# Getting a Column value from row **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 26, 2017, 7:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088 "2017-07-26T07:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Victor1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Victor1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Victor1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 7:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/1 "2017-07-26T07:29:11Z")
I need to get the VMID field from the column data as below. [[root@prmh-mag-31:~] vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation 51 myvgpu\_clone2 [EVC\_Store1] myvgpu\_clone2/myvgpu\_clone2.vmx windows8\_64Guest vmx-11 so as above is the command result , i need to get the VMID corresponding to vm name myvgpu\_clone2. For that i have used ansible command module and grepping the first output of vm list for vmname so i get the one row . now i have to get the VMID field from the single row. I have used following code but it does not give the desired output. any help is aprreciated. Thanks, VM name: Get the VM id of the powered ON VM command: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep ‘{{guest\_name}}’ | “‘cut -d ’ ’ -f 1’” register: ouputvmid ignore\_errors: true - debug: var: ouputvmid ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/2 "2017-07-26T14:13:03Z")
> I need to get the VMID field from the column data as below. > > [[root@prmh-mag-31:~] vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms > Vmid Name File > Guest OS Version Annotation > 51 myvgpu\_clone2 [EVC\_Store1] myvgpu\_clone2/myvgpu\_clone2.vmx > windows8\_64Guest vmx-11 > > so as above is the command result , i need to get the VMID corresponding > to vm name myvgpu\_clone2. For that i have used ansible command module and > grepping the first output of vm list for vmname so i get the one row . now > i have to get the VMID field from the single row. > > I have used following code but it does not give the desired output. any > help is aprreciated. What output do you get and what's wrong with it? >   name: Get the VM id of the powered ON VM >          command: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep '{{guest\_name}}' | "'cut -d > ' ' -f 1'" >          register: ouputvmid >          ignore\_errors: true Not all esx have python so you might need to use the raw module. You need to remove the single and double quotes around cut like so.    - name: Get the VM id of the powered ON VM      command: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep '{{guest\_name}}' | cut -d' ' -f1      register: ouputvmid ---
**Author:** ![Victor1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Victor1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Victor1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 5:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/3 "2017-07-26T17:50:09Z")
Thanks Kai for your quick response ! Here is my output , problem is it does not extract the VMID but outputs the whole string. I intend to just get the VMID. TASK [ESX\_VM\_SnapRestore : debug] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [10.114.22.61] =\> { “changed”: false, “ouputvmid”: { “changed”: true, “cmd”: [ “vim-cmd”, “vmsvc/getallvms”, “|”, “grep”, “myvgpu\_clone2”, “|”, “‘cut -d ’ ’ -f 1’” ], “delta”: “0:00:00.455803”, “end”: “2017-07-26 07:10:17.235366”, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2017-07-26 07:10:16.779563”, “stderr”: “”, “stderr\_lines”: , “stdout”: "Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation\n51 myvgpu\_clone2 [EVC\_Store1] myvgpu\_clone2/myvgpu\_clone2.vmx windows8\_64Guest vmx-11 ", “stdout\_lines”: [ “Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation”, **"51** myvgpu\_clone2 [EVC\_Store1] myvgpu\_clone2/myvgpu\_clone2.vmx windows8\_64Guest vmx-11 " ] } } Though when i run it on ESX command line . it outputs the VMID as below. ## vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep ‘myvgpu\_clone2’| cut -d ’ ’ -f 1## 51 ---
**Author:** ![James\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/53a042/32.png) [@James\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Tanner)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/4 "2017-07-26T17:58:38Z")
Try using the shell module instead of command. ---
**Author:** ![jean-yves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@jean-yves](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jean-yves)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/5 "2017-07-26T18:05:44Z")
use : ouputvmid.stdout\_lines[2] and filter it with the good regexp with regexp\_replace Regards, JYL ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/6 "2017-07-26T18:23:57Z")
I forgot that command doesn't allow pipe, so as James suggested, use the shell module. You can also use the raw module. - name: Get the VM id of the powered ON VM    shell: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep '{{guest\_name}}' | cut -d' ' -f1    register: ouputvmid or - name: Get the VM id of the powered ON VM    raw: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep '{{guest\_name}}' | cut -d' ' -f1    register: ouputvmid The value will be in {{ ouputvmid.stdout }} ---
**Author:** ![Victor1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Victor1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Victor1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/getting-a-column-value-from-row/25088/7 "2017-07-26T18:37:32Z")
Awesome Kai & Jean ! it worked when i used the shell command. 🙂 Lot of thanks to you guys! ASK [ESX\_VM\_SnapRestore : Get the VM id of the powered ON VM] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* changed: TASK [ESX\_VM\_SnapRestore : debug] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: =\> { “changed”: false, “ouputvmid”: { “changed”: true, “cmd”: “vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep ‘myvgpu\_clone2’ | cut -d ’ ’ -f 1”, “delta”: “0:00:00.464921”, “end”: “2017-07-26 18:34:12.646298”, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2017-07-26 18:34:12.181377”, “stderr”: “”, “stderr\_lines”: , “stdout”: “51”, “stdout\_lines”: [ “51” ] } } TASK [ESX\_VM\_SnapRestore : Create snapshot of a vGPU VM] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* changed: ]