Dealing with list content

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1

Hello,

I understand this is the basics, but I’m still learning… Could anybody help?

This play collects all VMs in a VMware cluster and prints their names:

  • name: List VMs in cluster
    become: no
    hosts: localhost
    gather_facts: no
    connection: local

tasks:

  • name: Collect list of VMs in cluster
    community.vmware.vmware_vm_info:
    validate_certs: false
    register: vm_list

  • name: Print list
    ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: “{{ item[‘guest_name’] }}”
    loop: “{{ vm_list.virtual_machines }}”

Its output is looking like:

ok: [localhost] => (item={‘guest_name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘guest_fullname’: ‘Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)’, ‘power_state’: ‘poweredOn’, ‘ip_address’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘mac_address’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘instance_uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘vm_network’: {‘xxxxxx’: {‘ipv4’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘ipv6’: }}, ‘esxi_hostname’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datacenter’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘cluster’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘resource_pool’: None, ‘attributes’: {}, ‘tags’: , ‘folder’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘moid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datastore_url’: [{‘name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘url’: ‘xxxxxx’}], ‘allocated’: {}}) => {
“msg”: “server01”
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={‘guest_name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘guest_fullname’: ‘Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)’, ‘power_state’: ‘poweredOn’, ‘ip_address’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘mac_address’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘instance_uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘vm_network’: {‘xxxxxx’: {‘ipv4’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘ipv6’: }}, ‘esxi_hostname’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datacenter’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘cluster’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘resource_pool’: None, ‘attributes’: {}, ‘tags’: , ‘folder’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘moid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datastore_url’: [{‘name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘url’: ‘xxxxxx’}], ‘allocated’: {}}) => {
“msg”: “server02”
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={‘guest_name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘guest_fullname’: ‘Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)’, ‘power_state’: ‘poweredOn’, ‘ip_address’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘mac_address’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘instance_uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘vm_network’: {‘xxxxxx’: {‘ipv4’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘ipv6’: }}, ‘esxi_hostname’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datacenter’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘cluster’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘resource_pool’: None, ‘attributes’: {}, ‘tags’: , ‘folder’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘moid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datastore_url’: [{‘name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘url’: ‘xxxxxx’}], ‘allocated’: {}}) => {
“msg”: “server03”
}

Two questions, if you don’t mind…:
01 - How, if even possible, could I have the output looking like something like this?

ok: [localhost]

msg": “server01”

ok: [localhost]

msg": “server02”

ok: [localhost]

msg": “server03”

02 - Would it be possible to send the loop output to a file?
I know that the whole “{{ vm_list }}” content can be send to a file using:

  • name: Copy list to file
    ansible.builtin.copy:
    content: “{{ vm_list | to_yaml }}”
    dest: “{{ path_to_file }}”

But I’d like to create a file with the already parsed content

Thanks a lot,

Alex

2

Hi,

OK, answering my own question, I was able to send the parsed vm_list content to a file using this task:

  • name: Copy list to file
    ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    dest: <path_to_file_here>
    line: “{{ item[‘guest_name’] }}”
    state: present
    create: yes
    loop: “{{ vm_list.virtual_machines }}”

There would be a different/better way of accomplishing that…?

Thanks again,

Alex

3

Try this

  - copy:
      dest: <path_to_file_here>
      content: |
        {% for i in vm_list.virtual_machines %}
        {{ i.guest_name }}
        {% endfor %}

See
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_templating.html

4

Dear Alex,

For your output minimisation:
you can arrange your task like this:

  • name: Collect list of VMs in cluster
    community.vmware.vmware_vm_info:
    validate_certs: false
    register: vm_list

  • name: Print list
    ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: “{{ item[‘guest_name’] }}”
    loop: “{{ vm_list.virtual_machines }}”

loop_control:
label: “Collected vm-name” # either you put empty string or some relevant string

output will be like this:

ok: [localhost] => (item=Collected vm-name)

msg": “server01”

ok: [localhost] => (item=Collected vm-name)

msg": “server02”

ok: [localhost] => (item=Collected vm-name)

msg": “server03”

no more unwanted text during the debug for each iteration:
eg. (item={‘guest_name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘guest_fullname’: ‘Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)’, ‘power_state’: ‘poweredOn’, ‘ip_address’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘mac_address’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘instance_uuid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘vm_network’: {‘xxxxxx’: {‘ipv4’: [‘xxxxxx’], ‘ipv6’: }}, ‘esxi_hostname’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datacenter’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘cluster’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘resource_pool’: None, ‘attributes’: {}, ‘tags’: , ‘folder’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘moid’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘datastore_url’: [{‘name’: ‘xxxxxx’, ‘url’: ‘xxxxxx’}], ‘allocated’: {}}) =>

I hope this helps

Regards
Nitesh Dudhe

5

Thanks, Nitesh…!
I now have a much cleaner printout!

Alex

6

Thanks, Vladimir!

That worked really well.
It generated the file much faster than the lineinfile alternative.

Thank you as well for the templating doc/link.
After I figure out what info my “client” wants to extract from VMware, building a report will be the next step and so far I’m planning to use templates for that.

Alex