---
subcategory: "Host and Cluster Management"
page_title: "VMware vSphere: vsphere_resource_pool"
sidebar_current: "docs-vsphere-data-source-resource-pool"
description: |-
  Provides a vSphere resource pool data source.
  This can be used to get the general attributes of a vSphere resource pool.
---

# vsphere_resource_pool

The `vsphere_resource_pool` data source can be used to discover the ID of a
resource pool in vSphere. This is useful to return the ID of a resource pool
that you want to use to create virtual machines in using the
[`vsphere_virtual_machine`][docs-virtual-machine-resource] resource.

[docs-virtual-machine-resource]: /docs/providers/vsphere/r/virtual_machine.html

## Example Usage

```hcl
data "vsphere_datacenter" "datacenter" {
  name = "dc-01"
}

data "vsphere_resource_pool" "pool" {
  name          = "resource-pool-01"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.datacenter.id
}
```

### Specifying the Root Resource Pool for a Standalone ESXi Host

-> **NOTE:** Returning the root resource pool for a cluster can be done directly
via the [`vsphere_compute_cluster`][docs-compute-cluster-data-source] data
source.

[docs-compute-cluster-data-source]: /docs/providers/vsphere/d/compute_cluster.html

All compute resources in vSphere have a resource pool, even if one has not been
explicitly created. This resource pool is referred to as the _root resource
pool_ and can be looked up by specifying the path.

```hcl
data "vsphere_resource_pool" "pool" {
  name          = "esxi-01.example.com/Resources"
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.datacenter.id
}
```

For more information on the root resource pool, see
[Managing Resource Pools][vmware-docs-resource-pools] in the vSphere
documentation.

[vmware-docs-resource-pools]: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/vsphere-resource-management-8-0/managing-resource-pools.html

## Argument Reference

The following arguments are supported:

* `name` - (Optional) The name of the resource pool. This can be a name or
  path. This is required when using vCenter.
* `datacenter_id` - (Optional) The
  [managed object reference ID][docs-about-morefs] of the datacenter in which
  the resource pool is located. This can be omitted if the search path used in
  `name` is an absolute path. For default datacenters, use the id attribute from
  an empty `vsphere_datacenter` data source.

[docs-about-morefs]: /docs/providers/vsphere/index.html#use-of-managed-object-references-by-the-vsphere-provider

~> **Note:** When using ESXi without a vCenter Server instance, you do not need
to specify either attribute to use this data source. An empty declaration will
load the ESXi host's root resource pool.

## Attribute Reference

Currently, the only exported attribute from this data source is `id`, which
represents the ID of the resource pool.