vma-virt-anonymizer

A tool to anonymize sensitive data in RVTools VMware infrastructure exports while preserving data structure and integrity for safe sharing with vendors and partners.

This tool is part of the Red Hat Virtualization Migration Assessment service offering, which helps organizations plan and execute strategic migrations from traditional virtualization platforms to Red Hat OpenShift.

Overview

When sharing RVTools exports externally, you may need to remove identifying information such as:

• VM names and DNS names
• Host names (FQDNs)
• Cluster and datacenter names
• Datastore and network names
• IP addresses and domain names
• Folder paths and resource pools

This tool creates consistent anonymized mappings across all 27 RVTools sheets, ensuring that relationships between entities are preserved for analysis.

Features

• Consistent Mapping: Same original value always maps to same anonymized value across all sheets
• Preserves Structure: Keeps headers, column order, data types (numbers, dates, booleans)
• Non-Destructive: Creates a new file, never modifies the original
• Mapping Export: Optionally save the original-to-anonymized mappings for your reference
• Three Options: PowerShell (recommended), Excel VBA, or Python

Choose Your Method

Method	Best For	Requirements
PowerShell	Windows users, automation	PowerShell + ImportExcel module
Excel VBA	Users who prefer Excel UI	Excel with macros enabled
Python	Cross-platform, CI/CD	Python 3.7+ with openpyxl

Quick Start

Option 1: PowerShell (Recommended for Windows)

No Excel installation required. Works from command line.

# One-time setup: Install ImportExcel module (no admin needed)
Install-Module ImportExcel -Scope CurrentUser

# Run the anonymizer
.\powershell\Anonymize-RVTools.ps1 -Path "rvtools_export.xlsx" -ExportMappings

See PowerShell README for detailed instructions.

Option 2: Excel VBA

Works directly in Excel with no additional software.

1. Open Excel, press Alt+F11 to open VBA Editor
2. Import excel-vba/AnonymizerModule.bas and excel-vba/QuickLauncher.bas
3. Press Alt+F8 → Run RunAnonymizer

See Excel VBA README for detailed instructions.

Option 3: Python

Best for automation and batch processing.

pip install openpyxl
python python/validate_anonymization.py --anonymize rvtools_export.xlsx --export-mappings

See Python README for detailed instructions.

Sample Output

Data Type	Original	Anonymized
VM Name	PRODDB01	VM-0001
DNS Name	proddb01.corp.example.com	VM-0001.domain1.local
Host	esxi01.corp.example.com	HOST-0001.domain1.local
Cluster	Production-Cluster	CLUSTER-0001
Datacenter	Chicago-DC	DC-0001
Datastore	SAN_LUN_01	DS-0001
Network	VLAN_100_Prod	NET-0001
IP Address	192.168.1.100	10.0.0.1
Path	[SAN_LUN_01] VM/VM.vmx	[DS-0001] VM-0001/VM-0001.vmx

What Gets Anonymized

Sensitive Columns (Anonymized)

Column Name	Found In Sheets	Anonymized As
VM	vInfo, vCPU, vMemory, vDisk, etc.	VM-0001
Host	vHost, vInfo, vNetwork, etc.	HOST-0001 or FQDN
Cluster	vCluster, vInfo, vHost, etc.	CLUSTER-0001
Datacenter	Most sheets	DC-0001
DNS Name	vInfo	VM-0001.domain1.local
Name	vDatastore, vCluster	DS-0001, CLUSTER-0001
Network/Portgroup	vNetwork	NET-0001
Path	vDisk, vInfo	[DS-0001] VM-0001/...
Folder/vApp	vInfo, vUSB	FOLDER-0001
Domain	vHost	domain1.local
IP addresses	vSwitch, vPort, etc.	10.0.x.x

Preserved Data (Not Anonymized)

• Power state, template status, config status
• CPU, memory, disk metrics and statistics
• VMware Tools versions and status
• Dates and timestamps
• Boolean flags (HA, DRS settings, etc.)
• All numeric values

Project Structure

vma-virt-anonymizer/
├── README.md                     # This file
├── LICENSE                       # Apache 2.0 License
├── powershell/                   # PowerShell solution
│   ├── Anonymize-RVTools.ps1     # Main PowerShell script
│   └── README.md                 # PowerShell instructions
├── excel-vba/                    # Excel VBA solution
│   ├── AnonymizerModule.bas      # Main VBA anonymization logic
│   ├── QuickLauncher.bas         # Simple VBA launcher macros
│   ├── AnonymizerForm.frm        # Optional VBA UserForm
│   └── README.md                 # Excel setup instructions
└── python/                       # Python solution
    ├── validate_anonymization.py # Python script
    └── README.md                 # Python instructions

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Related Projects

• vma-virt-analysis - VMware infrastructure analysis tools
• RVTools - VMware infrastructure inventory tool by Dell

Support

For issues or feature requests, please open a GitHub issue.