# How to use Ansible playbook loops to create multiple specific VMware guests on multiple free ESXi hosts using vsphere\_guest module. **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** vmware\ **Created:** [February 10, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ansible-playbook-loops-to-create-multiple-specific-vmware-guests-on-multiple-free-esxi-hosts-using-vsphere-guest-module/23702 "2017-02-10T09:45:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alex\_Lien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Lien](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Alex_Lien)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ansible-playbook-loops-to-create-multiple-specific-vmware-guests-on-multiple-free-esxi-hosts-using-vsphere-guest-module/23702/1 "2017-02-10T09:45:05Z")
I am running ansible version 2.2.0.0. I have several free ESXi hosts. I would like to create multiple specific guests on each of the free ESXi hosts. I have tried to use with\_dict with guests variables, hoping to loop through an arbitrary pre-defined set of ESXi hosts and guests list. But I am getting error: fatal: [esxi1]: FAILED! =\> {“failed”: true, “msg”: "the field ‘args’ has an invalid value, which appears to include a variable that is undefined. The error was: ‘list object’ has no attribute ‘vmname’ Is there a way to have the playbook loop through the list of esxi hosts and guests list. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ansible-playbook-loops-to-create-multiple-specific-vmware-guests-on-multiple-free-esxi-hosts-using-vsphere-guest-module/23702/2 "2017-02-10T21:46:19Z")
> I have tried to use with\_dict with guests variables, hoping to loop > through an arbitrary pre-defined set of ESXi hosts and guests list. But I > am getting error: > > fatal: [esxi1]: FAILED! =\> {"failed": true, "msg": "the field 'args' has an > invalid value, which appears to include a variable that is undefined. The > error was: 'list object' has no attribute 'vmname' > > Is there a way to have the playbook loop through the list of esxi hosts and > guests list. Yes. Because of your list under esxi1 and esxi2 you would need to have a loop in a loop to make it work. To address them it's item.value.0.vmname, item.value.1.vmname, item.value.2.vmname and so on. Loop in a loop is possible, but some what more cumbersome as it involves include: > --- > - hosts: all >   connection: local > >   vars: >       esxi\_user: root >       esxi\_password: passwordxyz >       guests: >         esxi1: >           - vmname: vm1 >         esxi4: >           - vmname: vm3 >           - vmname: vm4 >           - vmname: vm5 > >   tasks: >     - vsphere\_guest: >         vcenter\_hostname: "{{ item.key }}" >         username: "{{ esxi\_user }}" >         password: "{{ esxi\_password }}" >         guest: "{{ item.value.vmname }}" >         state: powered\_on >         vm\_extra\_config: >           vcpu.hotadd: yes >           mem.hotadd: yes >           notes: This is a test VM >         vm\_disk: >           disk1: >             size\_gb: 20 >             type: thin >             datastore: store4 >         vm\_nic: >           nic1: >             type: vmxnet3 >             network: VM01 >             network\_type: standard >         vm\_hardware: >           memory\_mb: 2048 >           num\_cpus: 2 >           osid: centos64Guest >           scsi: lsi >           vm\_cdrom: >             type: client >         esxi: >           datacenter: ha-datacenter >           hostname: "{{ item.key }}" >       with\_dict: "{{ guests }}" One way to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Lien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Lien](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Alex_Lien)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ansible-playbook-loops-to-create-multiple-specific-vmware-guests-on-multiple-free-esxi-hosts-using-vsphere-guest-module/23702/3 "2017-02-15T21:13:37Z")
Hi Kai, Thank You so much for your help. The loop works with your suggestions except it seems to run a duplicate task and create a duplicate guest. This is with a test of 2 ESX hosts. Is there a way to work around it? This is what I have in my inventory: [esxi] esxi1 esxi4 # ansible-playbook --limit esxi cr\_guests.yml PLAY [all] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK [setup] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [esxi4] ok: [esxi1] TASK [vsphere\_guest] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: pysphere.resources.vi\_exception.VIException: [Task Error]: Another task is already in progress. failed: [esxi1] (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi1’}, u’vm1’)) =\> {“failed”: true, “item”: [{“esx\_host”: “esxi1”}, “vm1”], “module\_stderr”: “Traceback (most recent call last):\n File "/tmp/ansible\_R7ozs3/ansible\_module\_vsphere\_guest.py", line 1909, in \n main()\n File "/tmp/ansible\_R7ozs3/ansible\_module\_vsphere\_guest.py", line 1897, in main\n state=state\n File "/tmp/ansible\_R7ozs3/ansible\_module\_vsphere\_guest.py", line 1454, in create\_vm\n vm.set\_extra\_config(vm\_extra\_config)\n File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pysphere/vi\_virtual\_machine.py", line 1589, in set\_extra\_config\n FaultTypes.TASK\_ERROR)\npysphere.resources.vi\_exception.VIException: [Task Error]: Another task is already in progress.\n”, “module\_stdout”: “”, “msg”: “MODULE FAILURE”} changed: [esxi4] =\> (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi1’}, u’vm1’)) An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: TypeError: Value of unknown type: \, [Task Error]: The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state (Powered off). failed: [esxi4] (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi4’}, u’vm3’)) =\> {“failed”: true, “item”: [{“esx\_host”: “esxi4”}, “vm3”], “module\_stderr”: “Traceback (most recent call last):\n File "/tmp/ansible\_lt4K1b/ansible\_module\_vsphere\_guest.py", line 1909, in \n main()\n File "/tmp/ansible\_lt4K1b/ansible\_module\_vsphere\_guest.py", line 1815, in main\n module.exit\_json(changed=state\_result)\n File "/tmp/ansible\_lt4K1b/ansible\_modlib.zip/ansible/module\_utils/basic.py", line 1799, in exit\_json\n File "/tmp/ansible\_lt4K1b/ansible\_modlib.zip/ansible/module\_utils/basic.py", line 388, in remove\_values\n File "/tmp/ansible\_lt4K1b/ansible\_modlib.zip/ansible/module\_utils/basic.py", line 388, in \n File "/tmp/ansible\_lt4K1b/ansible\_modlib.zip/ansible/module\_utils/basic.py", line 399, in remove\_values\nTypeError: Value of unknown type: \, [Task Error]: The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state (Powered off).\n”, “module\_stdout”: “”, “msg”: “MODULE FAILURE”} changed: [esxi1] =\> (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi4’}, u’vm3’)) changed: [esxi4] =\> (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi4’}, u’vm4’)) changed: [esxi1] =\> (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi4’}, u’vm4’)) changed: [esxi1] =\> (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi4’}, u’vm5’)) changed: [esxi4] =\> (item=({u’esx\_host’: u’esxi4’}, u’vm5’)) to retry, use: --limit @/root/learn/ansible/cr\_guests.retry PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* esxi4 : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 esxi1 : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 Thanks, Alex ---
**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:** [February 16, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ansible-playbook-loops-to-create-multiple-specific-vmware-guests-on-multiple-free-esxi-hosts-using-vsphere-guest-module/23702/4 "2017-02-16T15:26:27Z")
Since you inventory contain two hosts it will run the task two times, one time for each hosts. You only wanna run it once so in your playbook set "- hosts: localhost" and remove the line "connection: local" ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Lien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Lien](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Alex_Lien)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-ansible-playbook-loops-to-create-multiple-specific-vmware-guests-on-multiple-free-esxi-hosts-using-vsphere-guest-module/23702/5 "2017-02-16T19:57:18Z")
Hi Kai, The playbook works perfectly now. Thanks again for all your help. Regards, Alex