Molecule QEMU driver for testing Ansible roles.
Supported platforms:
- MacOS 13.x (arm64)
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (amd64) (tested on GitHub Actions)
Support guest OS:
- Debian 11 (arm64, amd64)
- Debian 12 (arm64, amd64)
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (arm64, amd64)
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (arm64, amd64)
Support of other platforms and guest OS is possible, but not tested. Please, open an issue if you want to add support for other platforms.
Supported network modes:
user- QEMU's user networking modevmnet-shared- QEMU'svmnet-sharednetworking mode (MacOS only)
Supported disk types:
virtio- QEMU's virtio disk typevirtio-scsi- QEMU's virtio-scsi disk type
Supported BIOS types:
uefi- QEMU's uefi used for image with uefi configuredbios- QEMU's bios used for image with bios configured
Install molecule-qemu python package:
pip install molecule-qemuCreate a new Molecule scenario using molecule init command:
molecule init scenario default --driver-name molecule-qemu --verifier-name testinfraEdit molecule.yml and add platforms:
---
dependency:
name: galaxy
driver:
name: molecule-qemu
platforms:
- name: debian-bullseye-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_mode: vmnet-shared
provisioner:
name: ansible
inventory:
host_vars:
debian-bullseye-arm64: {}
verifier:
name: testinfraFull list of supported options:
platforms:
- name: debian-bullseye-arm64
image_arch: aarch64 # optional, default is x86_64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
image_format: qcow2 # optional, default is qcow2
network_mode: vmnet-shared # optional, default is user
network_extra_args: "" # optional, only used when network_mode: user
network_ssh_port: 2222 # optional, default is 2222
network_ssh_user: ansible # optional, default is ansible
vm_cpus: 1 # optional, default is 1
vm_memory: 512 # optional, default is 512
vm_disk: 8G # optional, default is 8G
vm_extra_args: "" # optional, additional arguments to be passed to QEMU, default is empty
disk_type: virtio-scsi # optional, default is virtio
bios_type: bios # optional, default is uefiDriver depends on:
- QEMU (tested with 8.0.2, 8.0.4, 8.1.0)
- mkisofs (tested with 3.02a09)
Install QEMU and CDRTools on macOS:
brew install qemu cdrtoolsInstall QEMU on Ubuntu:
apt-get install mkisofs qemu-system-x86 qemu-utilsThis is the default network mode. It uses QEMU's user networking mode.
Mode is selected by setting network_mode: user in molecule.yml. This is the default mode. SSH port is forwarded to the host and must be unique for each platform (use network_ssh_port option to set it).
Additional port forwarding can be achieved by setting network_extra_args. Example:
- name: debian-bullseye-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_mode: user
network_ssh_port: 2222
network_extra_args: hostfwd=tcp::8080-:80This mode uses QEMU's vmnet-shared networking mode. It requires vmnet.framework to be installed on the host. This mode is only supported on MacOS. It requires passwordless sudo access for current user.
Mode is selected by setting network_mode: vmnet-shared in molecule.yml. Example:
- name: debian-bullseye-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_mode: vmnet-sharedSee tests for more examples.
platforms:
- name: debian-bullseye-amd64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-amd64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2222
- name: debian-bullseye-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2223
- name: debian-bookworm-amd64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-amd64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2224
- name: debian-bookworm-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/SHA512SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2225
- name: ubuntu-focal-amd64
image_url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
image_checksum: sha256:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/SHA256SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2226
- name: ubuntu-focal-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-arm64.img
image_checksum: sha256:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/SHA256SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2227
- name: ubuntu-jammy-amd64
image_url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
image_checksum: sha256:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/SHA256SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2228
- name: ubuntu-jammy-arm64
image_arch: aarch64
image_url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-arm64.img
image_checksum: sha256:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/SHA256SUMS
network_ssh_port: 2229For convenience, here are the URLs for the cloud images used in the examples above.
- https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
- https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/SHA512SUMS
- https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/SHA256SUMS
- https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/SHA256SUMS
Molecule working directory is: ~/.cache/molecule/<role-name>/<scenario-name>.
QEMU images caches is: ~/.cache/molecule/.qemu.
The development of the Molecule QEMU driver was motivated by the author's choice of the Apple M1 as their primary development machine. He wanted to test Ansible roles on the Apple M1 but preferred not to rely on Docker for testing due to challenges with Docker's systemd support. Author never liked to install supplementary software such as Vagrant and VirtualBox on development machine. Author is aware of libvirt and virt-manager but their complexity and the lack of support was frustrating.