Part 19 – Building a Full VM Deployment Workflow with Ansible

We are going to build a single AWX Workflow Template called Deploy New VM – Full Workflow and chain three job templates together, all sharing the same survey variables to deploy a VM via Ansible.

Stage 1: Deploy VM

Name        : Deploy VM
Inventory   : vCenter Home Lab
Project     : VMware Automation
Playbook    : vm_deploy.yml
Credentials : Home vCenter

Stage 2: Verify VM Deployment

Name        : Verify VM
Inventory   : vCenter Home Lab
Project     : VMware Automation
Playbook    : vm_verify.yml
Credentials : Home vCenter

Stage 3: Notify VM Deployment

Name        : Notify VM Deployment
Inventory   : Demo Inventory
Project     : VMware Automation
Playbook    : vm_notify.yml
Credentials : Home vCenter

Create the Workflow Template

— Templates → Add → Workflow Template, fill in name, inventory, and save

Give it a name and click Save

Click the Visualizer tab

Add the first node — click START, select Job Template → Select VMDeploy

Leave it all blank

Click Save

Add the second node — hover over the VMDeploy box → click the “+” button that appears on the right

select “On Success” → Add Node → select Verify VM

select Verify VM

Add the third node — hover over the Verify VM box → click the “+” button → select “On Success”

Add Node → select Notify VM Deployment

Save the workflow and this gives the chain: START → VMDeploy → Verify VM → Notify VM Deployment

The AWX Survey

The survey is attached to the Workflow Template — not the individual job templates. The user fills it in once at launch and all variables flow automatically to every node

Survey tab → Add Questions:

Q1: VM Name? → vm_name [text, required]
Q2: Template? → template_name [dropdown: windows2019_template, windows2022_template]
Q3: Size? → size [dropdown: small, medium, large, xlarge]
Q4: Datastore? → datastore [dropdown: NVMe-01, NVMe-03, NVME-BAY02-02, Magnetic(NL), SmallDatastore]
Q5: Environment? → vm_environment [dropdown: Production, Non-Production, Development, UAT, Staging]
Q6: Owner? → owner [text, required]
Q7: Department? → department [text, required]
Q8: Cost Centre? → cost_centre [text, required]
Q9: Service Ticket? → service_ticket [text, required]
Q10: Server Purpose? → server_purpose [text, required]
Q11: Managed By? → managed_by [dropdown: Windows Server Team, Unix Team, Networks Team, AI/ML Team, DevOps Team]
Q12: Guest OS? → guest_os [dropdown: Windows 2019, Windows 2022, Windows 2025, RedHat Linux 8, Ubuntu 22.04]
Q13: Lease Policy? → lease_policy [dropdown: 1 Month, 3 Months, 6 Months, 12 Months, Permanent]
Q14: Backup Policy? → backup_policy [dropdown: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Not Protected]
Q15: Notify Email? → notify_email [text, default: ash@gmail.com]

Launch the deployment and it handles the full VM provisioning lifecycle. Provide all inputs