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Using Human-readable VM names

Note

This feature is available with bosh-vsphere-cpi v53+. It is disabled by default.

With this feature enabled, when a new vm is created, it will be assigned to a name like instance-group-name_deployment-name_a81a26b3a9a8 instead of a name like vm-d6f0f537-18cd-4a1b-b0f5-ae03e8f590e8.

Enable the feature

1. Modify Global Configuration:

   - path: /instance_groups/name=bosh/properties/vcenter?
     type: replace
     value:
       address: ((vcenter_ip))
       datacenters:
       - clusters:
         - ((vcenter_cluster)): {}
         datastore_pattern: ((vcenter_ds))
         disk_path: ((vcenter_disks))
         name: ((vcenter_dc))
         persistent_datastore_pattern: ((vcenter_ds))
         template_folder: ((vcenter_templates))
         vm_folder: ((vcenter_vms))
       password: ((vcenter_password))
       user: ((vcenter_user))
       enable_human_readable_name: true
   

2. Deploy the Director

More about human readable names

1. Currently vSphere CPI only support names in ASCII characters.

2. The total max length kept for instance group name and deployment name is 65. If original names are longer, names will be trimmed.