kcli Plan Authoring

Plan File Structure

Plans are YAML files with Jinja2 templating. Resources are defined as top-level keys with a type field.

parameters:
  param1: value1
  param2: value2

resourcename:
  type: resourcetype
  key1: value1
  key2: {{ param1 }}

Resource Types

VM (default if no type specified)

myvm:
  image: fedora40
  memory: 4096
  numcpus: 2
  disks:
    - size: 20
    - size: 10
      pool: otherpool
  nets:
    - name: default
    - name: mynet
      ip: 192.168.1.10
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      gateway: 192.168.1.1
  cmds:
    - echo hello > /tmp/test
  files:
    - path: /etc/myconfig
      content: |
        key=value

Profile

myprofile:
  type: profile
  image: centos9stream
  memory: 2048
  numcpus: 2
  disks:
    - 10
  nets:
    - default

Network

mynetwork:
  type: network
  cidr: 192.168.100.0/24
  dhcp: true
  nat: true
  domain: mylab.local

Image

myimage:
  type: image
  url: https://example.com/image.qcow2
  pool: default

Container

mycontainer:
  type: container
  image: nginx:latest
  ports:
    - 8080:80

Jinja2 Templating

Parameter Substitution

parameters:
  cluster_name: mycluster
  worker_count: 3

{{ cluster_name }}-master:
  image: rhcos
  
{% for i in range(worker_count) %}
{{ cluster_name }}-worker-{{ i }}:
  image: rhcos
{% endfor %}

Conditionals

parameters:
  enable_storage: true

myvm:
  image: fedora40
{% if enable_storage %}
  disks:
    - size: 100
{% endif %}

Custom Filters

kcli provides custom Jinja2 filters in kvirt/jinjafilters/jinjafilters.py:

Path/File Filters:

• basename – Get filename from path
• dirname – Get directory from path
• diskpath – Convert to /dev/ path if needed
• exists – Check if file/path exists
• pwd_path – Handle workdir paths in containers
• real_path – Get real/absolute path
• read_file – Read file contents

String/Data Filters:

• none – Return empty string if None
• type – Return type name (string, int, dict, list)
• base64 – Base64 encode value
• certificate – Wrap in BEGIN/END CERTIFICATE if needed
• count – Count occurrences of character

Kubernetes/Cluster Filters:

• kubenodes – Generate node names for cluster
• defaultnodes – Generate default node list
• has_ctlplane – Check if list has ctlplane/master entries

Version/Release Filters:

• github_version – Get latest version from GitHub releases
• min_ocp_version – Compare OpenShift versions (minimum)
• max_ocp_version – Compare OpenShift versions (maximum)

Network Filters:

• local_ip – Get local IP for network interface
• network_ip – Get IP from network CIDR
• ipv6_wrap – Wrap IPv6 addresses in brackets

Utility Filters:

• kcli_info – Get VM info via kcli command
• find_manifests – Find YAML manifests in directory
• wait_crd – Generate wait script for CRD creation
• wait_csv – Generate wait script for CSV readiness
• filter_bgp_peers – Filter BGP peer list

Standard Jinja2 filters (default, join, upper, lower, etc.) also work

Parameter Files

Create kcli_parameters.yml alongside your plan:

cluster_name: prod
worker_count: 5
memory: 8192

Override at runtime:

kcli create plan -f myplan.yml -P worker_count=10 myplan

Common VM Parameters

Plan Execution

# Create plan
kcli create plan -f myplan.yml myplanname

# Create with parameter overrides
kcli create plan -f myplan.yml -P memory=4096 -P image=fedora40 myplanname

# List plans
kcli list plan

# Get plan info
kcli info plan myplanname

# Delete plan (and all its resources)
kcli delete plan myplanname

# Update existing plan
kcli update plan -f myplan.yml myplanname

Debugging Plans

1. Validate YAML syntax – Use python -c "import yaml; yaml.safe_load(open('plan.yml'))"
2. Check Jinja2 rendering – Look for unbalanced {{ }} or {% %}
3. Run with debug – kcli -d create plan -f plan.yml test
4. Check dependencies – Ensure images/networks exist before VMs reference them

Example: Multi-VM Plan

parameters:
  domain: lab.local
  base_image: centos9stream

labnetwork:
  type: network
  cidr: 10.0.0.0/24
  dhcp: true
  domain: {{ domain }}

webserver:
  image: {{ base_image }}
  memory: 2048
  nets:
    - labnetwork
  cmds:
    - dnf -y install nginx
    - systemctl enable --now nginx

database:
  image: {{ base_image }}
  memory: 4096
  disks:
    - size: 20
    - size: 50
  nets:
    - labnetwork
  cmds:
    - dnf -y install postgresql-server
    - postgresql-setup --initdb