Can't get vmware.vmware.vms to run

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Hello dear Ansible community :waving_hand:.
I am writting here my first post and I am still a beginner with ansible. So if there is anything to fix with my post let me know.

** What did I try so far **
So far I have tried to setup everything as described in the documentation here:

So to summarize I did:

  1. Create a new virtual environment with Python version 3.12.3
  2. I installed ansible using sudo apt install ansible
  3. I installed the required ansible collection using ansible-galaxy collection install vmware.vmware
  4. After that I installed the required python packages using pip install -r ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/vmware/vmware/requirements.txt
  5. I exported the required environment Variables VMWARE_USER, VMWARE_PASSWORD and VMWARE_HOST
  6. I prepared the dynamic inventory using the requested naming convention hosts.vmware_vms.yaml
---
plugin: vmware.vmware.vms
gather_tags: true
validate_certs: false

keyed_groups:
- key: tags_by_category.env | map('dict2items') | map('first') | map(attribute='value')
  prefix: "vmware_tag_env"
  separator: "-"
  1. Having ever everything prepared I wanted to show my dynamic inventory using ansible-inventory -i ./inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml --list -vvvv

Unfortunately this failed. Infos to why it failed can be seen in the investigation section.

Initial investigations

Here you can see the verbose output of the dynamic inventory

ansible-inventory [core 2.16.3]
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /root/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-inventory
  python version = 3.12.3 (main, Jun 18 2025, 17:59:45) [GCC 13.3.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True
No config file found; using defaults
setting up inventory plugins
Loading collection ansible.builtin from 
host_list declined parsing /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml as it did not pass its verify_file() method
script declined parsing /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml as it did not pass its verify_file() method
Loading collection vmware.vmware from /root/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/vmware/vmware
toml declined parsing /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml as it did not pass its verify_file() method
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml with auto plugin: module 'ssl' has no attribute 'wrap_socket'
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/auto.py", line 50, in parse
    plugin = inventory_loader.get(plugin_name)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/loader.py", line 864, in get
    return self.get_with_context(name, *args, **kwargs).object
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/loader.py", line 899, in get_with_context
    self._module_cache[path] = self._load_module_source(resolved_type_name, path)
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/loader.py", line 837, in _load_module_source
    spec.loader.exec_module(module)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 995, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 488, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/root/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/vmware/vmware/plugins/inventory/vms.py", line 174, in <module>
    from pyVmomi import vim
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pyVmomi/__init__.py", line 204, in <module>
    from pyVmomi.SoapAdapter import SoapStubAdapter, StubAdapterBase, SoapCmdStubAdapter, \
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pyVmomi/SoapAdapter.py", line 993, in <module>
    _SocketWrapper = ssl.wrap_socket
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml with yaml plugin: Plugin configuration YAML file, not YAML inventory
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/yaml.py", line 114, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError('Plugin configuration YAML file, not YAML inventory')
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml with ini plugin: Invalid host pattern '---' supplied, '---' is normally a sign this is a YAML file.
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/ini.py", line 138, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError(e)
[WARNING]: Unable to parse /home/gere/Documents/Gitlab/workloadanalysis/workloads/propositions/k8s/ansible/inventory/hosts.vmware_vms.yaml as an inventory source
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
{
    "_meta": {
        "hostvars": {}
    },
    "all": {
        "children": [
            "ungrouped"
        ]
    }
}

In my opinion it seems to have some issues with the ssl… but I really don’t understand why, since I have set the valid_certs: false.

Did anyone of you experience the same troubles setting up this dynamic inventory?
Or would anyone have a few tips on how to properly debug/resolve this?

Thank you very much upfront :folded_hands:

2

I’m not sure if I can help you there, but somehow there are some things that I don’t understand and I would like to mention.

For example, you say you’re creating a venv but then install ansible via sudo apt install ansible. This doesn’t make sense. This will install ansible system-wide, but not in your venv. So I don’t understand what you’ve created the venv for.

Did you try to activate (source) the venv and install ansible with pip install ansible? This should already contain the vmware.vmware collection.

Alternatively, you could also just install ansible-core with pip install ansible-core (while the venv is activated) and and then install the collection with ansible-galaxy collection install vmware.vmware.

Of course, you would still have to install the requirements. But maybe this helps.

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3

Hello @mariolenz . I am very happy, that those things do not make any sense to you! Because they dont!
I just deleted my venv and recreated a new one. In this venv I properly installed ansible via the pip install ansible command + added the required vsphere-automation-sdk for python (GitHub - vmware/vsphere-automation-sdk-python: Python samples, language bindings, and API reference documentation for vSphere, VMC, and NSX-T using the VMware REST API).

And boom :collision: it’s finally working.

Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction!

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