molecule-qemu 0.5.12rc0

Molecule QEMU

molecule-qemu

Molecule QEMU driver for testing Ansible roles.

Supported platforms:

• MacOS 13.x (arm64)
• MacOS 14.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)
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (arm64, amd64)

Supported Ansible versions:

• 8.x
• 9.x

Supported Molecule versions:

• 0.5.x

molecule-qemu does not provide support for molecule of version 0.6.x and higher. Support is unfortunately not planned. Molecule 0.6.x has a completely different architecture and is not compatible with the current implementation. Molecule of version 0.5.x is still supported and works well. Future versions of molecule-qemu will be released only for molecule of version 0.5.x which means that at some point molecule-qemu becomes obsolete.

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 mode
• vmnet-shared - QEMU's vmnet-shared networking mode (MacOS only)

Supported disk types:

• virtio - QEMU's virtio disk type
• virtio-scsi - QEMU's virtio-scsi disk type

Supported BIOS types:

• uefi - QEMU's uefi used for image with uefi configured
• bios - QEMU's bios used for image with bios configured

Quick start

Install molecule-qemu python package:

pip install molecule-qemu

Create a new Molecule scenario using molecule init command:

molecule init scenario default --driver-name molecule-qemu --verifier-name testinfra

Edit molecule.yml and add platforms:

---
dependency:
  name: galaxy
driver:
  name: molecule-qemu
platforms:
  - 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_mode: vmnet-shared
provisioner:
  name: ansible
  inventory:
    host_vars:
      debian-bullseye-arm64: {}
verifier:
  name: testinfra

Full list of supported options:

platforms:
  - name: debian-bookworm-arm64

    image_arch: aarch64 # optional, default is x86_64
    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
    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 uefi

Dependencies

Driver depends on:

• QEMU (tested with 6.2.0, 8.0.2, 8.0.4, 8.1.0)
• mkisofs (tested with 3.02a09)

Install QEMU and CDRTools on macOS:

brew install qemu cdrtools

Install QEMU on Ubuntu:

apt-get install mkisofs qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils

Network modes

user network mode

This 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/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
    image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/SHA512SUMS
  network_mode: user
  network_ssh_port: 2222
  network_extra_args: hostfwd=tcp::8080-:80

vmnet-shared network mode

This 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/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
  image_checksum: sha512:https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/SHA512SUMS
  network_mode: vmnet-shared

Examples

See tests for more examples.

Sample platforms configuration

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: 2229

   - name: ubuntu-noble-amd64
     image_url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
     image_checksum: sha256:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/SHA256SUMS
     network_ssh_port: 2230

   - name: ubuntu-noble-arm64
     image_url: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-arm64.img
     image_checksum: sha256:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/SHA256SUMS
     network_ssh_port: 2231

Cloud Images URLs

For convenience, here are the URLs for the cloud images used in the examples above.

Debian

• https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/SHA512SUMS
  • https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-amd64.qcow2
  • https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/latest/debian-11-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2
• https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/SHA512SUMS
  • https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-amd64.qcow2
  • https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-arm64.raw

Ubuntu

• https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/SHA256SUMS
  • https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-arm64.img
  • https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
• https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/SHA256SUMS
  • https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-arm64.img
  • https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/jammy/current/jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
• https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/SHA256SUMS
  • https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-arm64.img
  • https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img

Troubleshooting

Molecule working directory is: ~/.cache/molecule/<role-name>/<scenario-name>.

QEMU images caches is: ~/.cache/molecule/.qemu.

Motivation

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.

About molecule 0.6.x and higher. Author has no idea why molecule decided to re-implement its own architecture and discard third-party drivers support. Explanations are not clear and the author does not understand the benefits of the new architecture. molecule of version 0.5.x provides a mature and stable functionality that is sufficient for complex testing scenarios. molecule of version 0.6.x focuses on simplicity and ease of use, focuses on Docker as the primary driver for testing, which is not suitable for most of the cases met by the author.

Reference

• Ansible
• Molecule
• QEMU
• QEMU BIOS

QEMU vmnet-shared networking

• vmnet.framework modes