# Dynamic Inventory Error **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [December 29, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/dynamic-inventory-error/20096 "2015-12-29T22:13:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leon\_Pinkney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@Leon\_Pinkney](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Leon_Pinkney)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/dynamic-inventory-error/20096/1 "2015-12-29T22:13:08Z")
Hi All, I have been using Ansible for a few months now and have started to create some custom python scripts to enable me to implement tasks I haven’t otherwise been able to do within standard playbooks. My inventory file is starting to grow and since all of the information in it is currently available from a DB, I started to look at dynamic inventory. I wanted to start by understanding the JSON required to build an inventory, so came up with the following code in an effort to understand it. I realise that this is not a complete solution, it is purely for me to understand the required format of the data. ` inv = { “company”: { “hosts”: [ “server”, “sensor” ] }, “\_meta”: { “hostvars”: { “server”: { “ansible\_ssh\_host” : “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port” : “44” }, “sensor”: { “ansible\_ssh\_host” : “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port” : “33” } } } } inv = json.dumps(inv) inventory = ansible.inventory.Inventory(inv) ` If I print inv, it comes out like so… {“company”: {“hosts”: [“server”, “sensor”]}, “\_meta”: {“hostvars”: {“sensor”: {“ansible\_ssh\_host”: “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port”: “44”}, “server”: {“ansible\_ssh\_host”: “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port”: “33”}}}} When I execute this code however, I get the following error. Traceback (most recent call last): File “test\_inventory.py”, line 33, in inventory = ansible.inventory.Inventory(inv) File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/ **init**.py”, line 93, in **init** all.add\_host(Host(tokens[0], tokens[1])) File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/host.py”, line 32, in **init** self.set\_variable(‘ansible\_ssh\_port’, int(port)) ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ‘“22”}’ I’ve tried removing the string quotes from the port number, but the problem persists. If I remove the ansible\_ssh\_port lines, I get no errors. Can anyone offer any advice? I’m current running Ansible version 1.9.4 which I understand is the latest. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 10:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/dynamic-inventory-error/20096/2 "2015-12-29T22:44:56Z")
You cannot provide dynamic inventory JSON output, that would normally come from a script, directly to the Inventory class. The first argument for Inventory is the `host_list`, which can be 1 of 3 things: 1. Path to ini formatted inventory file 2. Path to executable dynamic inventory script 3. Comma separated hosts list that looks like “foo,bar,baz” or at minimum “foo,” with a trailing comma Because your JSON has a comma in it, it get’s split, and then we try to loop through and split things out. At this point Ansible believes it finds a host called “ansible\_ssh\_host” with a port of “22” (including the quotes). I have done what you are trying to do before, which required subclassing `Inventory` and overriding `parse_inventory` and subclassing `InventoryScript` and overriding ` __init__ ` and `get_host_variables` in order to allow my new classes to just accept a JSON string like you are trying to do. In the end, it is just easier, using a callable script, and passing that to `Inventory`. So, basically move the `inv` assignment and do `print json.dumps(inv)` in a single script, and provide the path to that script to `ansible.inventory.Inventory`. ---
**Author:** ![Leon\_Pinkney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@Leon\_Pinkney](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Leon_Pinkney)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/dynamic-inventory-error/20096/3 "2015-12-29T22:45:47Z")
Just to add, if I change the line to: “ansible\_ssh\_port” : 22 I get: ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ‘22}’ I edited “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/host.py” and before line 32 added: print ‘\>\>’ + port + ‘\<\<’ Which outputs: > > 22}\<\< Clearly, the information isn’t being parsed correctly. Is it my code, or a bug? ---
**Author:** ![pixel\_fairy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6f9a4e/32.png) [@pixel\_fairy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/pixel_fairy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/dynamic-inventory-error/20096/4 "2016-01-05T16:51:50Z")
If your just trying to get the syntax of the json right, there are easier ways to test. heres the above as an inventory script. ` #!/usr/bin/env python import json inv = { “company”: { “hosts”: [ “server”, “sensor” ] }, “\_meta”: { “hostvars”: { “server”: { “ansible\_ssh\_host” : “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port” : 44 }, “sensor”: { “ansible\_ssh\_host” : “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port” : “33” } } } } print(json.dumps(inv)) ` heres the output of some test commands with (with ansible 2.0rc8, but it should work the same with 1.9x) ` $ ansible -i leon.py all --list-hosts hosts (2): server sensor $ ansible -i leon.py sensor -m debug -a var=vars sensor | SUCCESS =\> { “vars”: { “ansible\_ssh\_host”: “7.7.7.7”, “ansible\_ssh\_port”: “33”, “group\_names”: [ “company” ], “inventory\_hostname”: “sensor”, “inventory\_hostname\_short”: “sensor” } } `