# Jinja2 Template and Dictionary issue **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 14, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/jinja2-template-and-dictionary-issue/26731 "2018-02-14T16:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Owen\_Corcoran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/977dab/32.png) [@Owen\_Corcoran](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Owen_Corcoran)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/jinja2-template-and-dictionary-issue/26731/1 "2018-02-14T16:07:00Z")
Can anyone help me with the below, maybe my approach is wrong. What I’m trying to do is to create from a template a keepalived file based on the elements in a dictionary. I’ve included the code below, when its ran the error that appears is msg": “AnsibleUndefinedVariable: ‘dict object’ has no attribute ‘hostname’” The error appears to in the second loop in the jinja2 template, where i try to extract the elements from the sub lst in the dictionary. ANSIBLE Dictionary keepalived\_virtual\_ip: - vip\_details\_1: haproxy\_vip\_name: “AddressCleaner\_Development” ip: “1.0.1.2” front\_end\_port: 80 haproxy\_backend\_servers: - servers\_1.1: hostname: system12 address: 2.0.0.1 - servers\_1.2: hostname: system13 address: 2.0.0.2 - vip\_details\_2: haproxy\_vip\_name: “AddressCleaner\_Cert” ip: “3.0.0.114” front\_end\_port: 80 haproxy\_backend\_servers: - servers\_2.1: hostname: system21 address: 2.0.0.3 - servers\_2.2: hostname: system22 address: 2.0.0.4 keepalived\_virtual\_ip: - vip\_details\_1: haproxy\_vip\_name: “AddressCleaner\_Development” ip: “3.0.0.115” front\_end\_port: 80 haproxy\_backend\_servers: - servers\_1.1: hostname: lonldpostal01 address: 3.0.0.87 - servers\_1.2: hostname: lonldpostal02 address: 3.0.0.100 - vip\_details\_2: haproxy\_vip\_name: “AddressCleaner\_Cert” ip: “3.0.0.114” front\_end\_port: 80 haproxy\_backend\_servers: - servers\_2.1: hostname: lonlcpostal01 address: 3.0.0.96 - servers\_2.2: hostname: lonlcpostal02 address: 3.0.0.104 HA PROXY TEMPLATE {% for item in keepalived\_virtual\_ip %} listen {{ item.haproxy\_vip\_name }} {{ item.ip }}:{{ item.front\_end\_port }} mode {{ haproxy\_mode }} balance {{ haproxy\_vip\_algo }} default\_backend {{ item.haproxy\_vip\_name }}\_backend {% endfor %} {% for item in keepalived\_virtual\_ip %} backend {{ item.haproxy\_vip\_name }}\_backend mode tcp balance source {% for backend in item.haproxy\_backend\_servers %} server {{ backend.hostname }} {{ backend.address }}:{{ haproxy\_vip\_port }} maxconn 9000 send-proxy check {% endfor %} {% endfor %} ---
**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 14, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/jinja2-template-and-dictionary-issue/26731/2 "2018-02-14T18:36:11Z")
> keepalived\_virtual\_ip: >   - vip\_details\_1: >     haproxy\_vip\_name: "AddressCleaner\_Development" >     ip: "1.0.1.2" >     front\_end\_port: 80 >     haproxy\_backend\_servers: >        - servers\_1.1: >           hostname: system12 >           address: 2.0.0.1 >        - servers\_1.2: >           hostname: system13 >           address: 2.0.0.2 It's not allowed to have . (dot) in variable name only letters, numbers and underscores is allowed so servers\_1.1: is invalid > {% for item in keepalived\_virtual\_ip %} > backend {{ item.haproxy\_vip\_name }}\_backend >     mode tcp >     balance source >     {% for backend in item.haproxy\_backend\_servers %} >        server {{ backend.hostname }} {{ backend.address }}:{{ haproxy\_vip\_port }} maxconn 9000 send-proxy check >     {% endfor %} > {% endfor %} >    > Lets say that servers\_1.1: is servers\_1\_1:, the same for server\_1.2 item.haproxy\_backend\_server is a list of dictonary, the hostname is not backend.hostname but backend.servers\_1\_1.hostname and backend.servers\_1\_2.hostname ---
**Author:** ![Owen\_Corcoran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/977dab/32.png) [@Owen\_Corcoran](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Owen_Corcoran)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/jinja2-template-and-dictionary-issue/26731/3 "2018-02-14T20:54:14Z")
Could i have instead of : Servers\_1.1 Servers\_1.2 Servers\_2.1 Servers\_2.2 Servers\_3.1 Servers\_3.2 Call each list servers The reason being i dont want to have to hard code names in the jinja2 template of the elements in the lists of backends, depending on the size of the dictionary i might shink or add hosts/backends and i want the template to dynamically pick these additions or substractions without a code change in the template file. ---
**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 15, 2018, 6:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/jinja2-template-and-dictionary-issue/26731/4 "2018-02-15T06:02:12Z")
The easiest to do is make haproxy\_backend\_servers a list of dictionaries and not a list of dictionary. So if you can change you haproxy\_backend\_servers to      haproxy\_backend\_servers:        - name: servers\_1.1          hostname: system12          address: 2.0.0.1        - name: servers\_1.2:          hostname: system13          address: 2.0.0.2 You code will work as is since you can call backend.hostname and not backend.\.hostname