitch
        state: present
        name: Basic Session
        enabled: True
        description: "Example description"
        source_port_transmitted: 817
        source_port_received: 817
        destination_port: 815
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Create remote destination mirroring session.
      vmware_vspan_session:
        hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
        username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
        password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
        switch_name: dvSwitch
        state: present
        name: Remote Session
        enabled: True
        description: "Example description"
        source_port_received: 105
        destination_port: 815
        session_type: "remoteMirrorDest"
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Create remote destination mirroring session.
      vmware_vspan_session:
        hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
        username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
        password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
        switch_name: dvSwitch
        state: absent
        name: Remote Session
      delegate_to: localhost

## Status

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]

- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Peter Gyorgy (@gyorgypeter)

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