# How to set the description for hosts in a dynamic inventory **URL:** \ **Category:** AWX Project\ **Created:** [July 4, 2022, 3:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801 "2022-07-04T15:37:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Mulheirn)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 3:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/1 "2022-07-04T15:37:17Z")
Hi, I’m using a dynamic inventory - python that pulls in hosts from a Google Sheet. It all works well, except that the description always appears as ‘imported’. I can manually edit an imported entry to set the description for each (as you can see in the top line), but would like this to be automatic. ![inventory.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/7/7466fed7499d77b45b545466122f083a8c16fbd8.png) The reason I want this value at the higher level is because the ‘name’ in the first column is a serial number (for uniqueness) and the description is a more human-friendly string. When I click on a host that shows as ‘imported’ in the description column on the list view, I can see that my description has been put in the extra variables: ![inventory2.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/e/ee1559a554f64668351d73a7119b01e4c16fed4b.png) So I know that there’s a value in there, but it is ending up in the wrong place. If I browse the API for host 18, I see this: ![inventory3.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/1/1d32acdc2502c6009666418b75d351a00b7ef931.png) My description has become part of the host\_vars it seems. The description field in the next level up is ‘imported’. According to the API docs ([https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-tower/latest/html/towerapi/api\_ref.html#/Inventories/Inventories\_inventories\_hosts\_create](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-tower/latest/html/towerapi/api_ref.html#/Inventories/Inventories_inventories_hosts_create)) the description should be settable and is blank by default. Something is obviously setting it to ‘imported’ but I don’t know what that could be. It feels like inventory.add\_host method doesn’t allow the setting of a host description. All you can do is inventory.set\_variable which puts the value in the variables list. If anyone has any ideas, I’d be glad to hear them! Regards, Andy ---
**Author:** ![AWX\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@AWX\_Project](https://forum.ansible.com/u/AWX_Project)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/2 "2022-07-06T19:43:33Z")
Hi! Can you try “\_awx\_description” instead of “description” and see if that correctly adds the description to your imported hosts? Please see [https://github.com/ansible/awx/pull/6265](https://github.com/ansible/awx/pull/6265) Let us know if that works for ya, we’ll be sure to get proper documentation around this. AWX Team ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Mulheirn)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/3 "2022-07-07T20:31:17Z")
Thanks very much - that looks like exactly what I was after. It isn’t working for me yet though - is this wrong? I’m still getting ‘Imported’ in the description, and \_awx\_description is ending up in the host vars: # Update Desc self.inventory.set\_variable(hostname, “\_awx\_description”, descr) ---
**Author:** ![AWX\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@AWX\_Project](https://forum.ansible.com/u/AWX_Project)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 8:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/4 "2022-07-13T20:01:28Z")
Hi, Can you let us know which AWX version you are using? Also, would mind reporting the resulting output when you run your inventory script from the command line? I can’t really tell how your self.inventory.set\_variable call is affecting the end result. Thanks! AWX Team ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Mulheirn)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 10:24am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/5 "2022-07-21T10:24:35Z")
Hi there, Thanks - is this output what you need to see? Kind regards, Andy ansible-inventory -i inventory/dev-gsheets.yaml --list -vv ansible-inventory [core 2.12.4] config file = /Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-company/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/ansible.cfg configured module search path = [‘/Users/username/.ansible/plugins/modules’, ‘/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules’] ansible python module location = /Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-company/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/.venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/ansible ansible collection location = /Users/username/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections executable location = /Users/username/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/.venv/bin/ansible-inventory python version = 3.8.2 (default, Dec 21 2020, 15:06:04) [Clang 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.29)] jinja version = 3.1.1 libyaml = True Using /Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-company/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/ansible.cfg as config file [gsheets] inventory file: /Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-company/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/inventory/dev-gsheets.yaml [gsheets] reading plugin options [gsheets] checking dependencies [gsheets] sys path: [‘/Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-company/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/.venv/bin’, ‘/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python38.zip’, ‘/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8’, ‘/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/lib-dynload’, ‘/Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-company/sandbox/ansible-gsheets-inventory/.venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages’] [gsheets] dependencies met [gsheets] fetch API token [gsheets] opening sheet [gsheets] sheet opened: 1GacYZXvmEyL08pnZHsB\_H5uVGIl8z7qgcjvnVezDuXA [gsheets] worksheets: [‘TEST1’] [gsheets] fetching host rows [gsheets] worksheet opened: TEST1 [gsheets] total rows: 6 [gsheets] total matched hosts: 5 [gsheets] fetching groups [gsheets] total groups: 7 [gsheets] start adding hosts [gsheets] adding host: (name=‘FGT60ETK19099QQQ’, address=‘172.29.252.1’, groups=[‘AUS’, ‘RB1’], description=‘AUS\_TEST1’) [gsheets] adding host: (name=‘FGT60ETK19099ZZZ’, address=‘172.29.252.8’, groups=[‘UK’, ‘andy’], description=‘UK\_TEST\_UK06’) [gsheets] adding host: (name=‘FGT60ETK19099YYY’, address=‘172.29.252.17’, groups=[‘GERMANY’, ‘RB2’], description=‘GERMANY\_TEST\_02’) [gsheets] adding host: (name=‘FGTTESTABC123’, address=‘172.29.255.250’, groups=[‘LAB’], description=‘branch2’) [gsheets] adding host: (name=‘FGTTESTABC456’, address=‘172.29.255.251’, groups=[‘LAB’, ‘andy’], description=‘branch3’) [gsheets] finished adding hosts { “AUS”: { “hosts”: [ “FGT60ETK19099QQQ” ] }, “GERMANY”: { “hosts”: [ “FGT60ETK19099YYY” ] }, “LAB”: { “hosts”: [ “FGTTESTABC123”, “FGTTESTABC456” ] }, “RB1”: { “hosts”: [ “FGT60ETK19099QQQ” ] }, “RB2”: { “hosts”: [ “FGT60ETK19099YYY” ] }, “UK”: { “hosts”: [ “FGT60ETK19099ZZZ” ] }, “\_meta”: { “hostvars”: { “FGT60ETK19099ZZZ”: { “\_awx\_description”: “UK\_TEST\_UK06”, “ansible\_host”: “172.29.252.8”, “appliance\_name”: “UK\_TEST\_UK06”, “gsheets\_credentials\_filepath”: “private/credentials.json”, “gsheets\_sheet\_id”: “1GacYZXvmEyGARBAGEB\_H5uVGIl8z7qgcjvnVezDuXA”, “gsheets\_worksheet\_name”: “TEST1”, “ipsec\_endpoint”: “18.39.191.70”, “is\_automated”: “YES”, “is\_onboarded”: “YES”, “management\_ip”: “172.29.252.8”, “model”: “FG-60E”, “rulebase”: “andy”, “serial”: “FGT60ETK19099ZZZ”, “wan1\_mode”: “FOOBARZ” }, “FGT60ETK19099YYY”: { “\_awx\_description”: “GERMANY\_TEST\_02”, “ansible\_host”: “172.29.252.17”, “appliance\_name”: “GERMANY\_TEST\_02”, “gsheets\_credentials\_filepath”: “private/credentials.json”, “gsheets\_sheet\_id”: “1GacYZXvmEyGARBAGEB\_H5uVGIl8z7qgcjvnVezDuXA”, “gsheets\_worksheet\_name”: “TEST1”, “ipsec\_endpoint”: “18.39.191.70”, “is\_automated”: “YES”, “is\_onboarded”: “YES”, “management\_ip”: “172.29.252.17”, “model”: “FG-60E”, “rulebase”: “RB2”, “serial”: “FGT60ETK19099YYY”, “wan1\_mode”: “TEST2” }, “FGT60ETK19099QQQ”: { “\_awx\_description”: “AUS\_TEST1”, “ansible\_host”: “172.29.252.1”, “appliance\_name”: “AUS\_TEST1”, “gsheets\_credentials\_filepath”: “private/credentials.json”, “gsheets\_sheet\_id”: “1GacYZXvmEyGARBAGEB\_H5uVGIl8z7qgcjvnVezDuXA”, “gsheets\_worksheet\_name”: “TEST1”, “ipsec\_endpoint”: “18.39.191.70”, “is\_automated”: “NO”, “is\_onboarded”: “YES”, “management\_ip”: “172.29.252.1”, “model”: “FG-60E”, “rulebase”: “RB1”, “serial”: “FGT60ETK19099QQQ”, “wan1\_mode”: “dhcp” }, “FGTTESTABC123”: { “\_awx\_description”: “branch2”, “ansible\_host”: “172.29.255.250”, “appliance\_name”: “branch2”, “gsheets\_credentials\_filepath”: “private/credentials.json”, “gsheets\_sheet\_id”: “1GacYZXvmEyGARBAGEB\_H5uVGIl8z7qgcjvnVezDuXA”, “gsheets\_worksheet\_name”: “TEST1”, “ipsec\_endpoint”: “10.210.195.1”, “is\_automated”: “YES”, “is\_onboarded”: “YES”, “management\_ip”: “172.29.255.250”, “model”: “VM”, “serial”: “FGTTESTABC123”, “wan1\_mode”: “TEST123” }, “FGTTESTABC456”: { “\_awx\_description”: “branch3”, “ansible\_host”: “172.29.255.251”, “appliance\_name”: “branch3”, “gsheets\_credentials\_filepath”: “private/credentials.json”, “gsheets\_sheet\_id”: “1GacYZXvmEyGARBAGEB\_H5uVGIl8z7qgcjvnVezDuXA”, “gsheets\_worksheet\_name”: “TEST1”, “ipsec\_endpoint”: “10.210.195.1”, “is\_automated”: “YES”, “is\_onboarded”: “YES”, “management\_ip”: “172.29.255.251”, “model”: “VM”, “rulebase”: “andy”, “serial”: “FGTTESTABC456”, “wan1\_mode”: “TEST456” } } }, “all”: { “children”: [ “AUS”, “GERMANY”, “LAB”, “RB1”, “RB2”, “UK”, “andy”, “ungrouped” ] }, “andy”: { “hosts”: [ “FGT60ETK19099ZZZ”, “FGTTESTABC456” ] } } ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Mulheirn)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/6 "2022-07-21T13:17:26Z")
Apologies - I didn’t answer your first question. This was using operator 0.23.0. I’m now using operator 0.25.0. (AWX 21.3.0) ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Andrew\_Mulheirn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Mulheirn)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/7 "2022-07-21T14:57:37Z")
Hi there, An update for you - it works! I had set the inventory source to overwrite every time, but maybe it wasn’t doing that. Deleting the inventory hosts, and re-syncing the inventory now populates the description column as expected! Really happy about that. Thanks to the team who are answering questions on this - I really appreciate you taking the time. Regards, Andrew ---
**Author:** ![AWX\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@AWX\_Project](https://forum.ansible.com/u/AWX_Project)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-the-description-for-hosts-in-a-dynamic-inventory/36801/8 "2022-07-21T17:51:48Z")
Awesome, glad you got this working! thanks for the update