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jsjw
Asked: 2020-02-07 09:38:35 +0800 CST

Ansible vmware_host_facts with a loop

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I'm trying to get a list of all of the datastores across multiple ESXi hosts (they all sit in different vCenters so I'm having to use a loop with a dictionary to get the correct vCenter for the ESXi host otherwise the hosts do not appear)

My problem is trying to comprehend the output. I've read the docs and I can't seem to figure a clear way to get the output I want. Consider the following from the docs as a working example - on one ESXi host.

- name: Gather vmware host facts from vCenter
  vmware_host_facts:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
    esxi_hostname: "{{ esxi_hostname }}"
  register: host_facts
  delegate_to: localhost
- debug:
    var: host_facts['ansible_facts']['ansible_datastore']

In my example, I add a loop to this to get the correct combination:

- name: Gather vmware host facts from vCenter
  vmware_host_facts:
    hostname: "{{ item.vcs }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
    esxi_hostname: "{{ item.host }}"
  register: host_facts
  delegate_to: localhost
  loop:
     - { host: 'mtboskt1bl07.oam.eeint.co.uk', vcs: 'vmtvcsakt01.oam.eeint.co.uk' }
     - { host: 'mtaoskt1bl10.oam.eeint.co.uk', vcs: 'vmtvcsakt01.oam.eeint.co.uk' }

The var 'host_facts' is a dictionary containing three entries: msg, changed and result.

If I access result - it is a list of dictionaries but I cannot seem to access any entries.

I've looked at the 'subelement' documentation but can't see how I'd apply it here. Anyone able to assist me further?

ansible jinja

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The element you are referring to is results (plural with an s) as explained in the documentation

    When you register a variable in a task with a loop, the registered variable contains a value for each item in the loop. The data structure placed in the variable during the loop will contain a results attribute, that is a list of all responses from the module. For a more in-depth example of how this works, see the Loops section on using register with a loop.

    In your case, your loop contains two iterations. Taking your above var example, the equivalent with the loop for the first iteration would be:

    - debug:
    var: host_facts.results[0].ansible_facts.ansible_datastore

    If you want to get all datastores collected from the previous loop you can loop on the results:

    - debug:
    var: item.ansible_facts.ansible_datastore
  loop: "{{ host_facts.results }}"
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